Recreational finfish catch statistics for Texas Bay systems, September 1979-August 1980

Weekend sport boat fishermen were surveyed in Galveston, Matagorda (including East Matagorda), San Antonio, Aransas and Corpus Christi Bays, upper Laguna Madre and lower Laguna Madre from 1 September 1979 to 31 August 1980. These fishermen expended 2,256,600 man-h to catch an estimated 1,138,000 fishes (457,700 kg). Spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) and sand seatrout (C. arenarius) constituted over 72% of all fish landed. Annual catch rates for all fishes combined ranged from 0.39 to 0.55 fish/man-h in all bays except in Galveston Bay where the catch rate was 0.62 fish/man-h. The smallest fishes landed were Atlantic croaker (0.09-0.30 kg) and sand seatrout (0.21-0.35 kg); the largest fishes were black drum (Pogonias cromis) (0.33-2.70 kg) and gafftopsail catfish (Bagre marinus) (0.93-1.43 kg). Generally, pass and jetty sport boat fishermen in all areas had lower catch rates during the low use season (November-May) (0.12-0.63 fish/man-h) than during the high use season (May-November) (0.23-1.19 fish/man-h). Mean high use season catch rates for Gulf of Mexico fishermen ranged from 0.13 to 0.54 fish/man-h. Catch rates were generally higher for king mackerel (Scomberomorus cavalla), red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) and other fishes (0.01-0.33 fish/man-h) than for all other species. King mackerel mean weights generally declined from those in 1978 (4.18-6.87 kg) through 1980 (2.50-4.57 kg) in all areas. With the exception of red snapper, sand seatrout and other fishes catch rates during the low use season were generally </= 0.01 fish/man-h.