60 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



4. They are the most abundant of any fish caught with the hook. 



5. It is decidedly scarcer than ifc'nsed to be, and it is becoming more 

 and more scarce. Yon catch fewer in tlie pounds and fewer witli the 

 hook. I do not mean to say yon catch less scup this year than last year. 

 The diminution cannot be noticed so much from one year to another, but 

 during a period of five years. This year is remarkable for the nets hav- 

 ing taken an immense number of small scup, about half grown, except 

 the little ones, of which we make no account. It is unusual to have so 

 many half-grown ones come in. There are little ones, that is, very much 

 smaller ones than we have got here for many years. These run with the 

 big fish, and are taken with them. The big fish seem to pilot them in. 



8. The largest scup I ever saw was about a foot long — would weigh 

 four pounds, I thiidv ; though I never measured or weighed them exactly. 

 The big scup come first every year. We find nothing but large ones, the 

 first that we get; the next school, four or five days later, would be 

 smaller, half grown, weighing from half to three-quarters of a pound. 



9. I think it takes scup three years to grow. I think the small ones 

 we get this year were spawned last year, and that the little ones were 

 two years old. I think I can distinguish about three sizes every year. 

 I never saw any spawn in the middle-sized ones. The last year's scup 

 will, most of them, go through a two-inch mesh ; the middle size will 

 not. Scup will only grow to about such a size, when they stop growing. 



11. They tell me that they catch scup at Montauk Point before they 

 get them in Gardner's Bay. They get them at Watch Hill before they 

 do at Saughkonnet ; first at Montauk, then at W^atch Hill. I cannot tell 

 how long a time between Montauk and Saughkonnet. They used to run up 

 into Narragansett Bay before they reached Saughkonnet, around by 

 Khode Island Bay ; and even sea-bass went the same way. 



After striking the main land they follow closely around the shore, in 

 about eighteen feet of water, so deep that you cannot see them in ii 

 school. If the pounds are set in less than eighteen feet of water we do 

 not catch the scup. They are canght about one day sooner at North 

 Falmouth than at Wood's Hole. They are generally found iji Vineyard 

 Sound sooner than in Buzzard's Bay. Tliis year they caught them at 

 Menemslia Bight three or four days before we did in the bay, and two or 

 three days earlier than at Saughkonnet. I do not think there is any differ- 

 ence in the time of getting them on the two sides of Vineyard Sound. 1 

 think those that come into Buzzard's Bay come out again into Vineyard 

 Sound ; otherwise the bay would be full. I do not know that there was 

 any more protection in Buzzard's Bay this year than the year before. 



5. I do not think the little scup are as plenty as they were ten years 

 ago ; but there were more this year than last year. 



IG. I think that the scup that come into the sound go to Hyannis to 

 breed. 



7. In W^aquoit Harbor they used to get any quantity of scup ; they 

 were large and fat, because they lived on clams. Since the ])ound was 

 set there they have not caught any scup with the hook in the harbor. 

 The pound is on the "v^est side of the harbor. 



12. I think they return the same way that they came, most of them; 

 others go right out to sea. 



15. I do not thmk there is the same regularity in leaving that there 

 is in coming in; they do not school as much in going out. In the fall 

 of the year, when scup leave the ponds, they will school up and go 

 together. All sizes go out together. 



13. I do not know where they spend the winter; they are never seen 

 here then. 



