John Weiss: DNR studies sauger hooking mortality
Thu, Mar 16, 2006
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Review this story RED WING — “13-4, mid caudal, live,” said Dale Sogla, tossing the small sauger back into the Mississippi River while reaching for another one in a large cooler.
He measured it. “14-4, mid caudal, dead,” he called to Kevin Stauffer, who recorded the information.
The two Department of Natural Resources fisheries managers were conversing in fisheries shorthand as they checked to find out how many of the 35 sauger put into a special holding net below the Red Wing Dam several days before had survived. DNR employees and volunteer anglers did the “work” of catching the fish used in the study.
Translation on the first sauger: It was 13.4 inches long, had been clipped in the mid part of the caudal (tail) fin and it was still alive. Each of the 35 was clipped when caught; different parts of the tail or other fins indicated different depths.
In all, about a dozen of the 35 fish died, said Stauffer, area fisheries supervisor in Lake City. That’s a bit higher than typical but the fish didn’t look all that healthy before they were put into the holding net, he said.
Also, the only deep, calm place they could put the net was several hundred yards from where most fish were caught. Many of the fish were held in live wells or cooler for a while before they were boated to the holding net, he said. That puts extra stress on the fish and could account for higher-than-expected mortality.
The DNR has also been radio tagging sauger, tracking them to find out how well they survive and how far they move after being caught. Those fish are only handled for a minute or two before going back into the water, Stauffer said. And they have all survived.
In addition to sauger, the DNR is looking at radio-collared catfish to find out how much they move. So far, results show the catfish are home bodies, preferring to find deep water where they can hang low and stay out of current behind rocks, they said.
The DNR began the coordinated sauger studies because some anglers have been wondering if the smaller sauger — 10 to 15 inches — that are often caught in cold water but aren’t big enough to keep, die.
“That has always been an issue up there among anglers,” he said.
If there is high mortality, maybe it’s time to restrict spring fishing below the dams, some have said.
The DNR is not considering those kinds of regulations, officials said.
Studies don’t show an unusually high mortality. Any time you catch and release a fish, there’s a chance it will die, Stauffer said. It happens with live bait or artificials, in cold water and warm water.
Fish caught from shallower water do seem to survive better, he said. Of 33 fish caught in shallower water, only four died within 72 hours, said John Hoxmeier, a fisheries researcher.
Sauger and walleye populations aren’t suffering in the river and Lake Pepin, they said.
Electroshocking surveys show solid numbers of both kinds of fish, though their populations are dropping a little from some spectacular peaks of the past few years following an incredible hatch several years ago.
Even if many of the fish caught in spring from deep water below the dam did die, it wouldn’t make a big difference in the population because about half of the sauger die each year. Angler mortality is just part of that death rate and doesn’t add to it, the two officials said.
While spring fishing below the dam gets a lot of attention because that is one of the few places open walleye fishing, many more walleye and sauger are caught in May and June on the river, they said.
One thing anglers could do, besides handling fish as little as possible, is not “fizz” fish caught from deep water, they said. That practice means the fish’s swim bladder, which is distended when brought up quickly out of deep water, is punctured to release pressure and let fish quickly get deep again.
It doesn’t work, Stauffer said. Anglers often do it wrong and puncture some organ, damaging or killing fish, or the needle causes infections, he said. Fish put right back will gradually be able to release the pressure and get back deep, he said.
John Weiss is the Post-Bulletin’s outdoors writer. If you have comments or story ideas, call him at 285-7749.
