From The In-Fisherman Archives
Saugers and Saugeyes + Walleyes
Bonus Bites Below–Right Now!
by Matt Straw
Opal eyes course through a blue-green world on the border of light penetration. Rising over the edge of a precipice on the last major break leading into the benthic depths, walleyes surge into schools of bait. Above, boats wait. In the frenzied throng of predator and prey, yellow and orange impostors tap along. Some rivet the attention of those opal eyes, drawing them to bait and steel.
Down the break, along the silent rocky slide into the depths, nothing stirs. Farther, beyond the final probing of jigs and rattling lures, ghostlike eyes reappear. But something’s different. The portly grace, the quiet aplomb of the walleye is missing. Feeding relentlessly, these fish dart and crash headlong into scurrying pods of prey.
These are sauger, the little cousins. Among them, saugeye–natural hybrids resulting from first cousins spawning in the same habitat at the same time. And this scene is common. Sauger and saugeye, though common in many riverine environments throughout the natural and extended range of the walleye, often are ignored. Worse, they’re sometimes considered a nuisance.
This “all eyes on the prize, and the prize is walleyes” attitude is, to be blunt, indecent. Sauger are invaluable. They group in large numbers, usually near walleyes. In some environments they do better than walleyes. Though most are small, they sometimes top 6 pounds. And saugeye can top 10 pounds.
If you’ve ignored these mighty mites in the past, two thoughts may lead you to reconsider them. First, sauger and saugeye often bite well when walleyes won’t. Second, sauger bite aggressively and hard. Tournament pro Keith Kavajecz likens their attack to “hypersuction. Instead of a little tic you get a pronounced thwack. When they see a jig and want it, they swim over and jam it in. No foolin’ around.”
If they’re not being exploited, their numbers can be vast. And (with predictable exceptions) sauger are like a flashing neon arrow pointing to the shallower haunts of walleyes. Their needs are similar, yet dissimilar enough to bear scrutiny.
DIFFERENCES
Walleyes (Stizostedion vitreum vitreum) and sauger (Stizostedion canadense) show the same genus. Like pike and muskie, they’re genetically similar enough to interbreed. The hybrid result, saugeye, can backcross with either a walleye or a sauger.
Sic passim (thus everywhere), saugeye. Not in great numbers everywhere, but in some places more than others. Saugeye account for roughly 10 percent of the members of genus Stizostedion in Sakakawea, where the former world record (11 pounds 12 ounces) was taken. (The current world record is tied at 12 pounds 7 ounces between fish taken in Montana and Ohio.)
Like sauger, saugeye often have black spots between the spines in their dorsal fin. They tend to have more white on their sides, with the black, blotchy side markings of a sauger extending below their lateral line, as opposed to the golden flanks of a walleye. On rare occasions, however, saugeye mimic walleye coloration, but without the telltale white mark on the tip of the tail.
Saugeye tend to relate more to groups of sauger than to walleyes. They tend to look and behave more like sauger. To catch a bull saugeye, you must know something about sauger behavior and location.
ABOUT SAUGER
Perhaps the most vital difference between sauger and walleye is a slight variation in their eyes. Both have a light-gathering layer in the retina–tapetum lucidum. This layer covers more area in the eyes of sauger. Sauger are even more light-sensitive than walleyes, explaining their preference for deeper and murkier water. Sauger thrive in turbid environments.
This physiological difference is important to anyone trying to catch both species. In lakes and reservoirs, sauger tend to bite much better than walleyes during the day. The deeper water they prefer offers prime light for foraging in late morning and late afternoon, as opposed to twilight periods.
In rivers, sauger may bite best early or late in the day–even more so than walleyes. River fish may also bite best on cloudy, rainy, windy days. Nasty weather is more likely to positively affect the bite than it does with walleyes.
In rivers, sauger seek heavier current than walleyes. Moving water inhibits light penetration, so sauger tend to hold shallower in significant current, but still not as shallow as walleyes in most cases. An exception involves big sauger which in current tend to locate in spots similar to areas where walleyes feed.
BIG SAUGER, LITTLE SAUGER,
AND WALLEYES IN RIVERS
Big sauger in rivers don’t hold with the small boys. Smaller sauger generally inhabit the deepest available pools, holes, or main-river basin areas. Bigger sauger (say over 3 pounds) cruise the same haunts walleyes frequent, but arrive and feed on these spots very early or late in the day, or for more extended periods on nasty, windy, precipitous days. Look for the biggest sauger at the head of structural elements like gravel bars, sand bars, points, holes, and humps. They also hold to the current side of structural elements more than walleyes do, and they inhabit current areas that walleyes avoid.
Another distinction of note is body shape. Sauger are slightly more tubular, more streamlined than walleyes. Sauger shape forms more of an even ellipse from head to tail, allowing them to burrow into stronger currents. In more ways than one, sauger are like the smallmouth bass of the walleye world. They fight better, swim faster, and have stronger jaws than walleyes of the same size.
In a telemetry study performed in Tennessee in 1977, sauger tracked through the currents below Cordell Hull Dam always moved closer to shore when discharges increased (to create hydroelectric power during late fall and early winter). When discharges increased to levels greater than normal, fish moved hundreds of yards downstream. But when generation ceased altogether, sauger were tracked crossing the river channel many times and swimming over wide areas. These fish were most often in very turbid water at depths between 8 and 17 feet.
That study concerned tailrace fish and paid little attention to larger sauger. Another telemetry study in Melvern Reservoir, Kansas, in 1992 found sauger deep in the main stem of the reservoir in March. This study tracked some of the largest fish in the system. “We implanted 20 sauger,” says Don Gablehouse, biologist for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. “Larger sauger never seemed to locate in significantly different areas than smaller fish.”
Neither study noted the movements of walleye in the same area, but other biologists have observed differences in alleged “comfort zones.” Al Stevens, large-lake specialist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, has for years watched sauger and walleye movements in the Mississippi River. “I’ve also fished year ’round for sauger and walleye in this system,” Stevens says. “In Lake Pepin, more sauger than walleye are caught at midday. When the sun goes down, the bite’s over for sauger, while walleyes continue to be caught after dark.”
From late spring through fall, Pepin’s walleyes are typically in 2 to 10 feet of water. “They’re even there at noon, inactive, lying on bottom,” Stevens says. “But sauger will be 15 to 20 feet down at the head of the lake, which is more turbid, and 20 to 25 feet down in the clearer tail of the lake. Even 4- to 5-pound sauger are captured in these depths.”
Riverine environments (rivers, reservoirs, and lakes within river systems) are the most common homes of sauger and saugeye. From the St. Lawrence River to the upper reaches of the Missouri River in Montana, these environments are where the Stizostedion clan do best in combination–where you should always be able to find one, two, or all three biting some time, every day of the year. But the best places to key on right now (late winter) are tailraces and main basins of reservoirs.