California White Sea-bass — Part 2

Cynoscion nobilis (Ayres)

Images coming soon.

The food of the red-drum consists chiefly of small fish such as young mullet, crustaceans, and mollusks.

This fish reaches a length of 4 or 5 feet and a weight of at least 40 pounds, and fish of 12 to 15 pounds are not rare. Fish of greater weight than 15 pounds are, however, coarse and not readily salable. Those of 4 to 6 pounds are best for shipping. As a game-fish the red-drum must take good rank. Mr. S. C. Clarke and others have written its praises, and we ourselves have had exciting experiences with it in Indian River. Still-fishing is the method employed, and any sort of bait will serve, though a piece of a mullet or other fish is best. The bait may lie upon the bottom or dangle a few inches above it. The red-drum may be cautious and slow to take the bait, but when once hooked its strength and size enable it to make a pretty fight.

Though an important commercial fish, its flesh is not of high quality, as it is stringy and lacking in flavour.

This fish is so well known as to need no extended description. It may easily be known by its colour, which is grayish silvery usually washed with coppery red; each scale with a centre of dark points, forming rather obscure irregular, undulating brown stripes along the rows of scales; a jet-black ocellated spot about as large as eye at base of caudal above, this sometimes duplicated, and the body occasionally with ocelli.

GENUS LEIOSTOMUS LACEPEDE

Body oblong-ovate, the back compressed; head obtuse; mouth small, horizontal, the upper jaw with a band of feeble teeth, the lower nearly or quite toothless; slits and pores of upper jaw well developed; lower pharyngeals separate, the teeth paved; preopercle with a membranaceous border; D. X-I, 31, the spines slender and rather high, the last connected with the soft rays; A. II, 12, the second spine not large; caudal fin emarginate; gill-membranes slightly connected; gill-rakers slender.

This genus differs from Sciaena chiefly by the absence of teeth in the lower jaw and by the more paved teeth on the pharyngeals. The single species, Leiostomus xanthurus, is a popular and well-known fish on our South Atlantic and Gulf coasts, under the vernacular names spot, goody, lafayette, roach, chub, chopa blanca, and masooka. It is one of the most common pan-fishes on our coast and is excellent in every respect. It occurs as far north as Cape Cod and as far south as Texas, but is very rare in the West Indies.

The spot is a small fish, reaching only 6 to 10 inches in length, and consequently not likely to prove very exciting to the angler, albeit it takes the hook readily and is well worth taking when larger fish refuse to bite.

Colour, bluish above, silvery below; about 15 narrow dark wavy bands extending from the dorsal downward and forward to below lateral line; a round black humeral spot rather smaller than the eye; fins plain olivaceous, the caudal not yellow.

GENUS MICROPOGON

CUVIER & VALENCIENNES

The Croakers

Body moderately elongate, compressed, somewhat elevated; preopercle strongly serrate; teeth in villiform bands, the outer row in the upper jaw somewhat enlarged; lower jaw with a row of minute barbels on each side; gill-rakers short and thickish; spinous dorsal rather short, of 10 or 11 stoutish spines; second anal spine moderate; caudal fin double-truncate; lower pharyngeals narrow, distinct, with sharp conical teeth; air-bladder with long horns.

This is a well-marked genus with about 5 species, all American, distinguished from Ophioscion and Sciaenops by the presence of barbels. The species are all closely related, and are similar in form, colour, and size.

The only species of importance is the common croaker, Micropogon undulatus. Every one on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts knows the croaker. It is an abundant and important food-fish all the way from Cape Cod to Texas, being most common southward, but not known from the West Indies. At Beaufort, N. C., it is, next to the mullet and the spot, the most common food-fish; and in the markets of Baltimore, Washington, and southward there is no more familiar fish. It appears to be uncommon in Indian River, but is present in limited numbers throughout the year. On the Gulf coast it is exceedingly abundant in all the bays and bayous, where it is found at all times. The croakers live mostly in shallow water on grassy bottom, and feed upon crustaceans and mollusks. They breed in the bays in early winter. They reach a foot in length and are an excellent pan-fish. Commercially they are caught with haul-seines. They take the hook readily and fight fairly well. A slight, pliant rod with a stiffish tip, a reel, a float or not as circumstances require, and hook baited with shrimp or soft crab, will usually prove the proper thing.