Population Studies of the Sports and Commercial Fin-Fish and Forage Species of the Corpus Christi Bay System - Analysis of Populations of Sports and Commercial Fin-Fish and of Factors Which Affect These Populations in the Coastal Bays of Texas

Forage fish were sampled semi-monthly at 7 stations in Corpus Christi, Nueces, Redfish and Oso Bays with 10-foot and 20-foot otter trawls. Juvenile game fish were sampled monthly at 3 stations in Ingleside Cove, Shamrock Cove and East Flats with a 60-foot minnow seine. Adult game and food fish were sampled monthly with a 1200-foot trammel net. The most abundant forage fish caught in the otter trawl was the anchovy with a unit of effort catch of 18.05. Croakers were next with 11.16. Spot, pinfish and flounder followed in that order. Numbers of juvenile game fish taken per acre sampled were as follows: Redfish, 14.9 per acre; trout, 8.6 per acre; drum, 2.5 per acre; flounder, 2.2 per acre; and sheepshead, 1.9 per acre. The most abundant adult food fish taken was the croaker, followed by drum, redfish, trout, sheepshead and flounder respectively. Tagged redfish yielded 25.24 per cent returns, trout 3.92 per cent, drum 3.25 per cent and croakers 2.46 per cent. Tagged sheepshead and flounder did not yield any returns.