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.
