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<br />escapement was documented for fish translocated in all years except 2007. The failure <br />of a temporary spillway screen during dam renovation in 2005 increased escapement <br />based on two tagged smallmouth bass that were caught by net on the unscreened dam <br />spillway in 2005 . One of those fish (423 mm) was caught on the spillway on 19 May <br />2005, two days after it was stocked and the other (251 mm) was caught on 16 May <br />2005, one year after it was originally stocked (W. J. Miller, personal communication). In <br />addition, small mouth bass stocked in 2005 had the highest rate of escapement of all <br />subsequent years. Of the 647 smallmouth bass stocked in 2005, 83 (13%) were later <br />recaptured in the river. Captures of escaped fish in 2006 further support high <br />escapement rates in 2005. In 2006 we captured 111 escapees, the highest number of <br />escaped bass seen in any year (Table 13). Small mouth bass that escaped Elkhead <br />Reservoir dispersed distances from 0.1 to 109 miles downstream of Elkhead Creek (RM <br />148.1). Most escapees were recaptured in Little Yampa Canyon, South Beach, and <br />Craig reaches, although one was recaptured downstream at Yampa Canyon, over 100 <br />miles away (Table 14). <br /> <br />Of the 791 smallmouth bass translocated to the Justice Center pond, one fish placed <br />there in 2006 was recaptured in the Yampa River at RM 92.9 in 2007, and although it <br />seems highly unlikely due to the distance from the river, we attribute this escapee to <br />someone that relocated the fish back to the river. <br /> <br />One-mile fish community sampling- At Little Yampa Canyon, nonnative fish species <br />dominated the community, comprising 92-97% of the individuals collected each year <br />(Table 15). Smallmouth bass were the dominant nonnative species comprising <br />49-60% of the fish community and flannelmouth sucker Catostomus latipinnis were the <br />dominant native fish species comprising 1-5% of the fish community. We captured <br />seven native species, 16 nonnative species, and three hybrids (Table 15). Three <br />centrarchid species, bluegill, green sunfish, and black crappie were seen at Little <br />Yampa Canyon and not at Lily Park. <br /> <br />19 <br />