THE POMPANOES. 



the shore as the state of the water will permit, very seldom at the surface 

 so as to ripple or break the water, although sometimes while playing in 

 shoal water they will jump into the air. 



" Before any schools enter the bays certain ones will remain for days, 

 or even weeks, in a neighborhood, coming to the beach during the flood 

 tide to feed on the shell-fish that abound there and returning again to 

 deeper water on the ebb-tide. The holes or gullies in the sand along the 

 beach are their favorite feeding grounds on these occasions. Sharks and 

 porpoises pursue the Pompano incessantly, doubtless destroying many. 

 The largest numbers come in April, and sometimes during that month the 

 first schools are seen entering the inlets, others following almost every 

 day, until about June i, when the spring run is said to be over. Every 

 year they appear in this way at Pensacola and adjoining bays, although 

 there are many more some years than others. As the abundance is judged 

 by the quantity caught I think that the difference may lie more in the 

 number of fishing days (pleasant ones) than in the real numbers of fish 

 present. The sizes of Pompano that make up these schools are large or 

 adult fish averaging twelve or fourteen inches in length, and small fish 

 (probably one year old) averaging eight inches in length. The largest 

 P(>m])ano that I have seen measured nineteen and a half inches in length, 

 and weighed six and a quarter pounds, the extremely large fish called 

 Pompano of two or three times that size probably being another species. 

 After entering the bays the schools of Pompano break up and the fish 

 scatter to all parts where the water is salt and there are good feeding 

 grounds. Except single individuals that are taken now and then, nothing 

 is seen of Pompano until late in the fall, when they are bound seaward. 

 In regard to its spawning habits nothing very definite has been learned. 

 It has spawn half developed when it arrives and has none when it leaves 

 the bays. Large quantities of the fry are seen in the bays all summer, 

 which is some proof of its spawning inside. In June, 1878, I caught 

 specimens of the fry varying in size from three-quarters of an inch to three 

 inches in length. Very many schools of these sizes were also observed in 

 July and August of the same and following years of iSyg-'So. 



" The schools of fry go to sea in August and September. The older or 

 adult fish leave the coast in September and October in small schools, that 

 are only seen and caught at the inlets where they happen to cross shoals 

 or follow the beach. These Pompano of the fall are very fat and in every 

 Avay superior to those caught in the spring. As before mentioned, the 

 Pompano is found on the South Florida coast all the year. The sea-beach, 

 from Tampa Bay to Charlotte Harbor seems to be its favorite feeding- 

 ground owing to the quantity of shell-fish that occur there. It does not 

 form in large schools as in ttie Pensacola region, and therefore is not taken 

 in such large quantities by seine fishermen. 



" Smacks from Mobile and Pensacola sometimes go to Tampa Bay for 

 them. I have been told that Pompano are caught at Key West in con- 



