tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1580022751171909862024-03-14T07:39:12.267-07:00Colorado Headwaters Fisheries ManagementA blog about what a fisheries biologist does in Grand and Summit counties, Colorado.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-45576478053400423562016-07-01T09:32:00.000-07:002016-07-01T09:33:19.846-07:00Summer mix<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"> I am reminded in June annually that by far my favorite thing in the world of wildlife that I have seen firsthand is colored-up cutthroat spawning in a mountain stream that is clear enough to be able to watch all of their social interactions. Never mind the fishing part of it. Completely unnecessary, and in my opinion somewhat on the invasive side when that is the scenario. This is the early-summer sweet spot of the year when a lot of my time is spent in the presence of such activity, and it's now more than ever that I remember how ridiculously lucky I am to have the job that I have. Next week, I get to go take a three-day pack trip to one of the most remote and beautiful alpine lakes in the state, collect eggs from the spawning cutthroat there, and deliver them to our hatchery in Glenwood where they are raised into the broodstock that then produces the eggs for all the alpine lake stocking that we do on the western slope (minus the San Juan River drainage). I mean, could there possibly be a more enjoyable work assignment than that? When I'm standing next to a stream full of spawning cutthroat in some jaw-dropping setting, I feel like I won the lottery. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for buying a Colorado fishing license.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> From time to time, when an interesting scientific paper comes out, I'll discuss aspects of it here. The Idaho folks have put out one of the best lake trout studies in recent years, describing work they've done in Priest Lake. It was recently published in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management. One of the great things about this study was that they collected one of the biggest age-growth data sets (628 fish) for a lake trout population that I have seen, shown below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Priest Lake is similar to Granby in its food web, with lake trout, kokanee, and mysis shrimp all introduced at different times. Also like Granby, there is a negative relationship between the size of lake trout and their body condition, suggesting that food availability becomes a limiting factor as the fish get larger, and that the lake is overloaded with large predators that do not have an adequate forage base available.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The most striking thing to me when looking at this data set is the degree of variability. The solid line describes the average, or typical, length for a given age. I think that often, once you slap that line on a graph, your eye is drawn to it and it's easy to forget to consider the other information contained in the figure. Using the equation that describes the line, which is in the lower right hand corner, it tells us that a 10-year old lake trout is 498 mm, or 19.6 inches. A 20-year-old is 636 mm, or 25 inches, and a 30-year-old would be 709 mm, or 27.9 inches. In fact, based on the equation, it would in theory take 47 years to produce a 30-inch fish, and no fish in the lake would ever reach 40 inches. But that's obviously not the case. The reality is that there are fast growers and slow growers. The 31-year-old age group ranged in size from about 21 inches to about 40 inches. The 20-year-old age group ranged from about 18 inches to about 35 inches. So you may catch a 31-year-old fish that is 21" and you may catch a 20-year-old fish that is 35". I think that we all tend to overlook this degree of variability when thinking about lake trout growth rates. It appears to me that what's going on here is similar to what we see at Granby -- beyond 24", you're really talking about two populations of fish. You have the ones who make the prey switch to vertebrates, and the ones who, for whatever reason, never make that switch and just stop growing, seemingly perfectly content to just keep eating mysis for their entire lives. It's maybe even a little misleading to apply one growth curve to this population. At 600 mm, or 24", it should really split out into two, one describing the growth of the fish who made the prey switch and one describing the fish that did not. You can see right where those two curves would be, and there's even kind of a blank space in between the two groups on the right half of the graph.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The problem is, in order to produce such a data set, you would have to run stable-isotope analysis on each of the 628 fish that were aged here, which tells you what the fish preferred to eat throughout its life. Then you would be able to assign the fish into two groups, the vertebrate predators and the mysis eaters. That wasn't the point of this study, and it would become pretty expensive. It was a huge amount of work just to age this many fish - in order to age lake trout you have to prepare the otolith by setting it in epoxy, and then sectioning it with a saw, cutting very thin slices through it in order to be able to read the annual rings. There is a reason why it is very rare to see an age-length data set that is this large. Anyway, the Idaho folks did a great job on that study and there are a lot of interesting things in their paper.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I've spent a lot of days on lakes over the past 8 weeks. Wolford, then Granby, which I talked about last post. Then a couple days on Shadow Mountain (my least-favorite lake of all time), followed by 5 days on Williams Fork. We ran the most intensive gillnet survey that's ever been done on Williams Fork, with 40, six-hour gillnet sets, making for 240 total hours of gillnet soak time. Then a couple days on Dillon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Williams Fork was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. The biggest laker we picked up there was 39" and weighed 35 3/4 lbs. It was very similar to the last really big laker we handled at WF, in 2013. That one weighed 36 pounds and is the heaviest fish I've ever netted at Williams Fork. So this one was the second-heaviest by a quarter of a pound. Here's a pic of this year's big fish:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> That fish has a body condition factor of 132, if you're curious. I'll discuss that further below, and on the relative weight plot for this survey, you can see how outstanding this fish is compared to the general population.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The second biggest lake trout we picked up, a 25-pounder, had two recently eaten, partially digested lake trout that were both about 16" sticking out of its stomach. The coolest thing about that was that one of those lakers had a full stomach that was still intact and packed full of recently-eaten crayfish. So a nice picture of three levels of the food web here:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Williams Fork is experiencing a nice peak in crayfish production right now for whatever reason and you can see it benefitting the whole food web. Many smaller lake trout had stomachs very full of crayfish. Actually, I shouldn't say "for whatever reason" because I think it's a response to drawdown that occurred as a result of the 2012 drought. When the reservoir refills after a drought period, we tend to see a "new reservoir effect" that creates a surge in productivity for the next few years, and you can watch that surge work its way through the food web.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> WF is always a decent crayfish lake but it does seem to behave in somewhat of a cyclical manner. Hopefully this also means it's a good zooplankton year. I certainly saw a lot of daphnia kicking around in the water just looking down into it. We could really use a rebirth of the Williams Fork kokanee run about now. It was nice to see that fish that's pictured above, because it is an example of the food web "bypassing" the traditional kokanee prey base. If that is going on a lot, and we've got good zooplankton production right now, maybe that's good news for a recovery of kokanee numbers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Here's a 12-pounder that we picked up out on the flats that had recently eaten a kokanee that ran about 13":</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> You may remember that we liberalized lake trout bag limits at Williams Fork in 2011, to allow for an 8-fish bag and no more than one fish over 30". We also liberalized the bag limit at Green Mountain, which I've discussed in previous posts. But we did not include the one-over-30 provision at GM. I am looking at this as a kind of a paired experiment to see if the one-over-30 regulation produces any differences that we can see in the lake trout population over time. My hypothesis is that lake trout anglers so rarely harvest fish over 30", let alone more than one of them, that it makes no difference whether or not a lake includes that restriction. So now, I have a data set from each lake, Green Mountain in 2015 and Williams Fork this year, both of which involved the exact same amount of effort - 40, six-hour net sets in randomly selected locations. The reason why these data sets are from consecutive yeras rather than the same year, is that I run the surveys at the same time on the calendar. It takes 5 days to run a 40-net survey, and I don't have 10 days to devote to just these two lakes every year. But I can commit to 5, hence the every-other-year schedule that I'm on now. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> We can now start to look at those data sets to see if we can detect any differences. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here are the length-frequency histograms for the two lakes:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The most common size of fish at Williams Fork was 11", while the most common size at GM was 15". </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The total number of lake trout we captured at WF was 122, while Green Mountain yielded 86 fish. With 80% confidence intervals, those catch rates look like this:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Not much overlap there. We can apply a simple t-test to see if there is a significant difference between these two data sets. This yields a p-value of 0.14, suggesting that there's an 86% chance that the two lakes have different densities of lake trout. Plenty of evidence for me to say that Williams Fork currently has a higher density of lake trout than Green Mountain. Is this a result of the difference in the regulations?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Because the difference in the regulation involves fish over 30", what can we say about that? In 2015, at Green Mountain we captured 12 fish over 30". At Williams Fork this year we caught 5. Put another way, at Green Mountain it took an average of 20 hours of gillnet soak time to pick up a fish over 30", while at Williams Fork it took an average of 48. This suggests that the density of fish larger than 30" is higher at Green Mountain, which is the opposite result that you would expect given the regulation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Let's look at relative weights between the two lakes. Here are the relative weight plots by size. The axes on these graphs are the same for easy comparison.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Green Mountain is showing a greater increase in body condition as fish get larger. That is, the slope of the trend line is steeper, as illustrated by the equation. However, the reason for this is not that the large fish are in better shape at GM. It's because the small fish are in better shape at Williams Fork. That is why the intercept value in the Williams Fork equation is higher. This can be seen in the table below, which displays body condition for fish on either side of the 24" mark:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Green
Mountain 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><24”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 135.0pt;" valign="top" width="225"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">72.1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.75in;" valign="top" width="210"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">79.1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">>24”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 135.0pt;" valign="top" width="225"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">95.7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.75in;" valign="top" width="210"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">96.6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"> Y</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">ou can see that the difference here is that small fish at Williams Fork were in significantly better condition. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">Again, this is a direct reflection of the good crop of crayfish currently in the reservoir. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">The condition of the large fish is essentially the same between the two lakes. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"> All right, time to wrap it up. Bottom line is that so far, there is no evidence that the one-over-30 regulation at Williams Fork is resulting in any differences in the lake trout population that I am able to detect in comparison with Green Mountain. We'll see what the future holds. There are currently a ton of small lakers in Williams Fork, and I think that people aren't harvesting them because a 12" lake trout isn't nearly as desirable to harvest as one that's in the 16-22-inch range. But it sure wouldn't hurt anything if people were willing to harvest a bunch of those 10-12-inch fish. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"> Please be sure to use the comment section to mention topics you'd like to see me address. I suspect people are tired of hearing about lake trout and it's time to turn to other subjects. Let me know what those other subjects should be, and thanks for your interest.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-49296336734238179032016-06-01T21:06:00.001-07:002016-06-01T21:30:40.174-07:00Granby spring nets<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;"> We spent four days recently running our annual gillnet survey at Granby. We had good luck with the weather, for the most part dodging the standard Granby afternoon wind-rodeos. </span><span style="font-size: large;">May 19, 23, 24, & 25 were the days that we were out there. We set 32 gillnets in randomly selected locations for six hours each. Although the 32 locations are randomly selected, we use the same points (or as many of them as possible) every year to give us valid comparisons over time. This was the sixth year that we have run this survey.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The average lake elevation across those four days was 8,262, or 18 feet below full pool. This was 12 feet lower than when we ran this survey last year. The average lake elevation for the previous five years when we have run the survey is 8,256, or 24 feet below full.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Average water temperature was 45.4. The temperature during the survey over the previous five years has averaged 48.2, so the lake is a little on the cool side so far this spring.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> If you haven't figured it out yet, this is going to be a stats-heavy discussion. One of the reasons that I am proud of this data set is that you can look at it from many different analytical angles, many of which are somewhat independent of each other. I will offer the caveat up front though, that my statistical understanding and abilities lie more or less at the undergraduate level. Statistical analysis is one of the things that I enjoy most about my job, but my skills lie firmly in the classical, parametric, nuts-and-bolts utilitarian realm rather than the advanced and highly complex world of Bayesian or other approaches found in the scientific literature these days. So I am by no means a Statistical Titan. The reason I'm pointing this out is that if any stat-heads out there see fatal flaws or additional approaches that I'm not making use of -- by all means, please point that out to me and let's have the discussion. If you're a license buyer, I collect this information on your behalf, and let's get the most that we possibly can out of it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> So -- the purpose of this survey, and this approach, is to be able to detect trends in the lake trout population. Is the population increasing, decreasing, or remaining static? Also, is the size structure of the population changing? Thirdly, what does the condition of the fish that we capture tell me about the condition of the prey base? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Because lake trout populations experience change slowly -- much more slowly than riverine trout populations -- changes from one year to the next are less instructive than long-term trends that only become apparent over years or even decades. This type of long-term change is exactly what this data set is designed to detect. I regularly hear anecdotal reports that the density of lake trout in Granby seemed to be much higher in the '80's -- which I don't doubt, but I have no data, no standardized survey, that was conducted in the '80's that I can repeat precisely. That is frustrating. Going into future decades, none of my successors will experience that frustration. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Now for some results. I haven't analyzed things to the fullest extent possible yet. The time for that is during the winter. However I do run some of the main analyses right away because I'm anxious to see what things are looking like. The first one is in the graph below, which displays average number of lake trout caught per net across the 32 net sets. The 80% confidence interval is included in the graph. If you're not familiar with confidence intervals, this is the calculation that determines that if you were to run 1,000 net sets instead of 32, 800 of them would fall within that interval. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVaJEx4eNMsvc87QQ-sCAfCYtbK5zcd698z_3C3-ACBQbhLiPy68r-DEhStpjc5yX3kOhVzErjvspbv0ckArlIWCtcX2rEiAAJ-qXJbARM3HIl1eGpmKJvjyS67klGNex0p4KUX5Mn3pU/s1600/Mac+catch+thru+2016.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVaJEx4eNMsvc87QQ-sCAfCYtbK5zcd698z_3C3-ACBQbhLiPy68r-DEhStpjc5yX3kOhVzErjvspbv0ckArlIWCtcX2rEiAAJ-qXJbARM3HIl1eGpmKJvjyS67klGNex0p4KUX5Mn3pU/s640/Mac+catch+thru+2016.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> In 2011 and 2012, we ran 30 nets. In order to tighten up that confidence interval, I added two nets and settled on 32 as the permanent number from 2013 onward. You can see that the CI did improve starting in 2014. As a percentage of the mean, '15 and '16 gave us our best results, right at 25% for both of those years. A nice, tight confidence interval is something a biologist can really get excited about. It's one of the most direct measures of the quality of your data. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It's uncanny how three of the six years ended up with averages of 6.3 or 6.4. That certainly seems to be a magic number for Granby.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> So, is this data telling us there is a trend in lake trout densities in the lake? The simplest analysis we can run to answer that question is to check the linear regression. We'll get rid of the CI's, just take the singular points (average catch) from each year, put a regression line across them, and check the significance of the slope of that line. If you've forgotten from stats class, the regression line is the line that you can run across those six points that has the least total distance from the six points. There is only one possible line that meets that description. Here's what that looks like:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCItmXnQC4HgaHTNYZtZGCcpG6y8RwnuVDYrRmzIKMO2cuyG7HBB8shx00hlN4wjmgWmVR5h_uATYcKhwilJEdKYWKq5-ZcMGsZZOF_eaBz-ILxtjYboXrOxwQcNEU6GgBb2-SknC3aV0/s1600/New+Picture+%252822%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="369" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCItmXnQC4HgaHTNYZtZGCcpG6y8RwnuVDYrRmzIKMO2cuyG7HBB8shx00hlN4wjmgWmVR5h_uATYcKhwilJEdKYWKq5-ZcMGsZZOF_eaBz-ILxtjYboXrOxwQcNEU6GgBb2-SknC3aV0/s640/New+Picture+%252822%2529.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You can see that this line does have a slight downward slope. To be exact, it's -0.14 lake trout per year. That is, our average catch across the 32 nets is decreasing by 0.14 fish per year. But, is this trend real, or is it just an artifact of random chance, or error -- just the natural variability that is obviously going to occur in this type of sampling? Let's check that. If I run the analysis to calculate the 80% confidence interval of that slope, which is based on the amount of scatter that those points have around the line, it turns out that the CI includes zero. That is, if we took six data points out of this theoretical "population" of possible data points, there is an 80% chance that the slope of the trend line would be somewhere between the values of -0.41 and 0.13. Because that interval includes the number zero, we can conclude that this negative slope is not significant. If we ran that analysis with a 90% or 95% CI, that range is wider, and still encompasses zero. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Let's circle back to the original question - does this data tell us that the lake trout density in Granby is increasing or decreasing? By this analysis, there is a suggestion that there is a slight decrease taking place, but it is not statistically significant. There is definitely no evidence here that the density is increasing. The odds that the population is decreasing are better than the odds that it is increasing. If we get 6.3 or higher in 2017, that negative slope will</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">disappear. Remember that I said that this data set is designed to detect long-term trends, and six years into this we're just barely getting started.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Now let's take the same data and look at it a different way. We can look at each net individually, put a regression line on the six points of catch data from that net, and look at the slope of that line. I've got 24 locations where we have set nets for six consecutive years. The reason that I don't have 32 is that some of the fixed locations are out of the water during drought periods. When that happens, I add an alternative point to take the place of the one that is out of the water. If there is water there in a future year, though, I come back to it because it's important to get a representation of shallow habitat. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> So looking at it this way, we can calculate the slope of 24 different regression lines - one line for each net location that I've fished all six years. Rather than make a very messy graph, it's best to look at that information in a table, like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
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<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="top" width="62"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Net
#<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="top" width="55"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">2011<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="top" width="58"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">2012<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="top" width="55"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">2013<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="top" width="58"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">2014<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="top" width="55"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">2015<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="top" width="58"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">2016<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="60"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Slope<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-0.71<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</tr>
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<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1.23<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">13<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">17<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-1.09<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">16<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">14<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">0<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-1.11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">13<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-0.09<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-0.40<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">12<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1.29<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">0<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-0.06<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">11<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-1.34<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">12<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">13<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-0.71<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">13<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">24<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-3.00<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">16<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">0.54<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">18<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">20<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-0.09<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">21<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-0.06<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">22<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">12<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-0.51<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">24<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-0.09<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">26<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">15<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-1.43<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">27<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">12<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">0.23<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">28<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">0.69<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">29<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">0<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1.31<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">30<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-0.51<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">31<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">16<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-1.51<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">33<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="bottom" width="60"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">-0.86<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 36.9pt;" valign="bottom" width="62"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">35<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 32.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="55"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 34.7pt;" valign="bottom" width="58"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> So now, in the column on the right, we've got the slope of those 24 lines. We can run some statistics on those 24 values. You can see that 18 nets have a negative slope, while 6 have a positive one. The average value of these slopes is -0.36. If we calculate the 80% confidence interval of those values, it covers the range from -0.63 to -0.09. Interesting -- notice that this interval does not cover zero and does not enter into positive territory. If we jump the confidence level up to 95%, that interval does cover zero, slightly: it tops out at 0.06. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Again, back to the original question: are lake trout densities in Granby increasing or decreasing? This second way of looking at the data also provides evidence -- a little stronger evidence than the first method -- that the density is decreasing slightly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> As you know, managing the balance of predator vs. prey at Granby is a constant challenge. In a small system such as this, lake trout have proven to be very effective at overwhelming and even eliminating their prey base. In order for me to manage a water that produces trophy lake trout, the main thing that I have to accomplish is to do everything possible to ensure that there is an adequate prey base -- namely, kokanee -- to produce those trophy macs. In recent years we have experienced an almost complete collapse of kokanee at Granby, and the lake has not come anywhere close to producing enough eggs to sustain itself. In 2016 we came the closest we've ever come to simply not having the eggs to maintain the historic stocking rate at Granby, which is 1 million kokanee fry annually. We all know that there are multiple pressures on the kokanee population besides lake trout predation and all these pressures together have combined to nearly eliminate the species from the reservoir. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Given the situation at Granby, the topic of a regulation change regularly comes up. The last time the lake trout regulation was changed was the year before I took this job, in 2006. So we've had this regulation for ten years. In that time, the population of lake trout anglers at Granby has embraced the idea that harvest is a necessary element to maintain the health of the fishery. Even the most hard-core laker enthusiasts have no qualms about taking home a bag limit of "eaters," and Granby is an absolute factory when it comes to producing fish in the two-pound range, because of the high densities of mysis shrimp. I do not know whether or not the number of fish being harvested is having an impact on the population. Part of me suspects that it is not. However, I have discussed the evidence that I have that the lake trout population is not increasing. This is the reason that I don't feel a strong need, or an urgency, for another bag limit increase at the moment. On one hand, you could say, "the increased bag limit instituted in 2006 did not go far enough to prevent a kokanee crash," which may be the case, but this has also been a period of very high mysis densities and low zooplankton production, which is the most important kokanee food source. All of the conditions in Granby over the past decade have been generally unfavorable for kokanee.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> If the evidence that I discussed above were pointing the opposite direction -- if we had multiple analytical methods all telling us that the lake trout density was increasing -- I would have a completely different opinion of the need for another increase in the bag limit. That information, in combination with the kokanee collapse, would suggest to me an urgent need to increase harvest. But at the moment, the evidence I've got suggests that the anglers are doing their part. Would I like to see lake trout densities decreasing more quickly? Given the kokanee situation, yes, I absolutely would, until we see a kokanee recovery. Would going from a 4-fish bag to an 8-fish bag accomplish that? I'm not so sure of that. The best estimate we can come up with is that there are probably between 150,000 and 400,000 lake trout in Granby over 12 inches. If the current level of harvest is creating a slow-but-steady thinning of that number, that's great. But another part of me thinks that this subtle decline is just as much a response to some environmental condition in the lake. I think that sometimes it's easy to overestimate the impact of angler harvest in a situation like this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> There are many other nuggets of information in the data that I just collected, but this post is already dragging on and I've barely scratched the surface. So that will have to wait. But I'll answer the question that may have been in your mind from the start: what was the biggest fish this year? 43 inches, 27 pounds. Here's a picture of my technician Chris with the fish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Just today, we picked one up at Williams Fork that beats this by nine pounds, but that's another story . . . </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-84917750588797966692016-05-01T17:59:00.000-07:002016-05-01T17:59:11.882-07:00Spring river work observations<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> We spent six days during the last half of April running raft electrofishing surveys on three of our standard stations on the Colorado River. I thought I would share some of my observations from those projects. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> On April 19 & 21, we surveyed the Paul Gilbert - Lone Buck units of our State Wildlife Areas below our office. We put the raft on the river right below the Byers Canyon bridge and started our station at the base of the first riffle downstream of the bridge. The downstream end of the station is the bend where the Lone Buck unit of the SWA borders on private land. So this survey covers about 7,000 linear feet of river.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Flows were absolutely perfect for this operation on those days. The Windy Gap gauge was reading right about 260 CFS. The weather was great too - we couldn't believe that we didn't encounter a single angler on the water either of those days. Given what we found down there, if I hadn't been working those days, there would have been no better place to be fishing than that reach of river. We did sneak in a few casts after work, and the fish were all over the prince nymphs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> We had not done a spring survey of this section of river since 2013. It's hard to get the timing right on this reach in the spring. Some years, runoff comes up very quickly and the river becomes too high before we have a chance to get out there; other years, the Windy Gap pumps get turned on relatively early and suddenly we don't have enough water in that section to float a raft. So we were happy to catch just the right conditions this year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The main purpose of this survey was to see what kind of progress our HXC rainbows have made since the 2013 survey. This section of river has been known to host a lot of rainbow spawning activity historically. If rainbows ever do become dominant in the river again, this is a location where we would consider using the rainbows as a wild broodstock, collecting eggs from spawners and using them to stock other waters. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I also wanted to know how overall densities of both browns and rainbows >14" are looking. If you've followed the information I've been gathering on the Parshall-Sunset reach, you may be aware that we've had some years in recent history where the population estimates have flirted with slipping below Gold Medal standards. I wanted to see whether or not that was the case on the Gilbert-Lone Buck reach in the spring.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Fortunately, all the information we got out there was good news. I have not run full population estimates yet, and these numbers that I'm reporting are not final -- they're just my quick initial counts and calculations. For brown trout over 14", we marked 145 fish on the 19th. When we came back on the 21st, we captured 124 and 40 of those were marked. That yields a population estimate of 444 browns >14" currently on the Gilbert-Lone Buck reach, or 26 fish per surface acre. The Gold Medal standard is 12 fish per acre, so we're looking good there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Our 2013 survey took place on May 6 & 8, so a couple weeks later, but close enough for direct comparison. Our population estimate for brown trout >14" from that survey was 178 total fish, or 11 fish per surface acre. So this year's survey showed us a big improvement in that category.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> On the rainbow side of things, more good news, but maybe not quite as good: For fish >14", we marked 27 fish. On the recap run we captured 33 fish, 8 of which were marked. That gives us a population estimate of 105 fish >14", or 6 per surface acre. That means that of the trout >14" on the Gilbert-Lone Buck reach right now, 19% of them are rainbows. In our 2013 survey, we estimated 83 rainbows on this reach >14", or 5 fish per surface acre. Because of the lower number of large browns at that time, rainbows contributed 32% of the total trout over 14". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> So: a 149% increase in large browns from spring 2013 to spring 2016, and a more modest 27% increase in large rainbows (a difference which could easily be accounted for in the margin of error). Many of the rainbows were in pre-spawn condition. Below is a picture of one of the ripe males. You can see his belly colored up nicely in this shot. That dusky color on the belly is a classic indicator that he's in peak party mode.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> We did capture a single mountain whitefish in the run at the top of the station, immediately below the Byers Canyon bridge. This marks a new farthest-upstream point that we've found whitefish, and this fish also happened to be the largest one we've captured to date in Middle Park -- an upstream colonizer. Next week, we'll be running a survey upstream of Hot Sulphur Springs, and it will be interesting to see if we find any there. I would be shocked to find them above Byers Canyon this year -- however, I'm sure they'll find their way there in the near future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> On Monday and Thursday, the 25th and 28th, we ran a survey on the State Bridge reach. The section that we monitor there is exactly two miles long, beginning at the bridge itself. The bridge is actually the downstream boundary of my area of responsibility, but every year I get together with my Glenwood Springs counterpart, Kendall Bakich, and we run these Colorado River surveys together with our crews. Due to the size of the river there, we use two electrofishing rafts working in tandem, one on river left and one on river right. This was the third time that we had surveyed this reach, the past occasions being in 2013 and 2015. We were anxious to get out there this year, because the two previous surveys had given us very different numbers, which are summarized in the table below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The above figures are for brown trout only. These two data sets were a head-scratcher, because that's more variation than we typically see over only two years, and we didn't have any specific explanation for that kind of a swing in the population. It's also hard to draw conclusions about trends when you've only got two sampling occasions. Hence, our strong interest in getting back out on this stretch this year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Like the other station I discussed, I've only done quick counts of fish over 14" to get an early indication of what the data will tell us. But we captured 211 browns >14" on the mark run and 194 on recap day, 46 of which were recaptures. That gives us a population estimate 879 browns over 14", or 25 fish/acre. This suggests that once we run estimates of all the population parameters, they will probably split the difference between the 2013 and 2015 surveys. That is a relief, because it eliminates the concern that we were seeing some kind of unexplained, rapid population decline taking place. It also suggests that this survey will again yield results that are well above the Gold Medal standard. This is important, because we just added Gold Medal designation to the section of the Colorado River from Gore Canyon down to McCoy, based in part on the data we've collected at this station.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> As is usually the case on that part of the Colorado, we saw many browns with freshly-swallowed mottled sculpin in their throats. The feeding frenzy on stonefly nymphs is also cranking up. Blue-winged olives were coming off on both days we were out there, with a more impressive hatch showing up on the 28th. We did see fish rising to these, sporadically. The other notable food item that I saw in a lot of throats was really small caddis larvae, with the little cone-shaped casings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The rainbows on this section also looked good. We marked 64 fish over 14" on Monday, and captured 52 on Thursday, 15 of which were recaptures. That gives us a population estimate on this reach of 214 rainbows >14", or 6 per surface acre. These estimates show rainbows making up 20% of the trout over 14". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> In the end, I am astounded at the similarity of the estimates between the two sections of river that I've discussed. They yielded almost identical values. These are very different sections of river, with different prey assemblages. The river at State Bridge is much larger, running at least five times as much water as the section on the State Wildlife Area at the time of the survey. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Also, the big management difference between the two sections is the fact that I've been actively stocking rainbow trout fry on the upstream reach, and no stocking has taken place on the State Bridge reach. However, one thing that we have seen with the stocking of HXC fry is that there is a lot of downstream dispersal from the point where fish are stocked. The mature rainbows at State Bridge look exactly the same as the mature HXC's up on the state wildlife areas, and I strongly suspect that even though the State Bridge reach has not been stocked, some stocked fish have managed to find their way that far downstream and are contributing some WD-resistant genetics to the mix.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> One of the few benefits to this winter reprise that we've been having the last couple weeks is that river flows have remained somewhat moderate and water clarity is still good. Early runoff is actually progressing in a really nice, steady fashion, rather than everything suddenly blowing out in the blink of an eye. Therefore, we're going to try to squeeze in a couple more raft electrofishing surveys during these first couple weeks of May, before the focus of the field season shifts entirely to standing water until sometime in July. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-35514490204995063122016-04-01T06:28:00.000-07:002016-04-24T20:16:31.814-07:00Turning predators into prey<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Keith Greenwell had a question about the status of tiger trout in Meadow Creek Reservoir. Excellent question, Keith. Thanks for the idea. Let me back up and give you the recent history of Meadow Creek.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I've got several waters that contain classic examples of stunted brook trout populations, and Meadow Creek is at the top of that list. How do I know if a population of brookies is stunted? Let me explain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I have surveyed the fish population at Meadow Creek three times in recent years: in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Up until 2007, we were stocking small (1.5" or so) cutthroats and catchable, put-and-take rainbows there, on top of what we knew to be a robust wild brookie population. One of the main questions I wanted to answer in the 2007 survey was whether or not the cutthroats were doing anything. As is almost always the case when you stock cutthroats on top of a dense brook trout fishery, in 2007 I found that the cutthroats weren't persisting at all. Because we don't stock cutthroats with the purpose of feeding brook trout, I immediately pulled them off of the stocking schedule for Meadow Creek. So, in addition to not finding any cutthroats, here is the size structure of the brook trout population that I observed in 2007:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Very few fish larger than 9", and no fish over 12". Below is the relative weight plot of the 2007 fish. If you've read any of my other posts hopefully you understand what relative weight is - a measure of "plumpness" on a scale of 100. It can be thought of as a grade of body condition. What I saw in 2007 was modestly declining relative weights as the fish got larger, as indicated by the trend line on the graph below. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The X-axis in this one is size of fish in mm; I didn't convert to inches. Taken together, these two pieces of information - no large fish and declining body condition as the fish get larger - are strong evidence of a stunted population. That is, there are more fish than there is food available, and so their growth slows down as they get larger and they are having trouble maintaining or adding to their body weight. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Now fast forward to 2011. I don't get to lakes like Meadow Creek every year - it's not necessary. Every few years is fine unless I'm trying to accomplish something specific, as we'll see later. What was different in 2011 compared to 2007, is that now the lake had gone four years without the annual plant of 16,000 1.5" cutthroats that it had recieved through 2007. Here is the size structure of the brook trout population in 2011:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Now we've got lots of fish at the 7" mark and not many making it past that. Let's look at the relative weight plot for these fish:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Average body condition for these brookies in 2011 was only 73, compared with 92 in 2007. For you statheads out there, this difference was highly significant (p< 0.01). Also, the trend line of body condition as fish get larger now slopes downward more steeply (-0.14 in 2011 vs. -0.08 in 2007). Stathead that I am, I like to test for significance of different slopes. These two slopes test with a p-value right at 0.10. Being a management biologist rather than a researcher or academic, that's good enough for me. I actually tend to fixate on a p-value of 0.2 for decision-making purposes. Academics would be aghast, but I'll take 80% odds that I'm right any day, and we're not talking about life-and-death decisions here. Aside from the life and death of a few starving brookies, that is. And actually, if you look at that 2011 plot, there are three or four outliers right at the 230 mm mark that bucked the trend. Without those fish, all these parameters would have been tighter. There's a good chance that those were the cannibals in the sample. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Anyway, I digress. The bottom line is that the fish in 2011 were definitely worse off than they were four years earlier. And why was that? Remember that I had pulled the cutthroat plant. In all likelihood those cutthroats were providing a prey supplement that was propping up the larger brookies to a moderate extent. Also, you'll remember that 2011 was an extremely high water year. This probably played a role too, with colder water longer into the summer, and delayed insect activity making food scarce.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> So at this point I'm thinking that I need to try something else. I love tinkering with these small-to-mid-size lakes because you can really effect major change over a fairly short time frame, and it's never been very satisfying to me to simply put them on the catchable rainbow schedule and leave it at that. Put-and-take rainbows, in my mind, are the last and least-creative management option. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Enter the tiger trout. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For those that aren't familiar with them, tiger trout are the crime-against-nature hybrid of a female brown trout and a male brook trout. Because the fish aren't very closely related genetically (not even in the same genus), you don't get huge success rates when you try to make these fish - something like 15-30% of the eggs get fertilized. So we never have them available in big numbers, but recently our guys in Denver responsible for egg trades and procurement were able to work out a deal with Wyoming, so in the future it looks like our supply of these fish will be more reliable. Apparently Wyoming has a better situation for making tigers - we don't have a captive brood stock of either brown trout or brook trout, which means that to make tigers you have to go out into the wild, collect milt from male brookies that are ripe, and get it to the eggs of female browns from somewhere else in the wild. Getting the timing and logistics of that proposition dialed in is not an easy task, and there are many opportunities for things to not work out. It's far better to have captive broodstocks available of both species, preferably in the same hatchery. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Anyway, the reason we want to use tiger trout in some waters is that they are apparently a good predator, and because of their hybrid genetics they're reproductively sterile. So we can have complete control over how many teeth are in a water body. They may be used to try to impact sucker populations (I'm not aware of an example of this actually working - suckers are extremely difficult to control), but more importantly, to thin stunted brook trout populations.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> So, with the help of Chris Crowder down at the Monte Vista hatchery, in 2014 I was able to get my hands on 2,000 tigers for Meadow Creek. They were stocked on July 9, 2014 and averaged 3.7". This was a relatively conservative number of fish (20/acre), for two reasons: 1. we don't have a ton of them available, and 2. you have to be very careful not to overdo it in this situation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> We surveyed Meadow Creek again on July 7, 2015. So the tigers had been in there almost exactly one year. Below is the graph of the fish that we captured.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Out of the three sampling occasions, the size structure of the brookies in 2015 was actually the best it's been. There were more fish in the 10" range, but still nothing making it to 12". Below is the relative weight plot. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwqNP29K5jnfNuTcAoT5o3-cjUJmFOrcWQjC_bOYOLR6t0P77DxjKZVR8i7ztdqx-BrEPY4pPMXpWYFOPsgQGnTHHBjff2hcpXj3Ua5x84NKeNsz6DscIg43oti-DdUmiwdW80VrPIag/s1600/New+Picture+%25285%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwqNP29K5jnfNuTcAoT5o3-cjUJmFOrcWQjC_bOYOLR6t0P77DxjKZVR8i7ztdqx-BrEPY4pPMXpWYFOPsgQGnTHHBjff2hcpXj3Ua5x84NKeNsz6DscIg43oti-DdUmiwdW80VrPIag/s400/New+Picture+%25285%2529.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The average relative weight for these brookies in 2015 was 84, so it split the difference between the 2007 and 2011 samples. However, the trend line is the steepest yet with a -0.17 slope. So even though there are more 10" fish which represents a slight improvement in the fishery, they're having the hardest time they've ever had maintaining their body condition when they get to that size - which could be a direct result of the higher number of 10" fish creating density-dependent competition and food scarcity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> And we captured 20 tigers. This was the main purpose of the 2015 survey: to see what kind of survival and growth we had out of those 2,000 fish. To catch 1% of them with this level of sampling effort was pretty great as far as I was concerned. Their average length was 8.0", with the largest fish at 9.8". Below are a couple photos. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8p22lmavoRH4pVcDzIYexS-Piegpnilo6RxgHh8SpPDbcRA9-gmIofU1BjSeonh_Rg6Ryy7sDXhfFw_R1OkyS4cJx0ECBDzQKeI7DD-OVEyX6ZnUn3SQx_kvGTyvehBR95GM9C4CZpEk/s1600/PART_1436386390255_DSC_0547+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8p22lmavoRH4pVcDzIYexS-Piegpnilo6RxgHh8SpPDbcRA9-gmIofU1BjSeonh_Rg6Ryy7sDXhfFw_R1OkyS4cJx0ECBDzQKeI7DD-OVEyX6ZnUn3SQx_kvGTyvehBR95GM9C4CZpEk/s400/PART_1436386390255_DSC_0547+%25282%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Predatory trout will eat prey that is up to 2/3 of their own body length. So I think our survey came right at the time when these tigers were on the verge of being able to start tearing through some of the smaller brookies. I strongly suspect (maybe I should say "hope") that at least the ones pushing 10" started doing that by the end of the summer. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I plan to get back to Meadow Creek again in 2016. As you know I haven't been surveying it every year, but I'm very excited to track the progress of these fish. The goal will be to again get a feel for survival and growth of the tigers, get a sense of whether my stocking rate is right, and look for signs that they are in fact using the brook trout as prey. I don't expect to see improvement in the brook trout fishery quite yet; I think it will take at least a couple years of thinning by the tiger trout to see that. But when we do see that, I hope to see brookies pushing past that 12" growth barrier, and the slope of that body condition trend line should flatten out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I have a request in to stock another 2,000 in Meadow Creek this year. It's been approved, so apparently barring unforseen complications, we'll get that second year-class in there this year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> So Keith, there's a long-winded answer to your question. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-38714361207265876792016-03-01T08:32:00.000-08:002016-03-01T08:32:04.053-08:00Green Mountain timeout, part 2.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So that was the good news. Now the bad news. We've got problems at Green Mountain. They had already started by the time I got here in 2007, with an explosion of the gill lice parasite in the kokanee salmon population. From that time onward, the reliability of the kokanee run took a nosedive and has never recovered. Green Mountain used to produce a good spawning run in the Blue River as well as reliable ice fishing for silver kokes. Those opportunities disappeared after the gill lice showed up. As far as I can tell, a few folks still get into some fish by snagging during the spawn or ice fishing for silvers, but it's extremely spotty and unpredictable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Because they originated in the Pacific, the gill lice that we have infect both kokanee and rainbows (also from the Pacific). They do not infect browns or lake trout. The rainbows at Green Mountain are also heavily infected and have been for years, with no reduction in infection apparent over time. There is no known mechanism of control of gill lice in a water body this size. Except for one. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> This is an obligate parasite - meaning, it won't survive if it can't find its specific host species, in this case rainbows and kokanee. The only known biological way to reduce prevalence of the parasite is to deprive it of its host. This is one of the three reasons that, for the first time in the history of the reservoir, we are not stocking Green Mountain with any fish in 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The other problem we've got at Green Mountain is an illegal introduction of northern pike. I received some word-of-mouth reports of pike being caught beginning in '08 or so, but no confirmation with photos or any carcasses. I finally picked one up in my standard gillnet surveys in 2012. Then I got four in 2013, one more in 2014, and in 2015 I picked up 17. That's not quite as bad as it sounds, because in 2015 I increased my gillnet effort from 24 net sets to 40. So in terms of gillnet hours, pike capture went from 0.01 fish per hour to 0.07 fish per hour. So still a low catch rate indicating a small population, but they were all the same size (22-25 inches), indicating that they are all from the same year class, born in the lake around 2012. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> When Green Mountain spills, the volume of water going over the spillway can be big. 2015 wasn't a particularly big water year, and it spilled for 15 days at an average of 513 CFS. In 2011, which was a huge water year, it spilled for 27 days at an average of 1,141 CFS. So if pike take off in GM, we've got a huge risk of the lake dumping a lot of them into the Blue and Colorado Rivers. We do a lot of survey work downstream of GM, and we have not seen pike establish themselves at this point. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> What's so frustrating about this is that whoever takes it upon themselves to spread fish around is probably unaware of the implications of tying these waters to the Endangered Fish Recovery Program. We have a great luxury here at the head of the basin in that we can manage these waters with recreational opportunity as the top priority. This is a luxury that we should never, ever take for granted. If the species that are problematic to the Recovery Program - northern pike, yellow perch, walleye, smallmouth - continue to turn up in these waters, it is probably only a matter of time before it is proven that fish from one or more of these reservoirs are finding their way all the way down to Rifle and causing problems in the recovery area. At that point, managing these fisheries to maximize recreational opportunity immediately becomes the second priority, and that luxury that we've enjoyed all this time disappears indefinitely, possibly permanently. All options are on the table then, including rotenone treatment of large reservoirs and closing large bodies of water to fishing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I know I'm preaching to the choir here. I've communicated this message before many times, and no one who would bucket stock fish would ever take the time to read this. So this is the second reason we're not stocking any fish into Green Mountain this year. We're not going to turn that lake into yet another pike feedlot. We've got plenty of them around, and it's a ridiculously expensive way to manage a fishery. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Here's the little bit of good news within this piece of bad news: we're implementing a northern pike angler harvest incentive of $20 at GM. If you catch a pike there, you can take it to Heeney Marina and they'll give you a twenty dollar bill. We have got to get on top of this as quickly as we can, and enlisting the help of anglers is the best way to do it. So I'm hoping that whatever angler traffic is lost due to the lack of stocking, is replaced by folks going after pike.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The third reason we're not stocking fish is that we've got some production issues in the hatchery system. I rely heavily on our Glenwood Springs hatchery for a lot of my plants, and last year Glenwood came down with a disease called Bacterial Kidney Disease. It's a long story, but the point is that we can't stock fish that have been exposed to this disease, and Glenwood had to be completely depopulated and disinfected last year. So there is a general shortage of fish on the west slope as the other hatcheries try to make up for the fish that Glenwood will not have in 2016. One of the results is that I have a smaller allocation of rainbows than normal. If I cut one major reservoir (Green Mountain) out of my schedule, I am able to maintain catchable numbers at the other large waters in my area.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> One benefit taking a timeout from stocking is that this will serve as a large-scale lake trout management experiment. A couple messages that I get on a regular basis from the lake trout angling community are an almost universal lack of support for kokanee in Colorado, and and the assertion that we can have perfectly good trophy lake trout fisheries based on a sucker prey base alone. These two positions are totally misguided - and quite possibly tragic for the future of trophy lakers in this state - but we've seen over and over again that it doesn't matter how many times we try to communicate this. Here is our golden opportunity to test these theories. The proof will be in the pudding, and we'll see how this trophy lake trout fishery fares when both kokanee and rainbows disappear from the prey base.</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-3345152790956788832016-02-05T09:42:00.000-08:002016-02-05T10:05:11.850-08:00Green Mountain timeout, part 1.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'll start with the good news about Green Mountain before getting into the bad news. Last June, I spent four days out there running gillnet surveys. We set 40 gillnets in random locations all over the lake, for six hours apiece. Over the course of that survey we handled 86 lake trout. These lakers looked the best that I have seen them at Green Mountain over the past decade. Below is the size distribution of the lake trout that we caught.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Out of all the times I have run gillnet sampling on Green Mountain, 2015 gave us the highest catch rate of fish greater than 24", and the average size of all the lake trout caught was the largest. In the four years prior to 2015, when running these surveys, I caught an average of one lake trout over 24" for every 23 hours of gillnet soak time (we have 8 gillnets fishing simultaneously, so each day we're out there we get 48 hours of gillnet soak time). In 2015, I caught one for every 10 hours. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Also, when we look at relative weights of lake trout, fish over 24" at Green Mountain are in consistently better condition than fish under 24". Below is the relative weight plot from 2015 to illustrate that. Body condition for fish less than 24" averaged 72.1, while fish larger than 24" averaged 95.7. In fact, we have seen this relationship - increasing body condition as the fish get larger - for all of the past 5 years there. However, the difference between the two groups in 2015 - 23.6 points - is the largest gap that I have observed there. Another way to put it would be to say that the trend line on the graph below has the steepest slope out of any of the years that I have surveyed GM.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> All this information means a lot more when you compare it with other lakes. At Granby, fish over 24" have consistently POORER body condition than fish under 24". Below is the relative weight plot for all the Granby lake trout that I have weighed (899 fish) from 2011-2015. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Across all those years, relative weights for the Granby fish less than 24" was 82.7, and for fish larger than 24" was 77.1. I have searched our database and run this calculation for many of the lake trout waters across the state including Jefferson, Taylor, Ruedi, Twin, Turquoise, Blue Mesa, and Williams Fork (of course). The fact is, Granby is the ONLY lake trout fishery in the state that sees a consistently lower (and statistically significant if that matters to you</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">) body condition in large fish than in small fish. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Here's how it works out in pounds of fish. Based on these length-weight relationships, the average 30" fish at Green Mountain weighs 10 lbs., while a Granby fish of the same size weighs 8.6 lbs. A 36" fish at Green Mountain averages 18.6 lbs., while a Granby fish of that size averages 15.1. And if you take it up to 40", a Green Mountain fish will average 26.7 lbs., while the Granby fish weighs in at 21. The result of poor body condition in these large fish is extremely slow-or zero- growth in length over time, and less egg production. The population seems to become "decadent" in a way, like an overgrown forest that has suffered from a lack of disturbance and renewal. We've all seen what that results in. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> You may remember that we changed the harvest regulation at Green Mountain Reservoir beginning in January of 2011. We increased the bag limit of lake trout to 8 fish of any size, separate from the bag limit of other trout. There is no size restriction of any kind on the 8 fish bag. In the years since that regulation change, I regularly ask the game wardens as well as other folks around Green Mountain if people are taking advantage of the 8-fish bag on lake trout and harvesting limits of them. The answer has always been that they absolutely are. As far as we can tell, anglers have been taking full advantage of the increased bag limit there since we enacted it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I'll take this opportunity to point out a statement that I wrote in the 2010 issue paper which proposed to increase the lake trout limit:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"This population should easily sustain increased harvest rates, and may exhibit increased quality as a result of the thinning effect that increased harvest may produce."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I'm not making the claim that my recent data at Green Mountain is unequivocal proof of the above statement, and that my data isn't subject to any of the possible pitfalls of such a data set. However, I will say that this data gives me good confidence that the probability of the above statement being correct is far higher than the probability of it being incorrect.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> This is the stuff that a fisheries biologist bases his/her decisions on, in combination with other sources of information such as public input. One of the main purposes of this blog is to try to fully expose the reasoning that goes into my - and any biologist's - fishery management decisions. Even though it goes on in my head and across countless spreadsheets and databases, it's a public process. It's what you pay me to do when you buy a fishing license. And for that, I have to say a heartfelt "thanks" because I love my job very, very much. Entering my tenth year here, I still have to pinch myself nearly on a daily basis and make sure I'm not dreaming. I consider myself to be extremely lucky to have this job.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Anyway, I digress. What I was getting at is that I think there is a little bit of an information gap in the world when it comes to making the details of this stuff accessible to the public. It mainly appears in the pages of specialized scientific fisheries journals that people typically don't have easy access to. I believe one reason that there's not that much of it out there is because as a group, we biologists tend to assume that there is not general interest among the public in this level of detail. But I think that there is a sector of the angling public that is interested in as much detail as we're willing to take the time to give. It may not be the majority of license buyers, but a decent slice of them, I think. That's the group of anglers that this blog aims to serve. There will always be a majority of people who have no interest in the fact that there is a lot of effort, consideration, and decision-making behind each and every fish that they find on the end of their line. I'm not going to reach those people no matter what, and that's fine.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> There's a selfish motivation to do this also - it makes me a better biologist to work this stuff out in written form. Makes me consider things more thoroughly and carefully.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I'm going to hold off on the bad news about Green Mountain until my next post.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-82664183799270867672016-01-24T10:58:00.002-08:002016-01-24T10:59:39.305-08:002015 favorite fishing moments<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Greetings all, and welcome to 2016. One of my goals this year is to revive this blog. I'm committing to posting once a month. I started out with weekly posts, then slipped to every two weeks, and now I'm going to try monthly posts. I should be able to sustain that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The main reason I lost motivation with the blog is that in 2014 I held a couple of public meetings in which I was attacked and publicly crucified, and that was followed by <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_27253657/too-many-mackinaw-is-a-bad-thing?-try-getting-the-lakers-to-believe-that" target="_blank">this article</a> in the Denver Post a year ago, which was a very thinly veiled personal attack aimed squarely at me. From my perspective, it appeared that the ultimate reward for making an effort to communicate with those that I serve was to be publicly called out as a liar on the pages of the biggest printed media outlet in this state. I've got to be honest -- that was a devastating blow to take. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> In addition to being accused of lying, what might have been even more brutal was to be accused of not being an angler. This is a common tactic used by some people when there are no factual arguments to be made, and it's not just directed at me. There have been many instances around the state in which my coworkers have been branded as "non-anglers". The purpose of such claims is to cast us as some kind of entity which is "apart" and does not act in the best interest of recreational anglers because we apparently have no idea what recreational anglers want. These claims have no basis in any kind of factual information. It is simply impossible to land in this job without being an avid lifelong angler. I don't even know why someone would want this job if that wasn't the case. It's not particularly easy, and it doesn't pay as well as countless other professional pursuits. However, if fish are the most fascinating creatures in the world to you and you've always been enthralled with their pursuit, it's the best job you could possibly have.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> So enough rambling. People who desire to be personal enemies to me have clearly identified themselves, and it's time to move on. But if I remain silent, I allow them the last word in defining who I am to the world at large. I realize that these people are a "vocal minority" and many others have reached out to me to express that they find this blog to be valuable. So it's for these folks that I choose to continue with it. So on that note, here are some of my favorite angling memories from 2015.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> In June, our family's schedules resulted in my youngest son Ben and I having the house to ourselves for a few days. I decided to make it a fishing odyssey. One evening we were up at Meadow Creek Reservoir to try to catch the evening bite. I'll never forget the sound of Ben's voice as he exclaimed, "what the heck?!?!" as he hooked a sizeable brookie on his kastmaster. He was sure he was snagged for a second, until he realized it was moving. He proceeded to outfish me that evening, for the first time ever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The next day, we headed out on an overnight backpack. We take family backpack trips every summmer, but this was the first time that just Ben and I had set out. We headed for a promising lake in hopes of dining on brookies cooked over the fire. It was early in the summer, and the trail was not easy, with downed trees, some snowbanks, and lots of mud in the shady areas. However, we were rewarded with hungry, aggressive fish and we did enjoy that brookie supper. In the morning Ben was excited to get back out there and catch a few more before we packed up. Once again, he caught more fish than me on the trip.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In August, we took the best family backpack trip we've ever had. It was one of the last weekends of summer and in the scramble leading up to the school year there were many things on the to-do list. Instead, we scrapped it all and hit the trail for a couple of nights. It was one of the most beautiful hikes we've done. On the second day we headed for one of my all-time favorite lakes, off trail and packed with aggressive cutthroats. This lake doesn't get stocked, and sustains a fantastic fishery solely through natural reproduction. The boys experienced their first-ever "double," pictured below, where they both had fish on at the same time. I won't forget that moment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">My sons are finally at the age where they've got some good stamina and enough physical ability that they can now get deeper into the woods than they've gone before, and I'm very excited about our adventures in the coming years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> In September, I took a day and bushwacked in to my favorite low-elevation rugged canyon creek. The fishing is fantastic for a mix of browns and wild rainbows ranging from 8 to 14 inches. Ironically, on this particular day the rainbows were taking nymphs and the browns were all about the dries. It never takes long to get into "the zone" on this creek, and for a few hours the whole rest of the world just melts away. I don't seem to need days like that as often as I used to, but I'm always amazed at how much my batteries recharge when I take the time to do it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Over Christmas break, despite the brutal cold we dragged my Dad out and we did a little ice fishing on Willow Creek Reservoir. Although we grew up fishing a lot, southern Kansas never offered much in the way of ice fishing opportunities, and it was my dad's first time ever on the ice. We barely lasted an hour out there because the wind came up, but at least we got out there, on a day that seemed too cold to do anything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">For me, the enjoyment of fishing has always been about the place just as much as it is about the fish. And increasingly, in the past few years, it's been about appreciating those places with my sons. So with luck I'm looking forward to a 2016 filled with more such memories, and here's hoping that everyone is able to enjoy such special times. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I'll get back to talking about fish populations with my next post. I would like to get some feedback on what topics folks would like to read about in 2016. So please don't hesitate to make comments here, or drop me an email at jon.ewert@state.co.us. Thanks!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-18270313063862965822015-03-24T08:07:00.006-07:002015-03-24T08:07:47.773-07:00More reports for the springHere's a few more. Hit me up with questions or comments -<br />
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<a href="http://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Fishing/FisheryWaterSummaries/Summaries/Northwest/DillonReservoir.pdf">Dillon</a><br />
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<a href="http://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Fishing/FisheryWaterSummaries/Summaries/Northwest/GreenMountainReservoir.pdf">Green Mountain</a><br />
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<a href="http://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Fishing/FisheryWaterSummaries/Summaries/Northwest/WolfordMountainReservoir.pdf">Wolford</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-5447372011074034252015-03-02T09:48:00.004-08:002015-03-02T09:48:58.912-08:00Still alive . . . Howdy folks, sorry for the extended break. Hope 2015 finds you well. I still intend to keep this going - just probably not at a weekly pace. For now, check out my updated report on the Colorado River at Parshall, posted here:<br />
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<a href="http://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Fishing/FisheryWaterSummaries/Summaries/Northwest/ColoradoRivernearParshall.pdf">http://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Fishing/FisheryWaterSummaries/Summaries/Northwest/ColoradoRivernearParshall.pdf</a><br />
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So take a look at that. Hopefully it will stimulate some discussion. If you have any thoughts/comments/questions, either post them here or shoot me an email at jon.ewert@state.co.us. Hope to hear from you.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-74324546300587384822014-03-03T21:13:00.000-08:002014-03-03T21:13:02.580-08:00State of the Fish<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> I have scheduled my annual "State of the Fish" meetings for this month. On Tuesday the 18th we'll be at the Frisco library, in the Buffalo Mountain Room, at 6:30. On Wednesday the 19th we'll be at the Granby public library, also at 6:30. These meetings will follow an open format, and we'll talk about whatever waters folks are interested in talking about. There are a few regulation items I'd like to discuss, if anyone in attendance is interested:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Grand Lake lake trout</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Granby lake trout</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Dillon char</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> I hope to see lots of folks come out for these. I'll stick around for as long as anyone wants to hang out and discuss things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Aside from that I'm having trouble coming up with topics for posting right now. I need some ideas from you folks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> February was a ridiculously warm month, and these reservoirs are not going to make it to April 1 with the ice on if this weather keeps up. Things are changing fast. It's looking like the earliest ice-out I've seen since I've been around here. I wish that wasn't the case because I'm not going to be ready for it before April 1.</span><br />
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I'm headed up to Laramie for our annual American Fisheries Society meeting/conference, which is always a great experience, with lots of information being exchanged and new ideas being born.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-66740768130585931952014-02-14T22:55:00.001-08:002014-02-14T22:56:48.773-08:00Scrappy Sculpin and the Sad, Sad Snake <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Thought I'd share some info on a couple different topics. First, one of my favorite fish species of all time - mottled sculpin, <i>Cottus bairdi</i>. I previously posted some pics of a recently-consumed sculpin coming out of the throat of a brown, down at State Bridge. We are lucky to have some areas of very dense sculpin populations, where they are the most numerous species of fish. Here's my favorite picture of a sculpin, taken by my Forest Service counterpart Corey Lewellen:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMc3h-K52EBUYVCdp-e_CatalwK1zIpv3wW1DDrYS81JNh_yIk1ZIn9MDK5EnFc7fei9Cfkjcm6QZZNRT6QgjEcSwyai6eOw29u8G4roPSglnAreBC74zo1j85hcy5MpZXM-HunrJ6I0/s1600/columbine+landing+sculpin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMc3h-K52EBUYVCdp-e_CatalwK1zIpv3wW1DDrYS81JNh_yIk1ZIn9MDK5EnFc7fei9Cfkjcm6QZZNRT6QgjEcSwyai6eOw29u8G4roPSglnAreBC74zo1j85hcy5MpZXM-HunrJ6I0/s1600/columbine+landing+sculpin.jpg" height="353" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">They've got the best pectoral fins out there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> One reason it occurred to me to discuss our sculpin populations is the appearance of this recent news item:</span><br />
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<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/big-headed-fish-species-discovered-idaho-montana-rivers-201333579.html">http://news.yahoo.com/big-headed-fish-species-discovered-idaho-montana-rivers-201333579.html</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> It is always interesting when a new species is described, and the news media picks up on it to say that it has been "discovered." It makes it sound as if no human has ever seen the fish before. The reality is, anglers and biologists have likely handled these fish untold thousands of times; it's just that this is the first time that they were examined genetically. I'm certain that something very similar would happen if we closely examined our sculpin species in Colorado. We would probably have at least one new named subspecies or species. Right now, we've got two that we know about; paiute sculpin (<i>Cottus beldingi</i>) and mottled sculpin (<i>Cottus bairdi</i>). Some of the sculpin from waters in Grand County have been keyed out as paiutes, which is only possible in a lab. The bottom line is, we don't know the exact distribution of the two species, if they overlap, if there is hybridization, or if there is at least another subspecies that is unrecognized. There has been talk that the sculpin in the Eagle River may constitute their own subspecies. For simplicity's sake, what is important is that they're a native fish, and on the upper Colorado we've always referred to all of them as mottled sculpin.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> We've found some interesting patterns in their distribution at the headwaters of the Colorado River. Below is a map depicting a simplified version of the distribution pattern:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAKdNZorKU39O7IQ0QX67iYS219Baslol9o0M46BgEqT8zB5hQJjpNtEUDooH2j5B4W9ih2DHS4tNsaYLHTd0hge9n28b-s0DLDWYp6tfRo6k6WiOy8EPUWKD2Z9KT5KqOkJfWe5FWQuc/s1600/New+Picture+(12).bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAKdNZorKU39O7IQ0QX67iYS219Baslol9o0M46BgEqT8zB5hQJjpNtEUDooH2j5B4W9ih2DHS4tNsaYLHTd0hge9n28b-s0DLDWYp6tfRo6k6WiOy8EPUWKD2Z9KT5KqOkJfWe5FWQuc/s1600/New+Picture+(12).bmp" height="263" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The green lines I've drawn here represent streams that have sculpin populations, and the red lines represent streams where sculpin are absent. We have found that almost without exception, we have dense populations of sculpin upstream of every impoundment in Grand County, and the absence of sculpin below every impoundment. It is astounding how consistent this pattern is. Last September I was able to add the Muddy Creek watershed to this map, after doing some sampling on private land upstream of Wolford Reservoir and finding high numbers of sculpin there. There are zero sculpin in Muddy Creek below Wolford. Williams Fork, Windy Gap, Willow Creek, and Granby - all these reservoirs have dense sculpin populations upstream and no sculpin downstream.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> On the Fraser River in the town of Granby, sculpin are by far the most numerous fish species. In 2012, in a 600-foot reach of river there, we collected 1,279 sculpin, and they constituted 83% of the fish we captured. That yielded a population estimate of at least 20,000 fish per mile. Moving downstream past Windy Gap, to the mainstem of the Colorado River, at the Hitchin' Post Bridge, we have searched the riffles there every year for sculpin and found zero. This is only about four miles from the site on the Fraser in Granby, and the species that is most plentiful in the first site is completely absent from the second site. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Sculpin reappear in the Colorado River at some point below the Blue River confluence. At Pumphouse, they are very dense again, and are again the most numerous fish species present. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> We don't know the precise reasons for this distribution pattern, but we would like to. It's not an overstatement to say that there has to be a massive ecological shift that takes place over short geographical distances to produce such a contrast. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> On a positive note, there is some movement toward mitigation work taking place on the Colorado as part of ongoing negotiations with the water providers. It's looking likely that Windy Gap will be re-engineered somehow to become an off-channel reservoir, and that a bypass will be built. Also it looks like there may be a pool of money that becomes available to to a lot of physical habitat work in the river from Windy Gap on down. We'll see.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> I gave an update recently at a meeting of the Snake River Watershed Task Force in Keystone. If you're not familiar with the Snake River, it's an interesting place. It's got by far the most polluted water of any stream in the area. A lot of the metals pollution comes from the Peru Creek drainage, where there are old mines releasing acidic water laden with high concentrations of metals that are lethal to fish. If you're at all interested in water chemistry, Peru Creek is a fascinating place. You can walk up the stream and the bed of it is an ever-changing rainbow of colors, based on which metal is precipitating out of the water in that particular reach. There are white sections, red sections, greens, blues - lots of different shades.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Below is a map, courtesy of my USGS colleague Andrew Todd, depicting where in the Snake River watershed we have fish living in streams and where we have no fish at all. The blue sections are where there are fish, and red is where there are none:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-W0AziwkvKzKc982nPNjjbMeDq4PSfqkFbVcnmwOOupxAdtstQLWEHppGvZeureip5LV-53WBJsKWo_sjscrS3TcnmX9RBtjXK2JfuvrKXJO0L9ghoqx9DUywVG3kC4RIr0ImM2_BG4/s1600/New+Picture+(13).bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-W0AziwkvKzKc982nPNjjbMeDq4PSfqkFbVcnmwOOupxAdtstQLWEHppGvZeureip5LV-53WBJsKWo_sjscrS3TcnmX9RBtjXK2JfuvrKXJO0L9ghoqx9DUywVG3kC4RIr0ImM2_BG4/s1600/New+Picture+(13).bmp" height="288" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Below Peru Creek, the only reason that any fish can live in the Snake River at all is the dilution that is provided by the North Fork, coming down off of Loveland Pass. The amount of relatively clean water coming from that drainage dilutes the metals pollution just enough to allow some trout to persist below that point. However, it's not exactly a high-quality trout population.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> We have a survey site, right along the base of Keystone, that we sample every year to check on the status of the fish population and it tells some interesting stories. The brook trout numbers tell us the most, because those fish are never stocked or manipulated in any way -- if they're there, they got there on their own. Here is the population estimate for brook trout on that reach going back to 2007:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYR-Wt_1Qwz4yYA1-WKT0mI7-3pq-z-rdZZEXu1rUvpkVnVyy6L3S1arw0v_9ApKLVEg0k_MM-8QXWeblI_VmXTRb49KFAVLmXJnd-wGk1x3TsCBJ3SWE6r4Mi_ru7NNP1fZRfby0Ukdg/s1600/New+Picture.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYR-Wt_1Qwz4yYA1-WKT0mI7-3pq-z-rdZZEXu1rUvpkVnVyy6L3S1arw0v_9ApKLVEg0k_MM-8QXWeblI_VmXTRb49KFAVLmXJnd-wGk1x3TsCBJ3SWE6r4Mi_ru7NNP1fZRfby0Ukdg/s1600/New+Picture.png" height="256" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">These numbers are estimates of the total number of brook trout inhabiting the 500+ foot reach that we survey. It's not extrapolated out to fish per mile or anything. So you can see, this is a distressed fish population and this river teeters on the edge of even being suitable for fish at all. The reason why there are two samples in 2007 is that there was a flash flood from a cloudburst that hit the Peru Creek basin in late July of that year. We had already surveyed the site before the flood. We had reports from the public that there had been a fish kill during the flood. We went back a month after the flood and electrofished again, and saw that the flood had wiped out the brook trout population, and in fact it wasn't until three years later, in 2010, that we even saw brook trout there again. And, as you can see, the brook trout population has never returned to pre-2007 flood levels. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Keystone Resort purchases and stocks rainbow trout annually in this reach of river. They buy them at a large size, and they do provide entertaining fishing for the tourists. I wondered if we get any holdovers at all from year to year among those rainbows, and so in 2008 I started adipose-clipping all the rainbows that we handled in the survey section. This way, we can see whether or not any of those stocked rainbows survive a winter there. Below are those results:</span></div>
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r<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvAWnyjavhZ8t49k2QuTtcBFMZFKCTbQ8GM7jjJAZIxPPRK72F7xASAMcyTj-FT5-Pr-tblr-3TrNCzRnNyaZGXYpKI0ANhL4odLLhCf-0MLxKBBhQnOtjKbU01jWKxJIfPa4_UOAT4tI/s1600/New+Picture+(14).bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvAWnyjavhZ8t49k2QuTtcBFMZFKCTbQ8GM7jjJAZIxPPRK72F7xASAMcyTj-FT5-Pr-tblr-3TrNCzRnNyaZGXYpKI0ANhL4odLLhCf-0MLxKBBhQnOtjKbU01jWKxJIfPa4_UOAT4tI/s1600/New+Picture+(14).bmp" height="292" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So, out of the 46 fish that we marked in 2008, we captured 5 in 2009, for 11% survival, and so on. 2012 and 2013 have been particularly rough in this respect. For this data, fish emigrating out of the reach counts the same as mortality. Whichever happens, it's obviously not very hospitable there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> The good news about the Snake River is that after a couple of decades of effort and attention, there is a broad coalition of entities (EPA, US Forest Service, USGS, Summit County, etc.,) starting to clean up the mines of Peru Creek. It has taken a huge amount of concentrated effort and searching for funding. There is real momentum now and in 2013 quite a bit of underground work was done to figure out what it's going to take to clean up some of the most polluted water. So, hopefully in future years we'll see those metals concentrations drop and a healthier fishery develop.</span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-84834519841459156722014-01-30T19:26:00.008-08:002014-01-30T19:26:57.581-08:00Tough times in Parshall <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> I've done some processing of the data that I collected on the Parshall reach of river and it's not great news. This is the reach of river that we have a long-running historic data set for, going back to 1981. I survey two miles of river there every September, starting in the split channels upstream from the Parshall Hole, and continuing on downstream into the BLM Sunset parcel. We end it at the big irrigation diversion there. This reach of river has really been struggling the past several years and I can't put my finger on the exact reason why. Here are the population estimates in fish per mile greater than 6" (rainbows and browns combined) going back to 2000:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhynIo2NvfVU6x-_rh9zHGnX_87mcRJW47eGl6-QOuR4uJLXnyVHqmf9_7Bhx53pP8t1tk5XQIYm_v4yIccmZz-blZfxRrykWVMghuMgY2V09j0gc68J7HqVx6tIvRMGKmYEc_BS0VgeBY/s1600/Pop.+estimates+by+mile.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhynIo2NvfVU6x-_rh9zHGnX_87mcRJW47eGl6-QOuR4uJLXnyVHqmf9_7Bhx53pP8t1tk5XQIYm_v4yIccmZz-blZfxRrykWVMghuMgY2V09j0gc68J7HqVx6tIvRMGKmYEc_BS0VgeBY/s1600/Pop.+estimates+by+mile.png" height="237" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are the rainbow population estimates:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhxvGkmXUdQ4SAqx4DgXfk6KXOXh5cuKDfBYIaqRMGiNCnM6vZnnPq_xLxM26EeRx4sw6bGbRISPIJ_DgAMVPA-nkhgiX5wS65MWSvQAPQJtV3KSLvvvZfXol4K6nSfq8oIR1hYM7l8Y/s1600/RBT.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhxvGkmXUdQ4SAqx4DgXfk6KXOXh5cuKDfBYIaqRMGiNCnM6vZnnPq_xLxM26EeRx4sw6bGbRISPIJ_DgAMVPA-nkhgiX5wS65MWSvQAPQJtV3KSLvvvZfXol4K6nSfq8oIR1hYM7l8Y/s1600/RBT.png" height="248" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> 2012 was the year that we finally saw good success with the HXC's. Rainbow numbers came down in 2013 but I'm optimistic that the overall trend will be upward in the coming years. A quick comparison of the two figures shows that rainbows still make up only approximately 4% of the total trout population of fish greater than 6". Anglers have been reporting better catches of rainbows since 2012, but you have to remember that rainbows are approximately 10 times more vulnerable to being caught than browns are. So you can have a population that is 90% browns and 10% rainbows, and because of the greater catchability of rainbows, an angler may perceive that there are equal numbers of the two based on his catch rates. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Here are the density estimates of "quality" browns (over 14"), by surface acre of river. To me, this is the most disturbing statistic:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_pvMJumG4evA_C62nY4L5XfU7ldRbT2LNEZTIxN5NX1Db19LE1pGYlFJ5fGTajVu-9lIVWIV9qQ_Bhbup0_X_cJQV9jj_kgj5miryPqGKV-rVKy8GKWHwinQCeXcQ2Az6-k6xpNZhTh0/s1600/Quality+browns+thru+2013.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_pvMJumG4evA_C62nY4L5XfU7ldRbT2LNEZTIxN5NX1Db19LE1pGYlFJ5fGTajVu-9lIVWIV9qQ_Bhbup0_X_cJQV9jj_kgj5miryPqGKV-rVKy8GKWHwinQCeXcQ2Az6-k6xpNZhTh0/s1600/Quality+browns+thru+2013.png" height="240" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> As you can see, this is the lowest estimate we've had in recent history for fish >14". This reach of river has really been struggling in this regard. At this point it's barely maintaining the minimum standard for a gold medal-designated fishery. In 2010, we captured more than twice as many browns over 14" on that reach of river than we did in 2013. The gold medal standard is at least 12 fish per acre over 14", and at least 60 lbs./acre of total trout biomass. Speaking of biomass, here are the estimates from recent years:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLv11e6KXJ8qC0lEwaT_dproo3Na3zCNvhmMCpPsH4JBT9PKRzj73vdkiNshOYvaENaeoE6-6mBbGxJdqaoqARIbvPKpufYhisDTpcvIXzErwDSlYXZWygT_IAPy-4Ihw7HCf1NbSeUQI/s1600/Biomass.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLv11e6KXJ8qC0lEwaT_dproo3Na3zCNvhmMCpPsH4JBT9PKRzj73vdkiNshOYvaENaeoE6-6mBbGxJdqaoqARIbvPKpufYhisDTpcvIXzErwDSlYXZWygT_IAPy-4Ihw7HCf1NbSeUQI/s1600/Biomass.png" height="271" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> This is the only parameter that we saw an increase in 2013 - albeit a small one at that, and well within the margin of error for these estimates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> So when I've got data like this that shows a lot of doom and gloom, one of the first things I do is ask myself if there is some way that the data could be wrong, and that it is not reflecting true trends in the population. The biggest reason for it to be totally wrong would be if during some years there is some large-scale movement of fish out of the reach, and in some years the opposite. But we know that for the most part browns don't move large distances. Most movement studies that have been done with trout in rivers show that a very small percentage of fish move large distances, but most fish live their whole lives over a relatively small reach of river - a mile or a few. The way that I control for timing of movements is by running this survey as close to the same dates as possible every year - right around the third week of September. The reason why it works best at this time is that the water has cooled enough that it's not overly stressful on the fish, and it's still early enough that major spawning movements and concentrations are not in full swing yet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> The other thing that makes me think these trends are real is best illustrated in the biomass estimates. The trend was downward every year from 2007 to 2012. If there was a large amount of error in this estimate, there would be a lot more variation - it would bounce around more. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> I'm interested in hearing from folks who fish the Kemp-Breeze a lot, to know if their angling experiences match what I'm seeing in this data. Are you catching fewer browns over 14" than you did just a few years ago? Has the average size of fish that you are catching become smaller? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> So let's assume this is all real, and speculate as to the reasons. We know there is functionally no harvest taking place there, because it's a catch-and-release area. There is a ton of fishing pressure, but there always has been. I definitely don't believe that there was more pressure there in 2013 than there was three, or five, or ten years ago. This reach of river doesn't have extreme temperature problems because it's right below the Williams Fork confluence, which cools it down during the hottest portion of the summer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> One thing that always lurks in the back of my mind is the impact of anchor ice in certain winters. Last winter was a great example, when we had weeks of brutal cold, around 30 below every night. During times like that, you can go look at the riffles right around the Parshall Hole and see the anchor ice covering the cobble. That has to have some form of impact. It's difficult to get an idea of how flow varies from year to year in the dead of winter, because the flow gauges in the area are off for the season. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> I also wonder if it's a forage issue. We know that since the early '80's, we've lost the giant stonefly hatch that used to be prolific there. That species isn't the only one that's gone - our studies have found a whole list of invertebrate species that have disappeared from this reach of river. But these extirpations happened gradually over the past 30 years - it's reasonably safe to say that they had already occurred at the times in the previous decade when biomass was twice what it is now and when densities of quality trout were far higher. Also, there is evidence that does not support the forage limitation theory: the fact that body condition of the fish is consistently good. Not spectacular, like we have seen at Radium, but good. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> It could be a habitat degradation issue. There are sections of river that are utterly featureless, and at 150 CFS on these sections the river is 200 feet wide, ankle deep, and contains nearly zero fish. Whether or not the physical habitat has slowly been degrading over time is a question that I don't have an answer for. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Anyway, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this, so let me know if you've got any opinions. Thanks.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-18192444822275257562014-01-16T11:42:00.000-08:002014-01-16T11:42:43.104-08:00Good times at Radium & State Bridge Happy data season to all. I've been warmly ensconced in my office figuring out what I learned last field season. <div>
My Glenwood counterpart, Kendall Bakich, and I did a bunch of survey work on four stations on the Colorado downstream of Gore Canyon last spring. I showed some pictures from those stations previously, but I've got that data processed now and thought I'd share some cool stuff. The Radium reach is exactly two miles of river, and the downstream end is the Radium bridge itself. The beginning of the station is up near that old cabin with the historical sign. Here is the table with some population estimates from the past four years on that section:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi22zndAycqM-dLkq7ZMnY0Y5Dx8o-Ix3Eyu3os12hZQlBsoLCpnrQngOLL2IsSuqGlVI0DTlSr_s28NwkSYlglX6B8yIar2EpEPRMAS3vl7R5HowKnQfNbGpKtMKzjEQIaG3kgKstHOf4/s1600/New+Picture+(1).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi22zndAycqM-dLkq7ZMnY0Y5Dx8o-Ix3Eyu3os12hZQlBsoLCpnrQngOLL2IsSuqGlVI0DTlSr_s28NwkSYlglX6B8yIar2EpEPRMAS3vl7R5HowKnQfNbGpKtMKzjEQIaG3kgKstHOf4/s1600/New+Picture+(1).png" height="304" width="640" /></a></div>
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As far as the rainbow numbers go, I don't get too worked up about the variation there. I think that in 2011 the timing of the spawning aggregations may have been different, causing us to pick up more fish. I don't know why numbers were down this year, but it was probably by chance too. I would describe the rainbow population in this reach of river as "incidental," sustained by whatever finds its way down there that was stocked upstream, either in reservoirs or on private water. Also, there is some low level of successful reproduction that does seem to take place, but never enough to really get the numbers going. At some point in the future I will probably start stocking HXC fry on this reach, but it will take a lot of them, and I'm doing that up above now which takes up about all of the HXC's I can get. Once they're well-established around Parshall, I'll probably switch the stocking effort downstream.</div>
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The big news here is in the brown trout population trend. And the news is certainly good. We've seen steady and significant increases in just about every parameter of the brown trout population. I don't know exactly why it is, but I've got a theory or two.</div>
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In 2012, you can see that the fish took a big jump up in body condition. Remember that these are spring surveys, so the body condition reflects how the fish came through that previous winter, as well as the summer before. 2011 was the giant flow year, in which the river hit 10,000 CFS at the Kremmling gauge. Often, when you look at body condition of trout after a big flow period, they lose weight during that time. But the opposite happened here. However, it's also true that the winter of 2011/2012 was not particularly cold, and it may be the case that conditions were mild enough that the fish were able to put on weight over the winter. At any rate, when you see average body condition so high, you can expect fast growth, good survival, and good fecundity (high numbers of eggs per female). </div>
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Our researcher Dan Kowalski has set up a monitoring program to track trends in abundance of the giant stonefly, pteronarcys californica, that we know is so critically important on that reach of river. Every year right after the hatch, he gathers a crew and we go down and count exoskeletons along an established reach of riverbank. Our site is 100 feet long. Below are the counts for that site:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiprclL0offIxl3c54YTBKx5E8Q9KdyG6ThPdEOiMZ-5d-X-exFe_AAqb1x9q2jAjj-ljYPmfgVnAEAeSC0VHTo6apTUE1BlgwFiND31tkOWNsgJJzuPR3BWRIU_oACHupyKl0RkS9Va2w/s1600/New+Picture+(12).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiprclL0offIxl3c54YTBKx5E8Q9KdyG6ThPdEOiMZ-5d-X-exFe_AAqb1x9q2jAjj-ljYPmfgVnAEAeSC0VHTo6apTUE1BlgwFiND31tkOWNsgJJzuPR3BWRIU_oACHupyKl0RkS9Va2w/s1600/New+Picture+(12).png" height="253" width="400" /></a></div>
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Again, this is the number of exoskeletons that we counted right after the hatch, on 100 feet of river bank. If you extrapolate this out to 1 mile on both banks of river, it yields an estimate for 2013 of about 1.8 million adult stoneflies per mile hatching in 2013. These stoneflies live for 3-4 years as nymphs before hatching as adults, so if you assume that there are 2-3 year classes in the river that did not hatch in 2013, we're talking about a population somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 million nymphs per mile. This is a very thumbnail sketch of what the numbers might be, but the point is, there is a huge number of them and we're pretty confident in saying that they are the single most important food item in sustaining that fishery. </div>
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I suspect that the big increase in stonefly numbers that we saw in 2013 plays a large role in the increased quality of the brown trout fishery in the past couple of years. I think it's possible that the huge runoff year of 2011 triggered a positive response in stonefly numbers, and now we're seeing the benefit of that. However, one could also argue that the drought year of 2012, in which we didn't see much in the way of high flows, allowed higher survival of stonefly larvae and that is the reason we saw the big number in 2013. Hard to say at this point, but these are the relationships that we're trying to nail down with a better understanding. Unfortunately, we missed getting a count right after the hatch in 2012, hence the missing year in the data. </div>
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Those of you that fish there are aware that Eagle County built a new boat ramp just downstream of Bond, called Two Bridges, and this has created a new float that folks are taking advantage of, from State Bridge to Two Bridges. It's about six miles of river. The existence of that new ramp has changed traffic patterns on the river dramatically, because now float anglers can segregate themselves from the whitewater floaters upstream. There isn't much in the way of rapids on this new float, so the whitewater folks aren't using it much. But the fishing is good. So, we saw the need to add a new survey station in that reach. I was really stoked to get a new survey station established there. It is an exciting thing to do a fish survey in a spot where you know that you're the first people to ever scientifically document what the fish population there is. We started our station right at the highway bridge itself, and surveyed downstream for exactly two miles of river. This gives us a good, direct comparison to the radium reach. The results are in the table below:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmaUuzuhay1tiaxZBQhXMKkPnbm34U9-MO0Rm5fV9gMZIrUYNqV6pF8vsC8F9xOTptTHMJk3O5WibqSTyOEF25vO5ySTEoSCzaOOYl7cge6wTrRN0I0pMvMlX5bP1LIxLGTPAiGi8t8Vw/s1600/New+Picture+(13).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmaUuzuhay1tiaxZBQhXMKkPnbm34U9-MO0Rm5fV9gMZIrUYNqV6pF8vsC8F9xOTptTHMJk3O5WibqSTyOEF25vO5ySTEoSCzaOOYl7cge6wTrRN0I0pMvMlX5bP1LIxLGTPAiGi8t8Vw/s1600/New+Picture+(13).png" height="280" width="400" /></a></div>
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So the State Bridge survey revealed a fishery that is just slightly lower quality than Radium, but still pretty good. </div>
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Be sure to comment or email with any questions.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-7386413228993265602013-12-29T15:09:00.003-08:002013-12-29T15:09:59.141-08:00Cutthroat genetics, part 2<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> So, where we left off, our cutthroat researcher Kevin Rogers, along with others, put forth the theory that Green lineage fish represent the Colorado River cutthroats native to the Gunnison and Colorado, and Blue lineage fish are the Colorado River cutthroats native to the Yampa and White. When the new genetics information was combined with historical information, this was the theory that best explained what we were seeing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Now a couple of new questions arise. If this theory is true, is there any way to prove it? Also, if it is true, where does that leave the true Greenback - the fish native to the South Platte? Does it even exist any more or is it actually extinct?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Enter Jessica Metcalf again, and the Museum DNA project. As it turns out, a handful of early surveyors collected fish specimens from Colorado rivers and streams, spanning the period from 1856 to 1889. The specimens still exist, in places like the Smithsonian. For the first time in history, we have the technology to extract DNA from those specimens, perform the same AFLP analysis on the samples, and compare those results to today's populations. Metcalf published her findings in 2012:</span></div>
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<h1 class="articleTitle">
<span class="mainTitle"><span style="font-size: small;">Historical stocking data and 19th century DNA reveal
human-induced changes to native diversity and distribution of cutthroat
trout</span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Abstract</span></span></h3>
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<span class="mainTitle">Many species are threatened with extinction and efforts are underway
worldwide to restore imperilled species to their native ranges. Restoration
requires knowledge of species' historical diversity and distribution. For some
species, many populations were extirpated or individuals moved beyond their
native range before native diversity and distribution were documented, resulting
in a lack of accurate information for establishing restoration goals. Moreover,
traditional taxonomic assessments often failed to accurately capture
phylogenetic diversity. We illustrate a general approach for estimating regional
native diversity and distribution for cutthroat trout in the Southern Rocky
Mountains. We assembled a large archive of historical records documenting
human-mediated change in the distribution of cutthroat trout (<em>Oncorhynchus
clarkii</em>) and combined these data with phylogenetic analysis of 19th century
samples from museums collected prior to trout stocking activities and
contemporary DNA samples. Our study of the trout in the Southern Rocky Mountains
uncovered six divergent lineages, two of which went extinct, probably in the
early 20th century. A third lineage, previously declared extinct, was discovered
surviving in a single stream outside of its native range. Comparison of the
historical and modern distributions with stocking records revealed that the
current distribution of trout largely reflects intensive stocking early in the
late 19th and early 20th century from two phylogenetically and geographically
distinct sources. Our documentation of recent extinctions, undescribed lineages,
errors in taxonomy and dramatic range changes induced by human movement of fish
underscores the importance of the historical record when developing and
implementing conservation plans for threatened and endangered
species.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> So, there are a few big game-changers here. First, the sentence about six divergent lineages. Remember the old traditional model that I described at the beginning of the last post, about the three ranges of Greenback, Colorado River, and Rio Grande cutthroats? That is out the window now. Gone. It has been replaced by this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzja9hUd-DGNnQySVdXoTt8qDZZbMT-Yx3eufuVUZDnoiTGX59NTE8a_56Opk0HxdnkllElgJs6Bl0HO3qEfTWWEcBVfnertCqNVXuRRENsbRp-q5yI9rK7nnra7YtblCjKgiQIG7Nqjw/s1600/New+Picture+(6).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzja9hUd-DGNnQySVdXoTt8qDZZbMT-Yx3eufuVUZDnoiTGX59NTE8a_56Opk0HxdnkllElgJs6Bl0HO3qEfTWWEcBVfnertCqNVXuRRENsbRp-q5yI9rK7nnra7YtblCjKgiQIG7Nqjw/s1600/New+Picture+(6).png" height="281" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We have six historic lineages of cutthroats that are definitely distinguishable from each other genetically. Two of them are believed to be extinct - the fish native to the Arkansas River (historically referred to as the Yellowfin), and the fish native to the San Juan - which were never named. There is only <b>one </b>population in the state - alas, in the world - that matches the historic Greenbacks collected from the South Platte watershed. So in the span of a few years, we've gone from thinking (erroneously) that we had a good number of Greenback populations up and down the east slope, to now knowing that we only have one population that resembles the fish that were there originally. This is a huge setback for Greenback recovery.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Even before this study was complete, our cutthroat researcher Kevin Rogers had the foresight a few years ago to realize that there was something important about this single unique population, and had already been working with our hatchery managers to build a captive broodstock of these fish in our hatchery system. So we have these fish in captivity to guard against something catastrophic happening to the stream where they live, such as a large fire and/or extreme flooding. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> We're hopeful that our Durango counterpart, Jim White, will manage to find a San Juan lineage population somewhere, but there aren't many stones still unturned in his part of the state.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Notice that we're being careful not to call them subspecies. This whole issue is a perfect example of the quesiton of how exactly to define a subspecies. Geographic separation is the most commonly stated element defining subspecies. But are these subspecies or strains? Ultimately, these questions are up to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, because they are the entity that determines what populations warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. The jury is still out on that but we are expecting some direction soon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Another question that arises, and one that certain sectors of the angling public definitely ask is, who cares? Why does this matter? Well, to some people it doesn't matter. But, if we've got populations of fish that are unique in the world and are still persisting in the drainages that they have lived in since the last ice age, isn't that valuable? If we are doing things that are leading to the extirpation of some or all of those populations, shouldn't we do everything we can to reverse those declines that we caused? For me, the answer to both of those questions is an emphatic "Yes."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> I'll wrap it up with a nice shot (taken by Kevin Rogers) of a fish from one of my native populations. This is a population Green lineage fish, in the Colorado River basin, that does not carry a Grand Mesa haplotype - which means that we have every reason to believe that this is the aboriginal fish, occupying this stream successfully since long before our time. There aren't very many of those populations, and everything I do in terms of cutthroat conservation from here going forward will radiate out from these fish in this stream.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Thus ends the first year of this blog, and I'm happy with the level of success. We'll end up at right about 16,000 views for the year, which may not sound like a lot but I wasn't as consistent as I could have been so I'm happy with that. The whole purpose of this is to do a better job conveying information to the folks I work for (you) and so please be sure to let me know of any topics you'd like to see me cover, either in the comments or via email at jon.ewert@state.co.us. Here's to a good 2014.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4udumhy-_LjKtJVhpvSaQ6VQUYM5e1enMlycR_tjSxaGPtKIaTbWiOQ6-MiLkMqt7-g_NsvNaA-gdZhvDsOcoUfN-5vp6WS3y5KlZ6nQlIytazHFFVNXgIYG5C8Uenlh942o-RyBbH5M/s1600/DSC_0065.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4udumhy-_LjKtJVhpvSaQ6VQUYM5e1enMlycR_tjSxaGPtKIaTbWiOQ6-MiLkMqt7-g_NsvNaA-gdZhvDsOcoUfN-5vp6WS3y5KlZ6nQlIytazHFFVNXgIYG5C8Uenlh942o-RyBbH5M/s1600/DSC_0065.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-46996577077847321312013-12-18T09:51:00.002-08:002013-12-18T12:42:56.290-08:00Cutthroat genetics for the layperson <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> I thought I'd give folks a rundown of the current state of affairs in the world of cutthroat trout genetics. It is a very confusing situation. I get asked by anglers a lot about where they can go to catch a cutthroat that is native or genetically pure. The answer to that question is quite complicated and involves a lot of history. The story that I'll give you has some generalities and glosses over some details but this is an endless rabbit-hole if you get bogged down in exploring every detail. You have to take this slowly, piece by piece, for it to make sense, and hopefully I can succeed in making it understandable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> We have to start with the world as we knew it before 2007. Up to that point we understood that there were three subspecies of cutthroat trout native to Colorado: the Rio Grande, the Greenback, and the Colorado River. Their distributions are shown below:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQwpU-UYDvzt1XaKRbYvNI_G1KkfDZRJVFhGE6H_QYjm9EaWSjmo_f0rdVhzykBQzgAQGAoy-gFaPHAqWGzOZj5K_CwEoVIuF1kiAfVe_ZDl99NbAGkdUZTH9dpgFv4WKgc0YVr8R4vJY/s1600/New+Picture+(2).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQwpU-UYDvzt1XaKRbYvNI_G1KkfDZRJVFhGE6H_QYjm9EaWSjmo_f0rdVhzykBQzgAQGAoy-gFaPHAqWGzOZj5K_CwEoVIuF1kiAfVe_ZDl99NbAGkdUZTH9dpgFv4WKgc0YVr8R4vJY/s1600/New+Picture+(2).png" height="222" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Credit for all the graphics in this post goes to Kevin Rogers. In the map above, the green area is where the Greenbacks were native (east of the Continental Divide), and so on. This is a very clean and understandable distribution of subspecies, split out along drainage divides. It is important to keep in mind that especially with Greenbacks and Colorado River cutthroat, it is basically impossible to differentiate between the two in the field. Rio Grande are a little more different than the other two, but still there is a lot of visual overlap in the appearance of all three of these subspecies. So up to this point, the fish's LOCATION has been just as important as its appearance in identifying which subspecies it belongs to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Greenbacks were thought to be extinct until 1957, when an isolated population was found. Other remnant populations were found in 1965 and 1970. There were no stocking records in existence for the streams where these fish were found, and the best science at the time identified them as being Greenbacks, native to the Arkansas and South Platte. This led to several decades of conservation and reclamation work in the Akansas and South Platte river basins, to reestablish populations of these fish using progeny taken from these remnant populations that were found.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> So everything was moving along more or less swimmingly until 2007. A Geneticist from CU named Jessica Metcalf published a paper that rocked the world of cutthroat genetics. She used a new technique called AFLP - Associated Fragment Length Polymorphisms - to look at the genetics of our cutthroats in a higher level of detail than anyone ever had before. This is one very important thing to be aware of when trying to follow this progression: these genetic techniques are on the cutting edge of the technology that's available, so every decade or so there are new tools available that reveal things that we have never been able to see before. Here is the abstract from her paper:</span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle"><span style="font-size: small;">Across the great divide: genetic forensics reveals
misidentification of endangered cutthroat trout populations</span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Abstract</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Accurate assessment of species identity is fundamental for conservation
biology. Using molecular markers from the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes, we
discovered that many putatively native populations of greenback cutthroat trout
(<em>Oncorhynchus clarkii stomias</em>) comprised another subspecies of
cutthroat trout, Colorado River cutthroat trout (<em>Oncorhynchus clarkii
pleuriticus</em>). The error can be explained by the introduction of Colorado
River cutthroat trout throughout the native range of greenback cutthroat trout
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by fish stocking activities. Our
results suggest greenback cutthroat trout within its native range is at a higher
risk of extinction than ever before despite conservation activities spanning
more than two decades.</span></span></span></h3>
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<span class="mainTitle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This paper identified a number of populations on the east slope that appeared to be Colorado River cutthroat when looked at with the new analysis. Up until that point our understanding was that these populations were Greenbacks. So the stories started hitting the popular media that seemingly incompetent biologists had been stocking "the wrong fish". What this paper did was redefine what the "right fish" and "wrong fish" are, and again, you can't tell by looking at them in the field.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"> So here is what the situation looked like after the 2007 study:</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPiZNCUHXq0p3xGCkiAPnAmBiAVoQnhutfsEBl_aTBcfvUM-d2UmiJS_JsT9kLrvg2jAF-1_KMySJE_0nYuk_eaXZF6_5HGDoCvn7_cgHMYxpKw6lobvipV15xhQ2wN5vWroGbRma0wnE/s1600/New+Picture+(2).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPiZNCUHXq0p3xGCkiAPnAmBiAVoQnhutfsEBl_aTBcfvUM-d2UmiJS_JsT9kLrvg2jAF-1_KMySJE_0nYuk_eaXZF6_5HGDoCvn7_cgHMYxpKw6lobvipV15xhQ2wN5vWroGbRma0wnE/s1600/New+Picture+(2).png" height="295" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle"> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> On this chart, the blue populations are what were referred to as "Lineage CR" - presumably Colorado River cutthroats. The green populations are "Lineage GB" - presumably greenbacks. We're now calling them Blue Lineage and Green Lineage, for reasons I'll explain below. But it was a major blow to find out that some of these east-slope populations did not appear to be Greenbacks after all. Especially Apache Creek down south - that was one of the original populations "rediscovered" when it was believed that Greenbacks were extinct.</span></span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Now you have to start considering what happened with fish stocking historically in Colorado. In the early 1900's, many millions of eggs were harvested from Trappers Lake and stocked all over the state. At that time, a cutthroat was a cutthroat and all fish were considered the same from Yellowstone south. Distinct subspecies of the fish had not been recognized. In fact, during a period when the Trappers Lake cutthroat population appeared to be struggling, Yellowstone cutthroat were stocked into Trappers to bolster the population. Up until that point, Trappers was the largest intact remaining population of pure Colorado River cutthroats, but once those Yellowstones went in, that was no longer the case.</span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Another problem with that period in history is that for a long time we weren't aware of much in the way of stocking records. There was a "dark age" of fish stocking history in Colorado from about 1900 or so to 1950. Fish were dumped all over the place and no records were kept - apparently. However, Chris Kennedy, one of our colleagues who works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has done a ton of spectacular historical forensics work and uncovered many old stocking records that were not previously known. Some of them were in old ledger books buried and literally forgotten in the basement of the state archives. He has pieced together a stocking history that shows that at least 26 million fish were reared and stocked from Trappers Lake all over the state, just from the years 1914-1925 (see below). This is also new information to us.</span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbsIrJNg_lp-GKHBuAovzzjfM0j8wRFmLviCqtBieb9mEDGl71WrhQmQz0GaIh8FOsQiFSgyzac9p94g8gr4_tLVrpBE0BygnIwY6heYsgtVlnuZBoOXMA6fkq657s2ctpYIN_H9UPgCA/s1600/New+Picture+(3).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbsIrJNg_lp-GKHBuAovzzjfM0j8wRFmLviCqtBieb9mEDGl71WrhQmQz0GaIh8FOsQiFSgyzac9p94g8gr4_tLVrpBE0BygnIwY6heYsgtVlnuZBoOXMA6fkq657s2ctpYIN_H9UPgCA/s1600/New+Picture+(3).png" height="129" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle"> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the things that the 2007 study didn't really highlight is the fact that one Lineage GB population was found west of the divide, in the Gunnison Basin. You can see that one in the figure above. The presence of the Lineage CR fish east of the divide was easily explained by the new historical stocking information available to us, but there was no historical explanation for east slope fish moving west - we are not aware of that taking place on any large scale historically.</span></span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> So, in the aftermath of this study, we continued collecting genetic samples and using AFLP analysis for as many of our cutthroat populations as we could. In particular we were looking for more occurrences of Lineage GB fish popping up west of the divide. Sure enough, we found a lot of them - as illustrated here:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgz4yn2dZgf5FrUbKcYPP0oGOqF3oqYuMucwj8MlBoZVA3gzXEmFtq97SHJSqCj4UwEZSB2j_1npyzob0GCfpWFAMELLEOmpPyPwkhR_Kd5UyJEylJmybFz8bw9yiKy9hpvo0eKHJqokg/s1600/New+Picture+(4).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgz4yn2dZgf5FrUbKcYPP0oGOqF3oqYuMucwj8MlBoZVA3gzXEmFtq97SHJSqCj4UwEZSB2j_1npyzob0GCfpWFAMELLEOmpPyPwkhR_Kd5UyJEylJmybFz8bw9yiKy9hpvo0eKHJqokg/s1600/New+Picture+(4).png" height="221" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="mainTitle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In a few years' time, we had identified over 60 populations on of Lineage GB fish on the west slope. Remember that these are the fish that Metcalf's 2007 paper was treating as Greenbacks, native to the east slope. If they were native to the east slope, why would we find so many populations of these fish on the west slope? Also, here's another interesting thing: we're finding these populations all over the west slope EXCEPT for in the Yampa and White River basins (and the San Juan but that's a different story). To this day we still have not identified a single Lineage GB population from either of those drainages - everything is Lineage CR. So this has become an ever-larger question.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"> Enter Chris Kennedy again with his historic investigations. He and others have also found old records of a lot of fish being raised from lakes on the Grand Mesa. In fact, from 1899-1909, we now have records that at least 29 million fish were hatched from Grand Mesa lakes and stocked all over the state, including many places on the east slope.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="mainTitle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTe-GBw2QZbvkCz8r8MzEyjSge4x8o_u11Czl3lve8muQSCyzEA0fPMBLqZ6oeVoFxFZuxavn__l6f_JiSWqjMTLDEijEM5I7fip-7o3x9IkqZwMAAV5L3Im6jPJ3RsY-XSPHt7hZy9jQ/s1600/New+Picture+(5).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTe-GBw2QZbvkCz8r8MzEyjSge4x8o_u11Czl3lve8muQSCyzEA0fPMBLqZ6oeVoFxFZuxavn__l6f_JiSWqjMTLDEijEM5I7fip-7o3x9IkqZwMAAV5L3Im6jPJ3RsY-XSPHt7hZy9jQ/s1600/New+Picture+(5).png" height="99" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> So now, a new theory emerges: what if the differences that we're seeing between Lineage GB and Lineage CR fish is a difference WITHIN Colorado River cutthroats - that is, Lineage GB fish are native to the Colorado and Gunnison watersheds, and Lineage CR are native to the Yampa and White. Our historical stocking records support this theory. And if we're defining Greenback cutthroat as the fish native to the Arkansas and South Platte, then if this theory is true, Lineage GB does NOT equal Greenback. That is why we have started calling Yampa/White cutthroats "Blue Lineage" and Colorado/Gunnison cutthroats "Green Lineage", to move away from the Greenback name.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="mainTitle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"> I'm about half way through this story, so I'm going to stop it here and pick it up next week. Please be sure to let me know if you have any questions, either in the comments or by emailing me at jon.ewert@state.co.us. If something is unclear to you, I guarantee you it's unclear to other people as well and I should try to do a better job explaining.</span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-27017192148729378672013-12-04T11:26:00.000-08:002013-12-04T11:34:52.069-08:00We saw this coming . . . Ka-boom. Through the blowing snow in Grand County this morning if you listen closely enough, you can hear the low, dull sound of an implosion taking place. It's the sound of the Granby kokanee population crashing.<br />
We took our last kokanee eggs of the year on Monday, the 2nd. Our spawn season ended with a whimper. The total number of eggs we took from the Granby run was 357,425 out of 432 ripe females. My optimistic prediction for this year before the season was that we might get a half million. Granby needs to produce 1.2 million eggs just to sustain itself. Preferably, we'd like to use Granby eggs to stock other waters also, but that's obviously not happening any time soon. Below is the recent history of egg takes at Granby:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ-7y05AoMPCNL5QXjwEoSBtPa15nK2wCF6wCQ6Uw7WNd9hIeeN4UJpbi0H3nM9xl8XCctQmwKpNVjZ_NV7yxPTMMpKw1faccW5IzC8j2Dijl_5dK_GFZADxLOPa0v_ZAbQZa3Z3yK0MM/s1600/New+Picture+(10).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ-7y05AoMPCNL5QXjwEoSBtPa15nK2wCF6wCQ6Uw7WNd9hIeeN4UJpbi0H3nM9xl8XCctQmwKpNVjZ_NV7yxPTMMpKw1faccW5IzC8j2Dijl_5dK_GFZADxLOPa0v_ZAbQZa3Z3yK0MM/s1600/New+Picture+(10).png" height="379" width="640" /></a></div>
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Our first indication that this was going to happen was the trend in recent years of mysis densities in the reservoir. We sample mysis every year and estimate their density per square meter of water surface area. I like to look at the four-year rolling mysis density estimate because the average kokanee in Granby lives for four years. Here is that statistic, for the entire history of our mysis surveys at Granby:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSXjslRtkJjYRLxrH461jbOgbPwXCJtQ45ZpGuuXv-AGV7Ha5-eGtDE6MhbzzNSAHjMB2WRZFfa7N77VhPGaXaPaBzSsez-DQ2sIFFOlIJWtCc64qNZRestXiD4v27lAJykxyG2dug1sI/s1600/Mysis+FYR+Thru+2013.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSXjslRtkJjYRLxrH461jbOgbPwXCJtQ45ZpGuuXv-AGV7Ha5-eGtDE6MhbzzNSAHjMB2WRZFfa7N77VhPGaXaPaBzSsez-DQ2sIFFOlIJWtCc64qNZRestXiD4v27lAJykxyG2dug1sI/s1600/Mysis+FYR+Thru+2013.png" height="408" width="640" /></a></div>
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Mysis respond positively to high water years at Granby, and get knocked back during drought periods. The low point in 2004-2006 is the response to the Granby drawdown that took place during the drought of the early 2000's. When mysis densities are low, we get much better recruitment out of our kokanee stocking because there is less competition for the zooplankton that both mysis and kokanee eat. If you look at the "good" years of egg harvest, from 2004-2009, you can see that this recovery in the kokanee population was a response to that low-mysis cycle covering roughly the same time period. What we are seeing now is the fallout from the years of high mysis densities that peaked in 2010. 2013 was a lower-water year at Granby and the mysis density estimate was 280. We responded by loading Granby up with extra kokanee - we stocked 1,450,000 rather than the normal 1 million. So hopefully we got good recruitment out of those fish this past summer, but we won't see that in the spawning run until about 2015 or '16. What concerns me now is that the downward trend in this average appears to be flattening out, and for a real kokanee recovery to take place I think we need to see this statistic drop below 500 or less. If the snow keeps piling up, Granby will have another high-water year, mysis numbers will bounce back, and this trend will start heading upward again.<br />
Every year we run sonar surveys of our kokanee reservoirs to get an idea of the status of the kokanee populations and to predict what the spawning runs will look like. Our research section has a dedicated boat equipped with a scientific sonar rig for this purpose. It's basically a fish finder on steroids, with a lot more definition, giving you the ability to actually count fish and estimate their sizes. There is a lot of room for error in this estimate, but the trend definitely predicts what kind of kokanee run we're going to have. Here is the recent history of sonar surveys at Granby:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit0See9YyDdY1r2WykektEyNqC3uZRff7TVBlrm03xKr98xh_30WC9kYKAx_R9szF1SeRweYwkBS7DAuVIVvUC8k9MK4y-fmSyrL_d81daVknFDza-b76nbaiJvSkdOxYrMf8dlxTo7es/s1600/New+Picture+(6).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit0See9YyDdY1r2WykektEyNqC3uZRff7TVBlrm03xKr98xh_30WC9kYKAx_R9szF1SeRweYwkBS7DAuVIVvUC8k9MK4y-fmSyrL_d81daVknFDza-b76nbaiJvSkdOxYrMf8dlxTo7es/s1600/New+Picture+(6).png" height="433" width="640" /></a></div>
The sonar surveys have been doing a good job of predicting the following year's egg take. So, the 2012 survey was showing roughly 1/3 the number of fish that were there in 2011. Lo and behold, our 2013 egg take was roughly 1/3 of our 2012 egg take. I don't have a 2013 number from this survey yet, but when I get it we will know if we've hit the bottom or if it will get even worse before it gets better. I'm betting on the latter.<br />
Now, the part that no one wants to talk about. We know that competition from mysis makes it very difficult for the kokanee population to persist. What about predation by lake trout? The recreational kokanee fishery is long gone from Granby. Serious kokanee anglers go elsewhere now. However, we still need to maintain enough kokanee to provide a prey base for the lake trout, as well as survive to maturity to provide us with eggs. This is the irony of the misguided discussions you see on the discussion boards. The lake trout guys spin their arguments as some kind of kokanee-versus-lake trout struggle, when that is absolutely not the case at all. If you don't have a healthy kokanee population, what are trophy lake trout supposed to eat?<br />
As I've discussed before, I run a gillnet survey of the lake trout population every May. As expected, 2013 saw a significant decline in the body condition of the large lake trout that we captured. I handled some of the skinniest large lake trout that I ever have this year. Here is a data summary for the lake trout survey:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu7CLrvHRscMb09jdhauQgF3bF7riqgzyeGLU814vY0f80irXPHZYJ56SJCsjUfrPExemRvR-OZ8JiZ-GLrIQlilu1pBQJJqsWW44EJjEXGqqBRdjadtmNIbL1xrdxGnTuFIXMIQxTbjY/s1600/New+Picture+(12).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu7CLrvHRscMb09jdhauQgF3bF7riqgzyeGLU814vY0f80irXPHZYJ56SJCsjUfrPExemRvR-OZ8JiZ-GLrIQlilu1pBQJJqsWW44EJjEXGqqBRdjadtmNIbL1xrdxGnTuFIXMIQxTbjY/s1600/New+Picture+(12).png" height="302" width="640" /></a></div>
I set each net for 6 hours, at the same locations each year. 2011 was the first year I surveyed the lake in this way. There were a couple big differences in 2013. The first was the number of large lake trout that I caught. This number was remarkably similar in 2011 and 2012 but took a big jump in 2013. I did have one net this year that caught nine fish over 24". I had not seen that before. However, even if you remove those nine fish, we still caught twice as many fish over 24" than in the previous two years. Does that mean we have a big increase in large lake trout? This netting survey does not have the degree of accuracy necessary for me to be able to say that. There is too much variation, thus room for error, in the catch rates. In addition, the lake was lowest in 2013, so this could possibly be a reflection of the fish being squeezed into a smaller volume of water. Are the numbers of large lake trout declining? No way. But I'm saying that based on professional judgement and opinion, not on statistical analysis.<br />
The most telling statistic here is the last two lines. Body condition for all lake trout captured remained the same as it has the past couple years. We know that lake trout smaller than 24" make a good living off the dense mysis population. However, when they grow beyond 24" they need to at least supplement their prey with a vertebrate food item, if not switch over completely. So the drop in average body condition of large fish is the big kicker. That is a large drop over a one-year period for a fish population that by nature changes slowly. And it is statistically significant. A body condition of 73.5 is a very poor fish.<br />
In an earlier post I had mentioned that it appeared to me that the <b>variation </b>in body condition was higher in 2013 among the larger fish. That is, we caught some really skinny ones, but there were also some fish still in decent body condition. The way to see if that is true is to look at the standard deviation in body condition for the samples from each year. So, for 2011 the standard deviation in this statistic for fish >24" was 8.4. In 2012 it was 8.3. In 2013 it was 8.6. So, my initial impression was wrong, and the variation in body condition was only very slightly greater in 2013 than in past years. We just had some ridiculously skinny fish. Here's an example:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-un-XCIkgzNhzykgGcDSv2ESJVCbrxB5XiIf4UjRV2QJ04W306SySXWdBjIWXb6-numXhGBYcx5_0GxljKuGBc246at-l7mtMk_bnbKArjLP6YtP-WzBEJgRDrtCqa4iuxGjQHdQd1s/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-un-XCIkgzNhzykgGcDSv2ESJVCbrxB5XiIf4UjRV2QJ04W306SySXWdBjIWXb6-numXhGBYcx5_0GxljKuGBc246at-l7mtMk_bnbKArjLP6YtP-WzBEJgRDrtCqa4iuxGjQHdQd1s/s1600/1.jpg" height="268" width="400" /></a></div>
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This fish is an embarrassment. This is a starving fish. I've seen plenty of anglers' pics of fish like this over the past year. These fish are telling us loud and clear that the predator population does not have an adequate prey base to support it. </div>
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I know that no one wants to kill large lake trout. If this is what the anglers want out of Lake Granby then we can continue down this path. But I want to make sure that everyone fully understands that choosing not to put pressure on the lake trout population at this point in time is a <b>POLITICAL </b>decision and there is not a single piece of biological evidence to support it. One thing we can't do, is increase the numbers of rainbows being stocked to prop up the lake trout, thereby substituting a cheap prey base with one that is as much as ten times more expensive. In fact, the fishing for other species is likely to decline as the starving lakers turn to anything and everything to survive on.</div>
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Another common misconception that pops up on the discussion boards frequently is that growth rates of lake trout in Granby are slow, period. End of story. The truth is that growth rates <b>CHANGE </b>based on predator-prey dynamics, and we have directly observed that change. Many people are familiar with the old tags that are still in some fish in Granby. Those tags were used in a growth study in the '90's, and this is where peoples' information about lake trout growth comes from. Here is the most important information from that study, which was conducted by Pat Martinez:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk4LC6UlxR-LkOWjKq-1jBm4D8O-JdLQ-d5ydAiuxnJ_ye6Rj4gz1eI2DNz7yr3d32SCBKdm2Lf_D8Hr3oXJm9YIw10ZpPMqmtb1wWDjWbe_Hukx6EmLysH191Q7GCWWUalOwoDDu3OLI/s1600/New+Picture+(11).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk4LC6UlxR-LkOWjKq-1jBm4D8O-JdLQ-d5ydAiuxnJ_ye6Rj4gz1eI2DNz7yr3d32SCBKdm2Lf_D8Hr3oXJm9YIw10ZpPMqmtb1wWDjWbe_Hukx6EmLysH191Q7GCWWUalOwoDDu3OLI/s1600/New+Picture+(11).png" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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This data is old, but it reflects a time at Granby that is very similar to our situation now. In 1998 the kokanee population had crashed completely and no eggs at all were taken at Granby. The kokanee had to be restarted with Blue Mesa fish.<br />
But here is the take-home message from that study: Lake trout growth rates <b>CHANGE </b>according to conditions in the reservoir. If there is no prey for the lake trout to eat, of course they are going to be slow. But they don't have to be slow as a rule. Imagine a scenario with one, 24" lake trout in the whole lake and a huge kokanee population. Do you think that one fish would have an extremely slow growth rate? Of course not. Its growth rate would be through the roof. This is why I get frustrated when people say, "if you kill a 30-year-old lake trout, it's going to take 30 years to replace that fish." This is dead wrong because there is a 29-year-old lake trout waiting in the wings to take that 30-year-old's place. And one less large fish to compete with will increase that 29-year-old's growth rate. So it doesn't take 30 years to replace that fish. It takes one year. Could Granby's growth rates match what we see in Blue Mesa? No way - Granby simply isn't productive enough for that, and the mysis issue will always limit the potential. But could they be faster than they are now? Absolutely.<br />
Here's another thing to consider. In 1994 Wayne Hubert and a couple other guys published an article called "Interpreting Relative Weights of Lake Trout Stocks." In that article, they took data from 58 different lake trout populations throughout North America, across the range of the fish. The figure below is the most important part of the article:<br />
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It's kind of hard to make sense of but bear with me. This is a cumulative frequency distribution. The X-axis, labeled Mean Wr, is the exact same equation that I use to rate body condition in the Granby fish. What this shows is that 100% of the populations studied had an average body condition below 135. That makes sense, because a relative weight of 135 is a very fat fish. About 65% of the populations had an average relative weight less than 100, and about 35% had an average greater than that. What I'm getting at, is look where Granby falls on this distribution - at the very bottom. Our fish are skinnier than 97% of the populations in North America. In fact, we may have the skinniest lake trout in the world.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-67498905503973988822013-11-23T17:53:00.003-08:002013-11-23T17:53:41.928-08:00Brookies, etc.<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;">A couple great questions from Keith:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"> Jon-Thanks so much for doing this blog. I find it to be very infomative. I've got a couple of questions for you. First, I've found waters with large brookies to be rare and highly coveted by fisherman. Do you or does the department manage any bodies of water for trophy brookies, and if so what characteristics do you look for in a prospective body of water? The rare gems I've found with large brookies seem to be relatively small and eutrophic. Also, just out of curiousity, are hatchery fish all fed the same thing, regardless of species? I remember as a kid we had some bullheads in an aquarium that we fed Purina Trout Chow and they seemed to like it. Then again, they seemed to enjoy eating pretty much everything we threw in there. Thanks again!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">Thanks Keith. We really don't have waters that are specifically managed with the goal of trophy brook trout production that I'm aware of. There could be in some other part of the state. It seems that more often, the conditions turn out to be right for brookies to get larger than average, and so we do what we can to encourage or perpetuate those conditions. I'm not aware of a regulation on any specific body of water that is aimed at trophy brook trout production. Again, there may be one somewhere that I'm not aware of. We do have the statewide regulation that allows for extra brookies to be harvested if they are under 8". For the most part, the deal with brookies is that the more harvest pressure you put on them, the better the quality is going to be. As I'm sure you know, they're very good at reproducing in Colorado.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> I've got a few bodies of water that have larger-than-average brook trout fisheries, and a couple others with some potential for that.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> There are a small number of high lakes in my area that happen to have quality brook trout, and sometimes that's just by chance. One of them, Crater Lake, I've written about previously. It has lake trout in it, that were stocked as a means to maintain constant predation pressure on the brook trout. It works there and it appears to be a self-sustaining fishery with natural reproduction of both species and brookies to over 12". </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> There's another obscure high lake that you'll have to find, or might know about already, that grows brookies to a solid 14" or so. It's not on any established trail and in fairly rugged country. It does not get a lot of visitation and so definitely doesn't have a lot of harvest pressure. It's not eutrophic, and sits in a pretty geologically sterile area. There are no lake trout. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;">We don't stock it with anything. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;">The only explanation I have for that one is that there doesn't appear to be a lot of good spawning habitat. So, I think that the number of brookies born every year is fairly low, and there's probably a lot of predation pressure on the ones that are born. It's relatively low in elevation as far as alpine lakes go, so probably has decent insect production, even if it doesn't get a lot of nutrient input. So the lake just seems to maintain itself at an equilibrium level of good quality. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> Red Dirt Reservoir is an above-average brookie fishery. There are a combination of factors leading to that. First of all, it sits in a biologically-productive basin, in part because it's all cattle country. So there are a lot of nutrients going into the lake. Also, there is a lot of harvest pressure there because for whatever reason, the angling demographic of folks who use that reservoir leans toward the meat-fishing side of the spectrum. Lastly, and probably most importantly, there is a very robust population of fathead minnows in that lake. I was unaware of this until a couple of years ago when I went up there to see what the water level looked like. I went walking along the shore, and it happened to be when the fatheads were in spawning, and there were thousands of them everywhere. It seems strange that I hadn't realized they were there, but the gillnets that I use for sampling do not catch fish as small as fathead minnows, and I just hadn't noticed them before. So that combination of factors produces brookies up to 14".</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> Monarch Lake is another one that has good brookies in it. I'm not aware of any fatheads there. But it gets a lot of traffic and a lot of harvest pressure. It also has browns in it, that probably keep quite a bit of predation pressure on them. It's a fairly productive lake. It doesn't drain any cattle country but it does have a ton of shoal area and submerged vegetation, etc., that provides good forage production. I have received word-of-mouth accounts of brookies being caught there that came very close to breaking the state record but fell just short. I have not seen such a fish personally, but there are some nice ones.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> I've got two lakes that have the potential to be better brook trout fisheries than they are right now. One of those is Meadow Creek Reservoir. That lake is a classic stunted brookie fishery. There are a ton of fish up to 8" but hardly anything over that. It's one of those lakes that if you're there on the right still summer evening, at dusk the whole surface of the lake just boils with rise forms. But they're all made by tiny fish. So for 2014, I've put in a request for tiger trout for that lake. Hopefully they can perform the same function that the lakers in Crater Lake do, and thin things out a little. I haven't heard yet if my counterparts were even successful in making any tigers this fall, so we'll see about that one.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> Another one that could produce some better quality is Lower Cataract. It's got both browns and harvest pressure, but the spawning conditions must be good enough to overcome both of those pressures because the brookies are still somewhat stunted. I think that this lake is a great candidate to introduce fatheads into. The water level doesn't fluctuate because it's a natural lake, and there is a ton of shallow productive area with rooted vegetation that would be fantastic fathead habitat. So I'm looking into that. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> So, I guess the take home message here is that for every place that has nice brook trout, the combination of factors to produce that effect is slightly different. There are common themes, but it's definitely true that no two waters are the same.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> Regarding your question about feed types in the hatchery. This is one area that I don't know much more than you do. I work closely with the hatcheries on a certain level, but on another level I am totally naive to what goes on there on a day-to-day basis. I've never had an aquaculture job, so I don't have that background. We have a spectacular group of hatchery managers that know their systems intimately and are always doing everything to stretch their production to the absolute limit. So if there is a particular feed type that works best for a certain strain or species, I'm sure they're using it. It's just a detail that I am not involved with. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> When I got this job, one of the steepest learning curves for me was figuring out how to interact with the hatchery system. My tendency at first was to think of the hatchery as a static machine that cranks out the same number, type, and sizes of fish at the same times every year. It took me a few years to understand that this is not the case at all. In fact, no two years are ever the same in any given hatchery. The volume and temperature regime of a hatchery's water supply fluctuates every year, which can have a big impact on production. Add to that infrastructure problems or improvements, disease outbreaks, personnel limitations and various other complications, and it becomes nearly impossible to predict exactly what the output of a hatchery is going to be. So as a biologist you have to be able to have enough flexibility to adapt, take advantage of opportunities when they arise, and on the flip side, figure out how best to work around limitations or shortfalls.</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-43768513455066933302013-11-15T07:19:00.001-08:002013-11-15T07:41:48.415-08:00Stocking schedule 2014 'Tis the season of preparing my stocking requests for 2014. I try to invest as much time as I can into finely tuning my stocking schedule, and I learn more every year. It takes a few years to really start to understand what to tweak and what to leave alone.<br />
The way our stocking schedule works is like this: We have a centralized database (called "Trans 6") in which all the biologists submit their stocking requests. Around December 1, the database is opened to all the hatchery managers across the state, and they go through all the requests and select the ones that they can fill. Every hatchery is different in what it can produce and when. Each hatchery has a kind of "niche" that it tries to fill that it is best at. If the biologist who is making the stocking requests puts stuff in that no hatchery produces in that size, at that time, or both, then you end up with requests that don't get filled. So it's important to have a good understanding of what our hatcheries can and can't do.<br />
In 2013, I stocked a grand total of 3,617,620 fish into waters in my area. 2,089,096 of those fish were kokanee from Glenwood. Aside from those 2 million kokanee, 70% of the rest of my fish came from Rifle Falls hatchery. It is our biggest and most productive hatchery, and so I need to coordinate as closely as possible with them when making my stocking requests.<br />
In even years, we make our high lake plants with an airplane. I know that folks can get a little touchy about naming specific high lakes, so I won't do too much of that here. But I've made some changes, hopefully for the better. As I've said before on this blog, I really appreciate and want to encourage input from folks regarding alpine lakes. I have added lakes to the stocking schedule based on suggestions from anglers. I'm always looking for places we should be stocking to create a good alpine cutthroat fishery.<br />
One lake that I'll name is Pacific Lake. I put in a request to stock grayling there this year. Pacific hasn't been stocked for a number of years and doesn't appear to support natural reproduction. I've had several people ask me about it though, and it seems like a good place to try some grayling.<br />
I'd really like to track someone down who has been to Island Lake, in Grand County. I attempted to get there on a pack trip this year but didn't get past Gourd because of the weather. Island really takes some commitment to get to, as far as I can tell. We stocked it up through 1993, and haven't stocked it since. I can put it back on the schedule, but before I do that I want to know if there is a fishery there that is self-sustaining. We may not need to put it back on the schedule.<br />
Another thing I'm going to try is some tiger trout in Meadow Creek reservoir. I've netted that lake twice since 2007, and both times it's been loaded with stunted brookies. They top out at 10" at most, and they are in poor body condition. Tigers have been used in these types of situations to control stunted brookies. So we'll see if that works out.<br />
If you have any questions or input about high lake stocking and you don't want it to be seen by the general public, you can shoot me a private email at jon.ewert@state.co.us . As I was saying above, our high lake stocking program has benefitted from input I've received from high-lake enthusiasts. I can only make it to a few of them every year, and I've got a lot in my area.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-39433804723486542702013-11-08T08:38:00.001-08:002013-11-08T10:25:12.796-08:00Kokanee update Just a quick update on kokanee egg collection. Up here in my neck of the woods, things are getting off to a very slow start. At Granby, we haven't seen fish arrive in any numbers at all yet. They're still running 300 or so CFS out of Shadow dam which makes things really difficult down there. I really have no idea what to expect up there this year.<br />
We took spawn yesterday - Thurday, the 7th - at Wolford for the fifth time. We had 173 ripe females in the trap, which yielded 146,000 eggs. We're now up to about 350K for the year there. Wolford has had an excruciatingly slow start. However, Thursday was our biggest day yet and felt like the run has finally started to pick up. On Monday the 4th, we took 105 spawns. Each time we spawn we clear the trap out. So from Thursday the 31st (or previous spawn day) to Monday the 4th, we had an average of 26.25 ripe females per day swim into the trap. From Monday the 4th to yesterday (the 7th), we had an average of 57.7 females per day. So the rate of activity essentially doubled this week.<br />
I'm very optimistic that this coming Monday will be our biggest day at Wolford yet this year. We've got Wolford covered for next year, but we would really like to see Wolford cover Williams Fork (need 360K eggs) and Granby (need 1.2 million). Last year Wolford did that. I don't know about this year, but I remain optimistic.<br />
We've seen nothing encouraging yet at Granby, but we're going to try to take spawn there next Thursday and see what happens. At this point there is pretty much no possibility that Granby will cover itself.<br />
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From Vanish, regarding the last post about the whitefish in Parshall:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;">Neat! I bet they used to be in the upper colorado. Many anglers find them to be trash fish but I really enjoy taking a trip to NW CO once a year to fish for them. They can give a pretty good tussle.</span><br />
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Vanish, I agree with you that the whities get the short end of the stick from anglers sometimes. It hasn't always been that way.<br />
But I want to address your first statement about whitefish occurring in the upper Colorado at some point. I want to make it absolutely clear that there is NO historical account - not from John Wesley Powell, any of the original settlers, any old-time surveyor - of whitefish ever occurring in the upper Colorado. We are certain that they are not native to the Colorado River. They are native to the White and Yampa rivers. They were first introduced into the Colorado and Roaring Fork rivers in Glenwood by Colorado Fish & Game in the 1910's. Prior to that introduction, they had not lived anywhere in the Colorado.<br />
It may seem like a minor point, but I want to make sure that the biological significance of this is clear. Whitefish re-invading a place where they had previously lived would be a very different thing than whitefish pioneering a place they have never been. The latter scenario is the case here.<br />
We seem to have two distinct whitefish populations on the Colorado: one upstream of Glenwood Canyon and one downstream. I honestly can't say if the whitefish up in the Pumphouse neighboorhood really originated from the historic stocking downstream from Glenwood Canyon. Another theory that I have has to do with a trans-basin diversion that takes water from Yamcolo Reservoir, which is loaded with a native whitefish population (being a tributary to the Yampa River). When they're running water through that ditch, it dumps into Egeria Creek, entering the Colorado River at McCoy. So, this is a trans-basin diversion. I don't know all the details but I do know that the owners of the water in that ditch use it to pay back water owed to the Colorado. So there can be a significant volume of water making that trip. It's entirely possible that larval or young whitefish from Yamcolo Reservoir have been entrained into that ditch, made their way down Egeria Creek and into the Colorado. It makes sense to me because that population of whitefish seems to have its "nucleus" in the vicinity of McCoy.<br />
The original stocked whitefish around Glenwood came from the White River. If the above theory is true, we have White River whitefish downstream, and Yampa River whitefish upstream. We are not able to distinguish between the two genetically at this point, but it would be an interesting question to answer in the future. It would be a great subject for someone to do a masters' thesis on.<br />
I can't figure out how to post PDF's on this blog. But here is a link to the Wild Trout Symposium that has an interesting article about whitefish. It's a huge document. But check out the article that starts on page 106, entitled "Becoming Trash Fish", about how people's perceptions of whitefish have changed over the past century. It's interesting stuff.<br />
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<a href="http://www.wildtroutsymposium.com/proceedings-10.pdf">http://www.wildtroutsymposium.com/proceedings-10.pdf</a><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-60274002862342752182013-10-24T22:37:00.002-07:002013-10-24T22:37:30.473-07:00A new species in Parshall On September 24 & 27, we ran our annual raft electrofishing survey of the Parshall-Sunset reach, AKA the Kemp-Breeze State Wildlife Area. I always consider this to be probably the single most important data set that I collect every year, for the simple reason that it is one of the longest-running big river trout population data sets that exists in the state. Our researcher Barry Nehring was the first biologist in Colorado to start running raft electrofishing surveys, in the late '70's. He had gone up to Montana, where they had figured out how to do it. 1981 was the first year that he surveyed the Parshall-Sunset reach, so as of this year that data set is 32 years old. It's been done the same way, at the same time of year all those years.<br />
Speaking of Barry Nehring, I often like to say that I owe my career to a series of phenomenal mentors. I did not arrive in this job by the traditional route of attending graduate school in fisheries. Instead, three years out of college when I was trying to figure out my next move, I stumbled into my first permanent job as a wildlife officer for our agency. After five years I transferred into the biologist job. My goal was always to work as a fisheries biologist; I just arrived here via a slightly different route than most. It's not unprecedented - I've got coworkers who took the same route. But what I was getting at, is that I am constantly thankful for the series of spectacular mentors that I have worked with in the fisheries field. These are guys that I feel so lucky for every day that I have worked side-by-side with. It's the knowledge that I was able to glean off of them that got me where I am today. Barry is one of those guys. It seems that quality mentorship may be slowly fading away in the professional world, and if that's truly the case it's a sad, sad thing.<br />
Anyway, I digress. I haven't worked up the data yet from the Parshall reach, but thought I would share a couple of things. First of all, it looks like the density for large fish (>14") is as low as it has ever been, and at this point may be flirting with dropping below the gold medal standard of at least 12 fish per surface acre greater than 14 inches. That is really bad news, for a reach of river that not very long ago supported densities in the neighborhood of 100 or more per acre. Numbers of rainbows in that size category are up, which is good news, but browns are way down. I don't have a precise explanation for it at the moment, but we can get into that over the winter.<br />
But here is the really sensational tidbit that I wanted to share for now. On our first day, the mark run on the 24th, I was working fish out of the tank and picked up this little 3-inch silvery thing. I immediately said "kokanee" because every once in a while we pick up the occasional small kokanee that got flushed out of one of the reservoirs. However, as soon as I said it, I realized that was not what I was looking at. I said, "Wait--" and the other guys on the boat looked, and three of us said in unison, "MOUNTAIN WHITEFISH !?!?" <br />
We have NEVER captured a mountain whitefish anywhere upstream of Gore Canyon. Thirty years of one of the most intensively studied trout rivers in this state, and not a SINGLE record of a mountain whitefish. Not just in the Colorado, but not in any tributary, any lake or reservoir, nowhere in the Blue River watershed. In the entire time I've been here, I've taken it for granted that Gore Canyon is the natural upstream barrier of whitefish on the Colorado. There are a lot of them below, and there are none above. That is simply the way that it is and what we have observed in the entire historical record. But here was this little three-inch fish in my hand that was very definitely a mountain whitefish, no question about it.<br />
The weird thing about it is, this is not a species that people move around. When a new species pops up in an unexpected place, it is almost always the result of either deliberate or accidental introduction by people. But I just can't see someone willfully moving mountain whitefish from a lower section of the Colorado to the upper section, and I have a hard time picturing how it would happen on accident. I didn't know what to make of it, and chalked it up to just one of those crazy anomalies that keeps us humble. A one-time occurrence that I probably would never run across again.<br />
Three days later, on the 27th, we ran our recap run on the same reach. You'll never guess what we picked up right in the Parshall Hole. Not one - not two - but THREE young-of-the-year mountain whitefish. Three of them. I was just flabbergasted, and remain so today.<br />
So here is my theory for the moment. We just came through two extremely unusual years flow-wise. 2011 was an insanely high-water year, and 2012 was an insanely low-water year. I think that if whitefish were to make it through Gore Canyon, it would be more likely to happen during high water than low water. I'm thinking that maybe a few adults managed to find their way through in 2011. We have never run across the adults, but now we have found their offspring.<br />
There is a good lesson in humility for me in this. At some point over the past year, I was talking with someone who told me that their friend caught what he was sure was a mountain whitefish somewhere above Gore Canyon. I don't remember who it was or exactly where the person was fishing. But it was a secondhand report that came to me. Secondhand reports are never very reliable, and I basically brushed it off because there are many examples of incorrect species identification by anglers. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people who don't know the difference between a whitefish and a white sucker. So, whoever it was that told me that, if you're reading this please drop me a line so I can get those details again, and you can watch me eat a little crow.<br />
If whitefish proliferate in the upper Colorado, it could change the ecology of the river significantly. There would be some benefits to the sport fishery and some potential drawbacks. It will be fascinating to see if they manage to get a foothold here. If they do, 2013 will be a milestone marking the end of the "pre-whitefish" era and the beginning of the "post-whitefish" era.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-29942968123124462142013-10-15T14:21:00.002-07:002013-10-15T14:21:44.789-07:00Kokanee season I'm fully immersed in chasing kokanee eggs at the moment. Things are not looking quite as rosy this year statewide, and we have a good chance of coming up a bit short. By this date last year, Blue Mesa had produced 2.5 million already; prior to today, they were sitting at right about half of that, at 1.2 million. I think it's safe to say that they're not going to have another record-breaking year. Hopefully I'm wrong about that.<br />
Up here, things are looking decidedly worse. As for Williams Fork, all our indicators tell us that whatever run takes place will be very weak. My best estimation is that we would get about half the eggs we got in 2011 - which would be approximately 300K. That's the best-case scenario. That operation is extremely labor-intensive. If you've never seen it, I have to build an electric barrier in the river to stop upstream migration, which means that I have to hire a dedicated person to live in a camper there and monitor the thing around the clock. 300,000 eggs is not worth that much expense and manpower. So, we're not putting the trap in at WF this year. The buoy line is in and the fishing closure is in effect, but the purpose of that is to allow us to get our disease sample. We have to keep a disease history current to continue to use it as an egg source in the future. That involves getting ovarian fluids and a couple other biopsies from 60 females. Once we have that, we'll pull the buoy line. Hopefully that will happen by the 25th. We haven't seen a fish running there yet. My first year here, 2007, we took 4.5 million eggs from Williams Fork. Crazy how times change.<br />
Granby is not looking much better. Last year, we scraped and scraped for 800,000 eggs. That was the first time in over a decade that Granby did not provide enough eggs for itself - we need 1.2 million there to break even. Our projections for this year suggest a continued decline, and I will feel lucky if we get half a million there.<br />
It's also a weird year for Granby with the water regime. When the floods started happening around September 11, the water entities immediately stopped taking water through the tunnels to the east slope. There hasn't been any water going through the Adams, Moffat, or Roberts tunnels since the floods. Because of that, all of a sudden we've got a lot more water in certain places where there is never water this time of year. One of those places is below Shadow Mountain dam. It's sitting at 200 CFS right now, when normally at this time of year they're releasing 40. The only control they have on the elevations of Grand and Shadow right now is releases out of Shadow Mountain dam. Normally there is a lot of water going through the Adams Tunnel this time of year. At one brief point in September, Shadow dam was spilling 1600 CFS. Our whole kokanee trap system there is designed to handle 40 CFS, and it's always a very controlled, steady situation, except for this year. We're way late on getting a trap in the river there. So, tomorrow they're going to cut releases for us for a few hours while we jump in the river and get a trap built that can handle 200-300 CFS. When we're done they'll crank it back up and we'll stand there with our fingers crossed hoping that it holds. It's a good problem to have; I shouldn't complain.<br />
The one bright spot in this neighborhood is Wolford. We have every reason to believe that I'll take just as many eggs there this year as I did last year - 1.9 million. Over the past year we built a new and improved Merwin trap which corrected some of the design flaws of the original one that we used. We set it yesterday, and this morning there were 100 or so kokes in it. That's a good sign. We'll start taking eggs there on Monday, and we'll be taking every egg we can get out of Wolford. Our biggest day there last year was November 20, so we'll be sticking with it for a while, and in fact Wolford will probably be the lake that saves our bacon for kokanee up here.<br />
Here is the disturbing trend for kokanee in Colorado: fewer and fewer lakes are able to support them. My mantra for kokanee the past few years has been "Competitors, Predators, and Parasites." That is, I'm not aware of a single lake in the state with a viable kokanee population that has all three of those things. In my time here, I've seen both Williams Fork and Green Mountain go from one to two, and the kokanee populations at both those lakes have taken a major hit. The only lake I've got left with none of those three things is Wolford - assuming we can stay on top of the pike population there. If the pike take off, or gill lice were to get into Wolford, I'm afraid we'd be done with kokanee in this area. We keep turning away from problem reservoirs as egg sources, and it feels an awful lot like we're backed into a corner now.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-76767665200636272772013-09-28T18:11:00.000-07:002013-09-28T20:58:58.596-07:00Used and abused<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Hi folks, and sorry for the long break. Summer just becomes a wave of activity that builds and builds and doesn't really crest until kokanee spawn is over with. I have every intention of continuing this blog; there just hasn't been time over the summer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> I had a great summer, but it ended too soon as always. Every summer I wish I made it to more high lakes, although I did squeeze in one last pack trip at the end of August. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> We ran our annual population survey of the Blue tailwater below Dillon on Friday the 16th and Monday the 19th of August. It's two days of work because we use a mark-recapture survey. I like surveying this section during the second half of August because I feel that we're getting a relatively clear picture of the resident fish population. If we wait until September or October, it's always hard to know how much the data is influenced by seasonal movements of browns getting ready to spawn. And when you're working on a section of river immediately below a dam, if there's a seasonal upstream concentration of adult browns, then all your data will really tell you is that the browns are getting ready to spawn.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> In higher-water years, if there is at least 150 CFS coming out of the dam after August 15, we put the electrofishing raft on the river and run the survey starting at the power plant bridge and end it at 7-Eleven, which is 0.7 mile. If it's a low-water year, such as 2012 and 2013, we wade electrofish a smaller reach, starting at the USGS gauge and working upstream to the power plant bridge. So, the low-water station is a portion of the high-water station. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> This summer was a weird time for the Blue tailwater, because releases were pegged at minimum flows for a very long time. For August, 58 CFS is about half of the 25th percentile of flow. On December 10, 2011, flows dropped to near the minimum release of 50 CFS and stayed there until just the past couple of weeks. There had been brief periods of marginally higher releases, but the river never exceeded 200 CFS during that time, and in 2012 and 2013 there were no flows that ever resembled a "runoff" period. The last time the river exceeded 200 CFS was August 15, 2011.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> I want to be clear up front here and point out that I'm not trying to run down the Blue tailwater or be insulting. It gets a huge amount of fishing pressure and generates a lot of economic activity. It is the most accessible, visible, and urban of all our gold-medal trout rivers. But during such a long period of constant flow, the Blue tailwater resembles an aquarium more than any river I've ever spent time on. We know that the forage base is very sparse, and my belief (I don't have solid data to back this up, but we're moving in the direction of doing a study on this) is that at those low flows there are very few mysis - maybe even none - getting entrained in the tailrace. It's also really cold during the growing season. So between the cold temperatures, lack of food, and insanely high fishing pressure, growth rates in the fish are extremely slow. I stock brood culls from the Glenwood Springs hatchery there, and unfortunately that's really the only thing that maintains a large-fish component to the fishery there. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> During this year's survey, I thought the rainbows were in particularly rough shape. So much so, that on the recapture day I designated an official photographer to document the condition of the fish. So here's a "rogues' gallery" of rainbows from the blue. I'm dead serious when I say that these fish have it pretty rough. Be sure to click on the pictures themselves so you can see close up the full gnarliness of the situation.</span><br />
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There is literally not a single fish in that reach with a clean jaw. The other thing going on, that I hadn't really seen before, is shown in the pictures below. Massive abrasion starting from the upper jaw and sometimes extending all the way back nearly to the dorsal fin. I really have no idea what causes this. It's only on the brood cull rainbows, and not at all on the browns. The only thing I can think of, is that they have such a hard time finding anything to eat, that they're rolling rocks looking for food, causing the abrasions. Maybe that's a stretch, but it really baffles me. I'd be interested in hearing anyone else's ideas.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-62416174367697464442013-06-09T21:55:00.003-07:002013-06-09T21:55:55.096-07:00Summer break We finished up Granby last week and got started on Green Mountain. At Granby we ended up capturing exactly 200 lakers in our 32 net sets, for an average of 6.25 fish per net. That falls right in there with the past couple years. We did have one net though, where we picked up NINE fish over 30". We've never seen that while we've been using this sampling scheme. It was astounding. We just happened to hit a big group of them travelling together, I guess. Any other time we pick up big fish, they're by themselves, or maybe there are two of them. Never nine of them.<br />
This is our third year of running the six-hour gillnet sets at Green Mountain. We set a new single-net record on Thursday with 18 lakers in one net. The previous record was 9 fish. We also picked up a 14- and an 18-pounder.<br />
Another day on Green Mountain tomorrow, and then I'm going to be off for the rest of the week, camping with family visiting from out of state. Hope you're enjoying this warm weather as much as I am.<br />
James W - those are great questions and I'll get into them soon. I never know how much people are interested in the hardcore analytical side of things but I love discussing it, so stand by on that.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-3251544853244687242013-06-02T22:07:00.001-07:002013-06-03T21:06:32.071-07:00Granby spring netting We've been running our gillnet surveys on Granby. I've got a sampling scheme set up where I set gillnets (150 feet long, six feet tall) in 32 random locations all over the lake for six hours each. We typically set 8 of these per day, so it's four days of work on Granby. We got two of those days done this week, Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we had a couple days of horrendous wind. So we were sidelined Thursday and Friday. We'll be out there again tomorrow and Tuesday to finish it off.<br />
The idea behind running 32, 6-hour net sets in random locations was something that I started working on a few years ago. The traditional way to sample our reservoirs is with overnight gillnet sets, in which the nets are always set on shore, extending out into the lake, perpendicular to the shoreline. If my goal is to know what the trend in the lake trout population is, and have a good amount of statistical confidence in the data, setting a small number of shoreline gillnets (like 6 of them) overnight does not do a good job answering that question. Now, I have a set of 32 independent samples that tell me a lot more about the lake trout population. There are a lot of different statistics that I get out of this sample design, but the one that should tell us the most about trends in lake trout density is the average number of lake trout captured per net.<br />
This is only the third year that I've sampled the lake in this way. In 2011, the average lake trout catch was 6.4. In 2012, it was 5.3. Right now, with only half the netting done, it's 7.5. We don't have a way to directly measure the actual number of lake trout in the lake, but 5 or 10 years from now, if the average catch is twice, or half, what it is now, we can safely assume that the density of lake trout in the lake has either doubled or declined by half (with a certain degree of error in these estimates, of course).<br />
I keep using the word "density" for a reason. Even if I run this survey at the same time every year - or at the same water temperature - the biggest variable that I have no control over is the volume of the reservoir. So, for instance, this year on our first day the water was at 8233', which is 30 feet lower than it was when we did this in 2012. So even though I'm setting nets in the same locations (mostly - some of my locations are out of the water and so I have to use alternate ones), those locations are all 30' shallower than a year ago. So it changes the distribution of the fish, but it also changes the density. If you have the same number of fish and put them in a smaller volume of water, the catch rate should go up even though the number of fish is the same - because the density of fish is higher. So, when I get into the analysis of this data later on, I'm going to experiment with correcting for reservoir volume at the time of the netting, and see if that yields numbers that make sense.<br />
So here are a few photos, courtesy of Mike Kline. Here's the biggest fish we've picked up so far, weighing in at 20.5 pounds:<br />
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This fish did have a fresh meal in its throat, so we investigated:</div>
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It was a big white sucker. Interesting. Here is what we know about Granby right now: The prey base for large macs has become increasingly sparse the past couple years. The kokanee population has taken a huge dive, and we're not stocking as many rainbows as we used to. We know that suckers are definitely not the preferred food item for lake trout, but obviously if that's the only thing available to them, that's what they'll eat.</div>
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I've been thinking a lot about body condition in these lakers. In every other fish population I deal with, when prey is scarce, you can see it very clearly in the body condition of the fish. For comparison, if you look at all the brown trout larger than 14" in a certain reach of the Colorado River, they tend to be all skinny or all fat. There's not that much variation in the body condition. What I'm seeing right now at Granby is that some of the lake trout look skinnier than any lake trout that I've handled to date. But some of them (like the one above) are in perfectly fine body condition. Here's a good example of one of the skinny ones we've seen:</div>
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That is a very skinny lake trout. Nearly starving, I would even venture to say. So I guess what I'm saying, is that under conditions of sparse forage, it appears to me that the <b>variability </b>of body condition in large lake trout in Granby increases. It seems that a portion of them successfully switch to other prey items, and some of them don't seem to do that at all. I don't know if that seems like a relevant, much less profound, conclusion or not, but I can say that this is not the way that any other trout population that I've seen behaves. It's fascinating, and I wish I knew what determined which fish are successful and which ones waste away. When I get the data worked up, we'll see if my hypothesis about increased variability holds true.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158002275117190986.post-57899788480275728182013-05-26T21:36:00.003-07:002013-05-26T21:36:50.772-07:00Stonefly heaven I don't have a lot to report on this week. I was on the river all day (for fun) and I'm somewhat fried now. The giant stones are popping on the Colorado. Such a wonderful thing to see. I went down and checked on Friday and didn't see a thing, but today they showed up. At Pumphouse they were still seeming a little groggy and unsure, and I suspect tomorrow will be the big day. It's uncanny how often they hit at Pumphouse right on Memorial Day weekend.<br />
This week we finished up pike trapping at Wolford and Green Mountain. Got 14 out of Green Mountain, none of which were smaller than about 24" - a good sign. At Wolford we ended up with about 66 fish, all but one of them from last year's spawn.<br />
We also ran our standard gillnet survey at Wolford this week. From that, and from the pike trapping, I've got a couple of observations on Wolford this spring. First, the kokanee are still looking excellent and we should see another great year for summer kokanee fishing once the water clears. Second, I have seen more large (20" and larger) brown trout in Wolford than I've seen in my time here. Should be a good year for large browns there also.<br />
I'm about to nod off. Please make comments and let me know what you want to hear about. Ron Fletcher - you had asked about Muddy Creek below Wolford. I'll just say this: It's a nice place. That is all.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15609959590066227459noreply@blogger.com3