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\ . <br />be partly true, but I doubt that it is the entire answer. Immature <br />20 <br />fish also appear to migrate. Moreover, there is evidence, largely obtained <br />from talking to local people, that some squawfish remain throughout <br />the winter in the deeper pools. This possibility I plan to check on <br />the next trip. If one can be captured in the Upper Lily Park site <br />during November, it vrill,lend support to this hypothesis. Whatever <br />the cause of tl~e migration into the Yampa in early summer, it is <br />obvious that they cannot remain in large nurnbers after late summer. <br />The water supply isn't there to support a large population. Being <br />pisciverous only compounds the situation for the squawfish. The <br />pools that remain when the water subsides can continue to provide <br />habitat. It may be that the increased flow of late spring and early <br />summer provides increased habitat for fish in general. Prey fish <br />such as the bonytail may have previously migrated in large numbers <br />at this time to be fo llowed by squawfish. This is still speculation <br />but it is the direction in which my thinking is now directed. Thus <br />I would believe that habitat and forage are more significant stimulators <br />of the. migration than temperature, turbidity or spawning. There are <br />some problems with this. For one thing, no squawfish vrere captured <br />around Echo Park in Play even though the water was high and considerable <br />effort was made. <br />In addition, to the two maps mentioned above, I have attached a <br />drawing of 2 sites (Figure 4), found by George Kidd of the Colorado <br />Division of Wildlife where native fish were easy to catch. Walter <br />Walker is similarly a backwater area where fair numbers of native fish <br />can still be found. <br />Thus it would seem that the evidence indicates .that adult squaw- <br />fish are most readily found in eddies, backwaters and deep pools. These <br />