# maumee river sauger



## fishfray (Jul 19, 2012)

Fished at grand rapids dam from 1 to 3 pm today. It was kind of slow but i still got some fish. There were lots of white bass jumping, and i caught 5 from 12 to 14 inches. Also, I got a 15 inch sheephead, 4 channel cats from 15 - 18 in., a 7 in. LM bass, and a 6 in crappie. I got 2 sauger/saugeyes, each about 17 inches. I believe these are sauger because they are much skinnier and darker than the fish i believe to be saugeyes. They have been biting better as it gets cooler, ive caught at least 1 the past 4 times ive been to the dam.


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## mlayers (Aug 22, 2011)

what are you using for bait


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## acklac7 (May 31, 2004)

All these fish are Saugeye (IMHO). 

Doesn't anyone find it strange that all of these suspect fish seem to be over 16"?? Ask the Ohio river guys how many 16"+ Sauger they get into every year, the answer is not much. Most of em (Sauger) are 12-15", maybe a few 16-17" but not many! (16" is a Fish Ohio for Sauger!!)

At any rate the good job on the Saug-fish! I've been blasting them lately too, they're loving this cooler weather!


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

acklac7 said:


> All these fish are Saugeye (IMHO).
> 
> Doesn't anyone find it strange that all of these suspect fish seem to be over 16"?? Ask the Ohio river guys how many 16"+ Sauger they get into every year, the answer is not much. Most of em (Sauger) are 12-15", maybe a few 16-17" but not many! (16" is a Fish Ohio for Sauger!!)
> 
> At any rate the good job on the Saug-fish! I've been blasting them lately too, they're loving this cooler weather!


I wonder if the ODNR fish truck made another one of their famous "extra stops"?


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## fishfray (Jul 19, 2012)

I was using minnows for bait. That is the smallest saug-fish( I give up on deciding between the two) that I have caught this year, most are between 18 and 20 inches


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## Fisherman 3234 (Sep 8, 2008)

Mushijobah said:


> I wonder if the ODNR fish truck made another one of their famous "extra stops"?


Maumee river seems to be one of their favorite stops.....


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

acklac7 said:


> All these fish are Saugeye (IMHO).
> 
> Doesn't anyone find it strange that all of these suspect fish seem to be over 16"?? Ask the Ohio river guys how many 16"+ Sauger they get into every year, the answer is not much. Most of em (Sauger) are 12-15", maybe a few 16-17" but not many! (16" is a Fish Ohio for Sauger!!)
> 
> At any rate the good job on the Saug-fish! I've been blasting them lately too, they're loving this cooler weather!


I read somewhere that the ODNR was going to reintroduce sauger into the Maumee, but yea, these look like saugeye to me too. 

Regardless of whether sauger/saugeye theyre nice fish.

Sauger dont have the dark webbing at the base of the spiny dorsal, picture 2 clearly does. The spots on a saugers dorsal are more defined, like dots. The spots on a saugeyes dorsal are more like smears.
Maybe the ODNR stocked saugeye instead of sauger.

Here's a sauger from the GMR near the Ohio River


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

these fish are again sauger. acklack, sauger reach 16 inches very often, the dnr should make the fish ohio much larger, a 20in is a trophy, 18 is still not uncommon. in the ohio river this time of year most of the sauger you catch will be 12 to 16, as these fish have. also, these fish have spotted dorsals, they are odd looking sauger but still sauger, saugeye have a distinct band with a spot at the base at each spine. aside from the fact that there is almost no way that there are saugeye in the maumee. it is in the end far more likely in any river (without heavy stocking) that a fish has odd color, than that it is a hybrid.

sauger can have spots that are smears or odd blotches, and the body color can very from tan with few blotches to almost black. If there is anything that can be considered spotting it should be a sauger.


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## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

riverKing said:


> these fish are again sauger. acklack, sauger reach 16 inches very often, the dnr should make the fish ohio much larger, a 20in is a trophy, 18 is still not uncommon. in the ohio river this time of year most of the sauger you catch will be 12 to 16, as these fish have. also, these fish have spotted dorsals, they are odd looking sauger but still sauger, saugeye have a distinct band with a spot at the base at each spine. aside from the fact that there is almost no way that there are saugeye in the maumee. it is in the end far more likely in any river (without heavy stocking) that a fish has odd color, than that it is a hybrid.
> 
> sauger can have spots that are smears or odd blotches, and the body color can very from tan with few blotches to almost black. If there is anything that can be considered spotting it should be a sauger.


From what Ive read there is no way to tell if a fish is a saugeye by just looking at it. It can look just like a sauger or just like a walleye or a little of both. But the ony way to 100 percent know is By testing done by dnr....

Im going to guess walleye, but we may never know!


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## KaGee (Sep 8, 2006)

ODNR is not stocking the Maumee with any breed to the best of my knowledge.

The Maumee starts in Ft. Wayne, so Indiana isn't either.


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## fishfray (Jul 19, 2012)

I didnt think they stocked anything in the maumee either. This argument has gone on for weeks now, and even though I started it with the maumee species post, I'm happy to just call them saug-fish now. All I know is they are fun to catch and they've been biting great lately


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## mlayers (Aug 22, 2011)

question for u Fishfray When you are fishing the grand rapids dam where are you at. Just below the dam or close to where the river start. You say you are using minnows do you use a bobber or fishing on the bottom. I would like to try fishing there but don't really know the area.


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## fishfray (Jul 19, 2012)

I have caught all of them in the first pool closest to the dam. Some were only a few feet away from the dam, others were at the end of the pool up to about 50 yards away. I use bobbers for minnows, usually I set it 2.5 to 4 ft up, depending on the water level. I have also caught them using white jigs. You will most likely catch white bass, catfish, or sheephead first, but I probably catch one saug-fish for every 5 other fish I catch. Good luck


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## mlayers (Aug 22, 2011)

Thanks I am going to try and get there in the next week or two I am over a hour from there so when I go I want to make sure I have enough time to fish. Thanks again


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## Daveo76 (Apr 14, 2004)

Another Ohio River Sauger. No black spot at bottom of dorsal, no white at tip of tail, black dots on dorsal


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## fishfray (Jul 19, 2012)

That fish looks very different from the ones I've caught.


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## Jmsteele187 (Dec 22, 2011)

I would expect an Ohio river fish to look very different from a maumee river fish. They are two different watersheds with different structure, food base and conditions. Have you ever seen a walleye from lake Winnipeg? They don't call them greenbacks for nothing. 

Here is a link to some decent fish ID pics that I found. http://www.tnfish.org/PhotoGalleryFish_TWRA/FishPhotoGallery_TWRA/images/PikeperchKeyNegus_jpg.jpg

After looking at quite a few pics, I'm still undecided weather it sauger or saugeye. But, I'm leaning more toward sauger.


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