184 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AXD FISHERIES. 



Mr. William Champlin liad a number of tiuker-mackerel, wbicb he 

 Lad just caugbt. He thought they belonged to a different race from 

 the round mackerel. He thought the fishing this summer as good as it 

 was last summer. Lobstering has been better ; there are as many lob- 

 sters now as there were fifteen years ago. They weigh only about two 

 liounds each. 



The tinker-mackerel are worth about fifteen cents a dozen. 



P. B. HuDDY said the stripes on the bulls-eye mackerel are more green 

 than on the common mackerel. There have been about the same num- 

 ber offish caught with the hook and line this summer as last. 



Codfish come in at Christmas time and stay till May. jSI"ever saw 

 menhaden here in the winter. Mr. Tallman once caught 1,600 barrels 

 on the 3d of December. 



English herring come in here in the fall and stay all winter ; never 

 noticed any spawn in them. Scup have not been so plenty for four 

 years as they have been this summer. 



Martin Gladding has a heart-seine in West Bay. Had found 

 squeteague and scup more plenty this year than for ten years past. 

 The scup are large enough to market, and send to 'New York every day. 

 They correspond to the so-called second run of scup. Isever knew the 

 big scup to stop here in the spring. He thinks the second run of scup 

 spawn. Never saw any spawn run from them. 



Blue-fish have not been as plenty as common this season. 



Tautog are caught, weighing from one to ten pounds ; but the small 

 ones have spawn running from them. Tbey will bite as well when 

 spawning as at any time. They spawn in July. 



Got a great many shad this season, and alewives. The shad were 

 caught in May. 



Catches squeteague now altogether, and Avill take them all this 

 month. He gets from four to eight hundred pounds a day. They are 

 ranch more plenty than last year. He caught so many he could not 

 sell them, and let them go. 



The scup that used to be caught years ago were about the size of 

 those taken this year. There was this year a large run of scup so 

 small that they would go right through the meshes; were about an 

 inch and a half long; and there were those of different sizes, up to a 

 pound, all mixed together. There were not so many small ones this 

 year as last; but hundreds of barrels were turned right out of the seine 

 at a time. 



Fall before last tautog were very plenty. 



Governor Stevens. — Fish of all kinds, generally speaking, have 

 been more i^leuty this year than usual. Blue-fish have not been so 

 plenty as sometimes; about the same as last year. Spanish mackerel 

 more plenty. Never saw anything like the number of shad on the 

 coast. They were moving east. They were caught all through this 

 region, and so plenty they could not be sold in New York. 



The Spanish mackerel did not last a great while. The scup that 

 were caught were large enough to market. The large ones came a 

 little in advance. The small ones are here now. Occasionally some of 

 the large ones were mixed in with the small. Thej^ were more than 

 twice as large as the run of small scup that came last year. I saw this 

 year two days' catch of the largest scup I ever saw; some of them 

 would weigh four ];ouuds. That was about the first of the run. The 

 fish they used to talk about as being so plenty were just like the run 



