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-38- There were numerous reports of catfish being taken below the town of Green River twelve to fifteeaa years ago. It is the concensus of the towns= people that extensive pollution by the U. p. Railroad and towns of Green River and Rock Springs during .the last ten to fifteen years has been the cause of a decline in catfish populations. Stocking of catfish by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has been rather limited. One plant of. 4,000 two-inch fish was made at the town of Green River on November 3, 1939, and oa~e plant of 4,425 two to three-inch fish was made 5 miles above the town of Green River on November 3, 1955. A fisherman living in the vicinity of the second plant stated that he and -his son had caught a number of catfish in the spring of 1957. These fish, from a description of the physical characteristics, were undoubtedly channel catfish. An attempt to take catfish in this area with gill nets in 1958 and 1959 was unsuccessful. Ye11oW Perch - ~Perca flavescens~ Originally perch had been ,stocked in the Eden Valley Reservoir, but were found in the Little Sandy ,River as far downstream as the bridge cros- sing on Highway 28. This movement was accomplished through withdrawals of water from the Eden Valley Reservoir for irrigation purposes. The perch probably gained access to the Little Sandy River through a discharge gate in ditch number 2 at the site of a sipb,on going under the Little Sandy (see diagram on following page. It .was felt by Game and Fish personnel assigned to the project that immediate steps should be taken to prevent further down- stream migration of these fish. The rate of downstream migration would place them in the Green River proper and present an additional species to contend with in future fisheries developffient in the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. In May, 1959, toxicant was applied to the Little Sandy River from the coffer dam, site of siphos^. crossing on ditch number 2, to the mouth of Pacific Creek. In September, 1959, toxicant was applied to Eden Valley Reservoir to eliminate the source ref the perch, The delay in toxicant application, May to September, was to allow evaporation and seepage to reduce the reservoir to minimum storage capacity before treatment.