# Unexpectedly good day on the water...



## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

I had Veteran's Day off and decided to make a go of it. Hit a local flow and nailed a sweet 15 inch smallie right off the bat followed by a decent sauger. (Both fish were caught in a deep slow pool.) My best friend met up with me and he caught a sauger as well before we hit a nearby quarry where I landed a couple LMB. All fish were caught on a 3.25 Joshy slush, which I am now about out of. I wasn't expecting much and was pleasantly surprised at the result although a couple more smallies would've been nice...

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## allbraid (Jan 14, 2012)

A good November Day, Congrats!!


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## kayakmac (Aug 4, 2013)

Nice fish, congrats on a good day!!


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## Alexculley (Sep 18, 2013)

Nice job. I beg it was great being out today. I could not stop staring at the pond behind the office. Kills me everyday to see that no fishing sign. Like they know.


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

Alexculley said:


> Nice job. I beg it was great being out today. I could not stop staring at the pond behind the office. Kills me everyday to see that no fishing sign. Like they know.


That's probably just a liability sign; fish it until someone says you can't...

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## Alexculley (Sep 18, 2013)

Deazl666 said:


> That's probably just a liability sign; fish it until someone says you can't...
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I510 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


Lol my desk mate did that. He got about 20 minutes in before some came by and kicked him out. Then on Monday had a meeting with the boss. Got three emails from up the food chain about how we are not allowed to fish in or around the pond. It's a shame too I have seen huge fish just cruising the banks.


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## acklac7 (May 31, 2004)

Nice Job, Fat lil Sauger


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## Bimmer (Aug 12, 2011)

Very nice and always good to be off.


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

Alexculley said:


> Lol my desk mate did that. He got about 20 minutes in before some came by and kicked him out. Then on Monday had a meeting with the boss. Got three emails from up the food chain about how we are not allowed to fish in or around the pond. It's a shame too I have seen huge fish just cruising the banks.


What a bunch of goobers...


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

Deazl666 said:


> Hit a local flow and nailed a sweet 15 inch smallie right off the bat followed by a decent sauger. (Both fish were caught in a deep slow pool.)


Well welcome to the party, or....DUH! 
And iffin you keep sneaking downstream, to bigger, deeper pools, closer to that bigger, deeper river....and throw bigger lures, deeper....you'll find their bigger buddies. I mean that, deeply.


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## tpat (Apr 4, 2008)

nice work! if im not mistaken that is a saugeye. that dorsal does not look as spotty as they usually do. either way, this makes me excited for the weekend.


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

tpat said:


> nice work! if im not mistaken that is a saugeye. that dorsal does not look as spotty as they usually do. either way, this makes me excited for the weekend.


Can be hard to tell; but the dorsal fin (not including the spots) was absolutely clear. And the white strip on the tail seems to be within the range of a sauger. Plus, and this might not matter since fish do travel, saugeye are not, as far as I know, stocked in this particular creek, but sauger are known to be present and growing in number, anecdotally. I would love to know for sure though because I catch a lot of these including a F.O. back in the spring...

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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

streamstalker said:


> It seems I used to catch an unintentional sauger about every other time I was on that flow. Not so much, anymore.


Opposite for me; I started catching one or two per trip this year (out of the five I've been at it). Could be the Joshy's I suppose but I catch them on inlines too, which I've always used...

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## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Not meaning to hijack here..but I think that's a ssugeye... The LACK of dorsal fin spots is what would determine that...if the fish HAS a dorsal fin spots...sauger....anyway...nice catches for November!


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## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Edit...sorry deazl..I had that completely backwards...sorry..you are correct about the dorsal fin spots


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## Daveo76 (Apr 14, 2004)

Deazl knows what he caught. Here's a Sauger with the spots and the transparency of the fins of a walleye, but the black dot at the base of the fin. Saugers don't have that. Easiest way to tell. Sauger, sauger, walleye. Saugeyes have the spots on the fin but they are scattered. Saugers are in a pattern


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

Daveo76 said:


> Deazl knows what he caught. Here's a Sauger with the spots and the transparency of the fins of a walleye, but the black dot at the base of the fin. Saugers don't have that. Easiest way to tell. Sauger, sauger, walleye. Saugeyes have the spots on the fin but they are scattered. Saugers are in a pattern


So to clarify, that's a sauger I'm holding in my hand, right?


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## Daveo76 (Apr 14, 2004)

That's a Sauger if the spots were in a pattern. Looks like it to me. If there is no black dot at the back bottom of the dorsal, it's a sauger.


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## tpat (Apr 4, 2008)

also to clarify, im not saying deazl doesnt know what he caught. in fact, i said i might be mistaken. i just thought the spots seemed to be more bar-like. ive heard sauger have no white tip on the tail. it is entirely possible for a saugeye to migrate up a few of the tribs. nice fish and thanks for the report!


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

I'm going to keep beating this horse...

So these are the ODNR pics that I used to identify these things once I started catching them a lot this year. (I didn't really care until I landed a 16 incher.) Anyway, I think my fish looks a little more like the sauger (note that the specimen in the DNR pic also has a narrow white strip on the tail). Another difference is that both my fish and the DNR sauger pic show small spots on the pec fins whereas the saugeye pic seems to lack these. Finally the second dorsal on my fish looks more like the fin on the sauger. 

Anyone else care to weigh in?


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## Daveo76 (Apr 14, 2004)

Sauger top, black saddles more prominent, Saugeye bottom. Judging from this, yours is a Sauger


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## GoneFishin75 (May 14, 2012)

Hey dealz! After doing some extensive research and speaking with a specialist from ODNR here's the verdict. The saddle spots are on both sauger & saugeye so the way to always tell is by looking at the dorsal fin, looking anywhere else does not determine anything between the two. Walleye of course do not have the black spots on the dorsal fin and has a different body pattern. Here is the pic that the specialist provided to me. 

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## GoneFishin75 (May 14, 2012)

Also I want to add that the saugeye has more of a longer spot at the top of the dorsal fin. 

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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

Thanks for humoring me guys and thanks for the input as well. Here's the description from ODNR:

_The sauger is similar in appearance to the walleye or the hybrid between the two known as the saugeye. They have many dark spots on their dorsal fin often forming rows. The first dorsal fin is usually relatively clear in unspotted areas, and there is not a large dusky area at the rear base of the fin as in walleye. The over all body coloration of a sauger is a bronze or brown color compared to the usual gray or more silver color of a walleye. The sauger has large dark oblong blotches on the sides of their body which are more visible when the fish are sitting still. Sauger do not have large white edges to the lower part of their tail and anal fin like a walleye, at best they have a very thin lighter colored edge that is often more yellow in color. _

Based on that description, I see similarities between my fish and both the sauger and saugeye (e.g. all my fish had a bronze/brown appearance); so I don't know what I caught, what I have been catching, or whether my F.O. is legit.  I'm attaching pics of other specimens I caught this year from the same flow. The last two pics - the one with me holding the fish and the other that just shows its dorsal - would be the 16 inch specimen I claimed as a F.O. sauger. Maybe the fin is a dead giveaway that it's an eye, but I can't say for sure. Note that you _can_ see the papertowel pattern through the clear area of the fin though.


I really want to get this sorted out 

EDIT: I think these are saugeye...


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## Big Joshy (Apr 26, 2004)

Deazl the fish in your last post all look like saugeye to me. If you are getting them where I think you are its nothing new for that water. I just believe that there are more eyes of that size around in the river system that flow ties into than there used to be. I have been getting a alot of small saugeye this year out of a similar flow that ties into the same river. Where in years past there were very few. Im guessing you will catch even bigger ones next year since all these fish are just going to keep growing. 

However, if I am wrong and they are all sauger....forget everything I said  lol


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## Daveo76 (Apr 14, 2004)

tpat said:


> also to clarify, im not saying deazl doesnt know what he caught. in fact, i said i might be mistaken. i just thought the spots seemed to be more bar-like. ive heard sauger have no white tip on the tail. it is entirely possible for a saugeye to migrate up a few of the tribs. nice fish and thanks for the report!


 I didn't mean anything by it. You fishermen up there have more saugeyes to be able to tell the difference. Saugeyes do have a rounder tail and saugers are more pointed. I'll not give anymore input if people think this post was to " humor" them. Still a nice fish.


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

Saugeye it is then. If Josh is correct, the smallies will be competing with the fast growing saugeyes for food, right? Offtopic, but if that's the case, could that pose a problem for native smallmouth? 

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## MoreBass (Jun 15, 2012)

Nice catch! We braved the weather as well and it payed off. We may have been the only ones out on the water that day, but we were okay with that. Happy Fishing!


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

Deazl666 said:


> Saugeye it is then. If Josh is correct, the smallies will be competing with the fast growing saugeyes for food, right? Offtopic, but if that's the case, could that pose a problem for native smallmouth?
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I510 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


Smallies are MUCH more prolific feeders than saugeye. It's the spotted bass that you have to be concerned with.


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## fisherboy (Sep 17, 2012)

Love telling WE & saueyes apart. In the Maumee last yr the ODNR denied there were saugeyes up river. Finally this yr they acknowledge that there were below the last 2 dams. They really did not know where they came from. But they are there. I usually check the cheeks for rought scales. But who really know?


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## devans1986 (Apr 25, 2013)

Although I do think the cold front slowed things down. Better than I did on a rooster-less pheasant hunt.


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

devans1986 said:


> Although I do think the cold front slowed things down. Better than I did on a rooster-less pheasant hunt.


True, although today I removed the F.O. certificate from my cube wall and tossed in the recycle bin.


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## tpat (Apr 4, 2008)

Deazl666 said:


> True, although today I removed the F.O. certificate from my cube wall and tossed in the recycle bin.


oh man. now i feel like the turd in the punchbowl. sorry, i owe you one deazl.


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

tpat said:


> oh man. now i feel like the turd in the punchbowl. sorry, i owe you one deazl.


That's okay.  I was never 100 percent that's what it was although I did my best (at the time) to identify it...

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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

montagc said:


> Just take it as an excuse to try for another FO!


I have another one from this year, but it's a friggin sunfish, lol...

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## Alexculley (Sep 18, 2013)

Deazl666 said:


> That's okay.  I was never 100 percent that's what it was although I did my best (at the time) to identify it...
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I510 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


Don't feel to bad. You see I haven't been able to identify a damn small moth all year.


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

Alexculley said:


> Don't feel to bad. You see I haven't been able to identify a damn small moth all year.


Try the streams; you're a great deal more likely to catch a smallie than a LMB. Compare the pics in my original post...

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