# Buckeye/Hoover saugeye stocking info



## deerfarmer (Apr 21, 2012)

I had some free time today and thought I would see if I could run down someone that had some insight on Buckeye/Hoover saugeye stockings. I was able to get ahold of ODNR fish Biologist Nick Radabaugh. He gave me some excellence information and I thought I would share. *Links to the stocking info at end of this post.*

Hi Steve,
It was nice chatting with you today. I’ve attached pdf’s that contain stocking numbers for Hoover and Buckeye. Feel free to share. Some things to note when you’re looking at these numbers…

Our target stocking rate for saugeye fingerlings is 100/acre. These fish are raised in hatchery ponds for about a month and then stocked at 1-1.5” lengths in mid to late-May.
Our target stocking rate for saugeye fry is 1,000/acre. The higher rate is to account for the expected decrease in survival associated with stocking smaller fish. These are only a week or so old when stocked in mid to late-April.
You’ll notice that the stocking numbers are sometimes below or above our target rate. This can be attributed to annual variability in production in our hatcheries as well as prioritization by fisheries managers.
The number of fish stocked is only one component of overall survival. Many different factors including food availability (zooplankton and eventually shad fry), predation, weather, water level fluctuations and reservoir discharge rates all play an important role in determining how many of the fish stocked in the spring are still there in the fall.


Buckeye Lake


Buckeye did receive reduced rates of saugeye during the years the lake was drawn down for dam construction, including not receiving any fish the first year of the drawdown (2015). This was done out of concern for potential fish kill conditions during the draw down. Particularly summer conditions with warm water temperatures, low dissolved oxygen levels, and increased algae. However, with no major fish kills observed during the first two years of work on the dam, stocking rates were returned to 100/acre in 2017. The 2018 rate was lower only because of poor hatchery production.
Similarly, Buckeye was not stocked with hybrid striped bass in 2015, but received close to target rates every other year (50 fingerlings/acre or 250 fry/acre).
You mentioned anglers are seeing two size classes of fish right now. This is not surprising as there are currently two big year classes of fish out there, which was reflected in our gill net catches last fall. There’s are big group of fish ranging from 20-25”. These fish are most likely all from the 2014 year class, which had extremely high survival that year. These fish are now 5 years old, which is pretty amazing considering we typically don’t see many saugeye over the age of 3 in any of our reservoirs. The 14.5” saugeye that everyone is also catching are 2 year old fish from the 2017 year class. I would expect most of these fish to be over 15” by summer.


Hoover


If you fish Hoover for saugeye then you know the last 5 or so years have been bad. This is the result of a string of years from 2013 to 2016 of very low to no survival of our stocked fish. I have heard rumors from anglers that the reason for the collapse of the saugeye fishery is because we switched to stocking all fry. This is not true. Hoover was part of a statewide study looking at fry vs. fingerling stocking success during that time period. Hoover received alternating years of fry and fingerlings (2013-fry, 2014-fingerling, 2015-fry, 2016-fingerling). In 2013 (fry), survival was slightly below average, 2014 (fingerling) was very low, and 2015 and 2016 had almost no survival. We expect variable survival from our stockings, but to have four years in a row is uncommon to say the least. For a fish that only lives 3 years on average, four years of bad survival pretty much wiped out the population. In an effort to reverse this trend stocking rates have been increased the last two years at Hoover and we saw very good survival out of our 2017 fish and about average survival out of the 2018 fish. Stocking more does not always equal more. As I said earlier there are many things out of our control that affect fish survival, but stocking rates are the one component we as managers can influence.
Rumors of a return of walleye to Hoover are true. But, this is not coinciding with a cut to saugeye stocking. Instead, we will be stocking both species for a minimum of three years. For a brief overview of why we’re doing this I’ll direct you to a note from our Inland fisheries administrator on Jim Horan’s Hoover Fishing Reports website http://fishandtales.net/hoover.html scroll down to “news and events”. One of our main hopes is that walleye will provide a greater proportion of older, and hopefully larger fish than our current saugeye population.


Sorry to bombard you with information, but you had a lot of good questions and I think one of the most important parts of our jobs as biologists is communicating with the anglers that are paying for our services through their license dollars and making sure they have access to accurate information. While not everything here is available with the click of a button, it is available with a quick call to a fisheries biologist at your closest Division of Wildlife district office.
If you ever have any more questions (or fishing reports) feel free to get a hold of me. Good luck out there, and hopefully we’ll see you on the water!

Thanks,

Nick
http://www.ohiocrappie.com/Buckeye Lake saugeye stocking.pdf
http://www.ohiocrappie.com/Buckeye Lake Hybrid Striped Bass stocking.pdf
http://www.ohiocrappie.com/Hoover Saugeye stocking.pdf


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## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Nick is awesome! Thanks deerfarmer


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## slowtroller (Sep 28, 2011)

Great job Steve as normal, if only Mark could catch fish.


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## acklac7 (May 31, 2004)

Awesome info, thanks DeerFarmer!

I've met Nick before, awesome guy. I'm pretty sure he's a member on here too, and frequently checks reports as a way of conducting creel-surveys.


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## polebender (Oct 29, 2011)

slowtroller said:


> Great job Steve as normal, if only Mark could catch fish.


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## caught your eye (Feb 10, 2014)

Wow great to see him take so much time to explain things in detail. ODNR is lucky to have him. Deerfarmer thanks for taking the time to research it and for sharing info. For all you guys that have never fished Buckeye its a terrible lake don't waste your time ..... wink wink


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## allbraid (Jan 14, 2012)

Wow! Really great read, very interesting information. Thanks for taking the time to post this.


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## Brahmabull71 (Jul 30, 2014)

Thanks Deerfarmer! This is why this forum is such a great resource. Great post!

Now, if only Ploebender would stop bass fishing like my sister and go catch these toothy critters!


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## polebender (Oct 29, 2011)

Brahmabull71 said:


> Thanks Deerfarmer! This is why this forum is such a great resource. Great post!
> 
> Now, if only Ploebender would stop bass fishing like my sister and go catch these toothy critters!


Watch it buddy! It’s not easy fishing with an a$$hole all the time!


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## fishslim (Apr 28, 2005)

Thanks Steve totally verified what i was also told by another at the Hoover seminars. Great info for all. I think it does show that with less fishing pressure on a lake the age of saugeyes can be longer. great info thanks again


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## BrodyC (Jan 4, 2018)

Very interesting read, I am curious as to what they believe the reason for the poor Saugeye survival was.


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## wvfisherman (Nov 26, 2018)

Now that's a very detailed description thanks nick


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

BrodyC said:


> Very interesting read, I am curious as to what they believe the reason for the poor Saugeye survival was.


He did, while not specifically naming one primary influence for the failure as it could have been combinations of many or all of the reasons he cited. 


The number of fish stocked is only one component of overall survival. Many different factors including food availability (zooplankton and eventually shad fry), predation, weather, water level fluctuations and reservoir discharge rates all play an important role in determining how many of the fish stocked in the spring are still there in the fall.


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## Lewzer (Apr 5, 2004)

This is great information. 
On a side note the Seneca fish hatchery should be propagating the walleye eggs and making baby saugeyes right about now. I'll be taking my family down there within the next couple of weeks.
I stopped by last fall when I was burning some vacation on my way to Ohio Power and they gave me a complete tour although nothing was going one. They were very informative and full of information about the saugeye stockings across the lake. The bonus was info on the hybrid bass stockings as they raise those too.

http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/species-and-habitats/fisheries-management


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## firemanmike2127 (Mar 17, 2013)

Deerfarmer, thanks for sharing informative report Mr. Radabaugh sent you. I found thethe observations quite interesting from the biologist's perspective. The science & management of our natural resources is something all sportsmen should take interest in. An additional thank you is in order for Mr. Radabaugh for sending you such a thorough & week detailed report. Mike


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## Sampy67 (Oct 24, 2008)

Thanks Deerfarmer!!!


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