FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



403 



Small bass (apparently spawned in southern 

 waters in 1940, 1941, or 1942 16 and now large 

 enough to be included in the commercial statis- 

 tics) again entered the southern part of our Gulf 

 in 1944 in such numbers that the commercial 

 catch for Massachusetts as a whole was nearly 

 twice as great for that year (about 191 ,000 pounds) 

 as it had been the year before (about 99,500 

 pounds). 16 



But it seems that very few of the fish of the 

 1942 year class, if any, spread northward much 

 beyond the Merrimac River, for the reported 

 catch for New Hampshire fell from about 19,000 

 pounds in 1943 to between 10,000 and 11,000 

 pounds in 1944, and to about 9,000 pounds in 

 1945, though the proportion of large fish was 

 greater, while occasional bass, only, were re- 

 ported in Maine waters in these years, or in the 

 later 1940's. 



Anglers' reports in general, and our own obser- 

 vations, are to the effect that few young bass ap- 

 peared in the Cape Cod Bay-outer Cape region 

 during the four years 1946-1949, or farther north 

 along the New England coast. While this pre- 

 vailing scarcity of baby bass caused widespread 

 fears that the striper might be facing another 

 serious decline, anglers welcomed an accompany- 

 ing increase in the numbers of bass weighing up- 

 wards of 20 to 25 pounds. Thus, a larger num- 

 ber of fish heavier than 25 to 35 pounds were 

 landed along the outer shore of the Cape, in Cape 

 Cod Bay and in northern Massachusetts waters 

 in 1950 than for many years. We saw one of 45 

 pounds that was caught by an angling companion 

 in the inner part of Massachusetts Bay that 

 September, and one of 51 K pounds, caught in the 

 surf, was reported from the outer shore of Cape 

 Cod that August, while others, doubtless in the 

 50-pound class, were taken of which we did not 

 chance to hear. A few very large fish were re- 

 ported, that summer, in the surf at Old Orchard 

 Beach, Maine. And hundreds of bass of 25 to 45 

 pounds, with a few running up to 52 or 53 pounds 

 (few smaller than 25-30 pounds) were caught in 

 the surf on the outer beach near the tip of Cape 

 Cod during the summer of 1951, many up to 



" The broods of 1940-1942 were large, in Chesapeake Bay, though not as 

 large as the brood of 1934 (Tiller, Chesapeake Biol. Lab., Pub. 85, 1950, pp. 

 13, 24-25). 



>■ The minimum legal length for bass (snout to fork of tail) having been 

 set in Massachusetts at 16 inches (fish 3-4 years old). 



30-45 pounds in Cape Cod Bay that July; a few 

 as large as 20 to 30 pounds in Duxbury Bay; at 

 least two (to our knowledge) weighing a little 

 more than 50 pounds in the inner part of Mass- 

 achusetts Bay; a few in the 30 to 45 pound class 

 on the northern Massachusetts coast. 



It is almost certain that most of these large fish 

 belong to the abundant year classes that were 

 spawned in the early 1940's or even previously. 

 Hopes for the future depend, therefore, on renewed 

 replenishments of the stock. A year ago (in 1950), 

 prospects seemed good in this respect, for great 

 numbers of little bass (many smaller than the 

 legal length in Massachusetts, 16 inches from snout 

 to fork of tail) were reported that summer and 

 autumn from various localities along southern 

 New England, and northward as far as Plymouth 

 and Duxbury Bays; from the North and South 

 Rivers in Marshfield; from Boston Harbor; from 

 the Parker River (Plum Island Sound region); 

 from the lower Merrimac River; and from Hamp- 

 ton Harbor, N. H. Many "school" fish of 2 to 8 

 pounds seen (and some caught) in the Saco in 

 July and August of 1950, and a few landed 

 every day from the York and Mousam Rivers late 

 that June, point similarly to a fresh influx of bass 

 to southern Maine waters, either that year or the 

 year before, for it is not likely that these fish had 

 been spawned in the streams along that part of 

 the coast. 



And reports that Pleasant Bay, on Cape Cod, 

 the Massachusetts Bay end of the Cape Cod 

 Canal, and Duxbury Bay, have all been "loaded" 

 with small bass at times during the present summer 

 (1951) and also of many too small to keep, off 

 Wollaston Beach in Boston Harbor, are promising 

 at least; so is the fact that a good many fish in the 

 10 to 15-pound class have been caught at various 

 places along the coast. 



An interesting aspect of the bass situation is that 

 the young bass that invaded the water of Massa- 

 chusetts and of Maine in 1936 and 1937 seem not 

 to have spread to the St. John River system for 

 while commercial catches ran larger there during 

 the 1930's than they had during the 1920's, the 

 increase may not have been greater than can be 

 accounted for by an increasing demand for bass. 

 And, in any case, it had taken place by 1932, i. e., 

 two years before the fish were spawned that re- 



