The ice bite -- Under the ice -- sometimes thick ice like that in Montana, sometimes what little ice forms in northern saugeye states like Ohio -- saugeyes exhibit pseudo-classic walleye-type behavior; they become active at twilight, cruising and feeding in late afternoon on into darkness. Doesn't mean you won't catch 'em during the day, especially on cloudy dingy days. But like walleyes, changing light levels activate them, regardless of how deep they are.
Deep is relative. On a fairly clear reservoir, saugeyes could easily be down in 40 feet plus, due to their super-sensitivity to light penetration. In a shallow, turbid lake, however, 3 to 6 feet of water may be sufficient, particularly if that's all the depth that exists. Packs of fish may come cruising along barely 2 or 3 feet below the ice, because that's all there is between the ice and the bottom. Set the hook hard enough on a bite, and you'll jerk a small one up and out of the hole.
Unlike walleyes, however, aggressive jigging techniques with spoons tipped with minnow heads don't appear as productive for saugeyes. Rather, subtler or stabler tactics excel. Tip-ups baited with shiners (Fort Peck Reservoir, Montana -- one of a few impoundments where abundant trophy saugeyes occur naturally, rather than through stocking). Bobber rigs or deadsticks suspending minnows hooked through the back, or a few gentle jiggings of a minnow-tipped jighead, followed by long pauses (central Ohio reservoirs). In essence, passive tactics appear to be the hot tickets for cold-water saugeyes.
Where to fish varies big-time. In western impoundments, classic point structure abounds, and saugeyes react much like walleyes, relating to drop-off edges. But in eastern agricultural areas, such structure is often absent, and fish relate to whatever's available. If a prominent structural feature like a submerged roadbed or extended shoreline point exists, by all means, fish it. If an active creek empties into the lake, try fishing through the nearby safe ice a hundred yards offshore. If a dredged canal or channel offers deeper water than the surrounding lake, fish it. If a distinctive river channel winds across an otherwise flat featureless basin, find it and fish it, even if it's only a few feet deeper than the surrounding area.
In some saugeye lakes experiencing high siltation due to agricultural run-off, a 6-inch taper in a hundred yards might be all it takes to focus fish movement across a 4- or 5-foot-deep basin with 8 inches of ice cover. Hard to believe? Believe it. To a 4- or 5-inch tall fish, a 6-inch difference in depth may be more significant than we realize, especially in such shallow water. Think cattle grazing across the plains, following the bottom of a gentle gully, and you're on the right track.
The deep daytime bite (clear open water on deep lakes) -- Faced with post-ice conditions where the water's clear and the water temperature's still too cold to draw many saugeyes up the rocky face of the dam (mock spawning area) at night, think deep, just as for walleyes. Except think walleyes with even more sensitive eyesight, because that's what saugeyes inherit from their half-sauger parentage. Classic livebait rigging with large minnows, or gentle jig-and-minnow vertical jigging tactics, will trigger fish.
