MARINE FISHERIES OF TEXAS 187 



thousands of pounds of mullet that were caught farther up the 

 lagoon where the water is very shallow. 



Although they are not strictly pelagic fish like the mackerel, the 

 trout, as well as other species caught by the Texas fishermen, are 

 more abundant on some days than on others. The fishermen agree 

 that there is a general movement of the fish — trout, redfish, and 

 others — northward at the approach of summer and southward at 

 the approach of winter; but the comparative abundance of the 

 various species changes from day to day. An extract from a report 

 of the United States Fish Commission for the years 1889 to 1891 

 (p. 379) is as follows: 



Occasionally the fish taken by a crew during several days consist almost en- 

 tirely of one of these three most plentiful species. On several occasions the 

 writer has at different ports in Texas seen several thousand pounds of fish of 

 which probably 90 per cent were of the same species. One week they may be 

 nearly all sheepshead and the next week trout or redfish. 



This is mentioned to show that the appearance of great numbers 

 of fish does not necessarily mean that they are schooling preparatory 

 to spawning. 



Very few people, however, agree as to the spawning habits of the 

 spotted trout. Never in all his fishing experience has Mr. Cobolini 

 seen ripe roe in any of the trout he has examined. It is well to com- 

 pare this information with reports from various fishing centers farther 

 north. At Matagorda, when the trout first appear in the early 

 spring and fall they contain no roe. The roe seems to develop dur- 

 ing the summer and fall, and just at the time when trout should be 

 taken with roe fully ripe they disappear; as one man expressed it, 

 "Just before spawning not a trout can be found." Galveston fish- 

 ermen report that they have taken trout with immature roe during 

 April and May, but none with ripe roe. When asked whether they 

 could tell anything concerning the breeding habits of the species they, 

 were unable to say. They believed, however, that the trout spawned 

 outside in the Gulf, like the redfish. Mr. Simmonds, writing for the 

 Galveston Daily News, Saturday, October 1, 1921, said: 



Trout are even more mysterious in their habits than the redfish. They are 

 caught in the bays at certain times when full of eggs, and at other times they 

 are caught in the bays when they appear to have just laid their eggs. But many 

 trout, mullet, and flounders have been caught going to the Gulf when full of 

 eggs. Therefore, the passes are protected against seining, even though it is 

 supposed the trout breed in the bays and inlets. 



During the summer of 1922 Mr. Simmonds himself investigated 

 coastal waters in an effort to learn something definite as to the breed- 

 ing habits of commercial fish. The following is quoted from some of 

 his notes on file in the State commissioner's office at Austin. 



The spotted trout deposits its eggs on good bottom, among growing turtle 

 grass or widgeon grass (Ruppia maratima), generally in well-protected bays, 

 back bays, and sounds. The most important spawning grounds along the Texas 

 coast are Ingleside Cove on the north side of Corpus Christi Bay, Aransas Bay 

 just in front of the town of Arans"as Pass, Kellers Bay, Turtle Bay, and the 

 southwest corner of West Galveston Bay. Adequate protection should be given 

 the fish in these small protected bays during the height of the spawning season 

 which comes twice a year on the Texas coast, in early May and early September, 

 though individual fish may be found spawning from early spring well into fall or 

 even occasionally during mild winters. The egg is smaller than that of the 

 Atlantic trout or speckled squeteague, measuring about one thirty-second of an 

 inch, and in waters of 77° hatches in 40 hours. After hatching, the small fry 

 an- usually most abundant in loose, rather unorganized schools in floating sea- 



