FISHES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY 
319 
The tautog spawns principally during June at Woods Hole and probably somewhat earlier in 
Chesapeake Bay. The eggs are buoyant, have no oil globule, and are from 0.9 to 1 millimeter in 
diameter. 24 They hatch in 42 to 45 hours at a temperature of 68° to 72° F. The young at hatching 
are 2.2 millimeters long. The yolk sac is absorbed when the fish reaches a length of 3.3 millimeters. 
At this time the mouth is fully formed. At a length of 10 millimeters many of the characters of 
the adult fish are already evident. It has been suggested that fish seined along shores, measuring 
from 3 to 6 inches in length, are a year old. Nothing definite is known concerning the rate of 
growth, however, nor as to the age at which they mature. 
Not one specimen had been collected in Chesapeake Bay during 1921 until September 23, when 
208 were seined in six hauls of a 250-foot bag seine along Cape Charles beach. Excepting three 
adult fish, all these ranged from 55 to 115 millimeters (234 to 434 inches) in length. Seining in the 
same locality on November 23, 1921, only three tautogs were taken, 334 to 4 inches in length, 
indicating that the young had left the immediate shores. One fish, 150 millimeters (6 inches) in 
length, was seined on October 12, and on December 4 one specimen of the same length was taken 
Fig. 193.— Young fish, 10 millimeters long 
in the beam trawl. Whether the latter are a year older than the 234 to 4J4 inch fish caught in Octo- 
ber and November can not be determined from the meager data at hand. On April 13 one tautog 
158 millimeters (634 inches) in length, was seined. 
During 1922 the total catch of tautog in Chesapeake Bay is estimated to have been 2,000 
pounds, worth about $80 to the fishermen. Almost all of this catch was taken in Virginia with 
hook and line and with pound nets. 
The tautog may be caught throughout the year but is most common during the spring and fall. 
This fish usually frequents the vicinity of rock piles and old wrecks and is not considered a pound- 
net fish. However, stragglers are caught throughout the fishing season by the many pound nets 
in the Chesapeake, and the combined catch made with the apparatus is worthy of note. 
The tautog is caught in the bay principally from the York River to the capes. It is rare above 
the Rappahannock. The combined daily catch of 120 pound nets in the vicinity of Buckroe beach, 
during April, 1922, was 10 to 40 tautog. Buckroe Beach, Ocean View, and Cape Charles are the 
chief fishing grounds. During September, 1922, as many as 60 rowboats, each with one to three 
persons, were fishing for spots off Ocean View; the average catch of tautogs was 1 to every 4 boats 
per day. However, the bottom was sandy and therefore not favorable to tautog fishing. It is 
« For details relative to the embryology and development of the young refer to Kuntz and Radclifle, 1918, pp. 92 to 99, figs. 
1 to 17. 
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