# Another Nimisila Walleye. or saugeye?



## Salt man (Aug 10, 2017)

Was out bass fishing with live shad and bluegill. Hit a nice largemouth with my only shad. Resorted to bluegills, I was expecting catfish And got a nice bite as sun was going down. 27 1/4”


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## Southernsaug (May 23, 2019)

Saugeye


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## HeaVyMeTaLFiSHinGFiEnD (Oct 2, 2010)

beautiful fish


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## matticito (Jul 17, 2012)

Nice catch


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

Saugeye


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

You said “another”? Does this happen often? Just curious!


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## Bass knuckles (Sep 23, 2014)

I’ve caught a few over the years and my buddies a few, they are there. Comes down to luck because we’ve targeted them w nothing to show. Always get lucky bass fishing usually


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## walleye30 (Dec 25, 2019)

Very nice saugeye and bass!


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## Salt man (Aug 10, 2017)

c. j. stone said:


> You said “another”? Does this happen often? Just curious!


This is my seventh one from Nimisila. First one caught at this spot. Also first while the sun was still up. All on live bait usually shad


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## dlancy (Feb 14, 2008)

I’ve heard of the elusive Nimi walleye, but didn’t know there were any saugeye put in. That seems wrong due to it being a Lake Erie watershed lake and keeping that strain out of the big pond. 


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## Bprice1031 (Mar 13, 2016)

Actually it should be a Walleye as the fish from Nimi could make it to Lake Erie.


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## Southernsaug (May 23, 2019)

well there's this thing that anglers like to move fish around. Saugeyes have shown up in places they were never officially stocked before


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## dlancy (Feb 14, 2008)

Bprice1031 said:


> Actually it should be a Walleye as the fish from Nimi could make it to Lake Erie.


My thought exactly, guess it could have been put in by a fisherman. Either way that’s a tank saugeye! 


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## walleye30 (Dec 25, 2019)

Pretty sure state record saugeye came from lake that was never stocked with saugeye.


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## brad crappie (Sep 29, 2015)

Portage lake chains were stocked with saugeye then eyes when the flow in the canal went north instead of the natural flow south! Saugeye used do good in the main chains but in Nimmi I guess! Not a big fan of our state fisheries department


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## REEL GRIP (Jan 11, 2013)

IMO... There are more than you would think. I've seen guys stumble on to fish that
size several times, while Bass Fishing. Especially in May. Very few fishermen target them.
Plus with the weed situation there, they are hard to fish for.
I remember back in 2007, for some reason,(hard winter probable) the weeds were not bad and
in May and you were able to throw Crank-Baits I got 3 Saugeye that size crankin, that month
and I didn't even throw Cranks very often. Poe's 300 chartreuse with a green back.
Around those humps at the north end.


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

In any case, when the last saugeye is caught, that will be the end of them. Of the few walleye left, a couple will luck into egg dropping on a windblown shoreline and a few might make it to catchable size if the cormorants, crappie, or bass don.’t get all of them. If weeds are always available shallow, they will continue to give someone a thrill for the future. I guess that’ts a good thing?! This Fish Ohio walleye survived the indiscriminate stocking of them while Goodyear owned the lake(yes, a bass fisherman a handfull of years back, of course!) Fish was c&r’d! Just wish it was possible to get “Erie strain” walleye fry to start stocking in the few inland lakes draining into Erie. This would eliminate the possible threat of impacting the Erie strain with “bad genes”, and add more diversity to our local lakes!(Yeah, I know it’s never going to happen! but like to daydream abt it since my pb at Wft was 5#s back in the 90’s, early 2000’s!)


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## winguy7 (Mar 12, 2014)

So I have few honest questions. When was the last saugeye stocking? I thought that they couldn't breed and that they don't live for as long as a natural species. Also when and how did they make the portage lakes drain into lake Erie. I thought they all drain into long, with long draining Into the tusc? I will say that about four years ago I threw a cast net at night in Nimi and got all walleye or saugeye fingerlings in it. Probably a dozen or so within a couple throws.


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## Southernsaug (May 23, 2019)

winguy7 said:


> So I have few honest questions. When was the last saugeye stocking? I thought that they couldn't breed and that they don't live for as long as a natural species. Also when and how did they make the portage lakes drain into lake Erie. I thought they all drain into long, with long draining Into the tusc? I will say that about four years ago I threw a cast net at night in Nimi and got all walleye or saugeye fingerlings in it. Probably a dozen or so within a couple throws.


I didn't bother looking up the last stocking, but I will answer the other questions.

Can they breed? Yes Saugeye can and do carry viable eggs. The main obstacle to reproduction is they are usually 70% or greater Males. Then the eggs will usually have a lower hatch rate.

How long do they live? They can live just as long as a Walleye or Sauger. Again we go back to the 70% male issue. Males will typically only live 5-6 years, but a female may live 10 or more. So most die between 5 and 6 years. Fish in northern colder lakes will live longer than southern lakes, also. 

reproduction is very spotty and rare because most lakes just don't have the right conditions, but it does happen to some extent.

I have no answer for the drainage


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## brad crappie (Sep 29, 2015)

winguy7 said:


> So I have few honest questions. When was the last saugeye stocking? I thought that they couldn't breed and that they don't live for as long as a natural species. Also when and how did they make the portage lakes drain into lake Erie. I thought they all drain into long, with long draining Into the tusc? I will say that about four years ago I threw a cast net at night in Nimi and got all walleye or saugeye fingerlings in it. Probably a dozen or so within a couple throws.


 odnr has told me and others that the core of engineers has made the canal move north! My guess the canal that is on the north side of long!


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

A google inquiry mentions that some water from the Portage Lakes flows north to Lake Erie, some flows to the Ohio River. Nothing specifically abt which flows where!


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## winguy7 (Mar 12, 2014)

Thanks for the info. Especially on reproduction. As for the flow, it could drain north via the canal. I just doubt that the canal still connects to lake Erie. The only way it still connects to the Ohio is through the Tusc.


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## Bprice1031 (Mar 13, 2016)

winguy7 said:


> Thanks for the info. Especially on reproduction. As for the flow, it could drain north via the canal. I just doubt that the canal still connects to lake Erie. The only way it still connects to the Ohio is through the Tusc.


If you look at a map the canal below Long Lake does run north to Summit Lake and continues north through the city of Akron until it dumps into the Little Cuyahoga River.


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## brad crappie (Sep 29, 2015)

Bottom line that reason they screwed up a good saugeye fishery! But the government still allows foreign invading species to come in!!😳 Not sure if the they started stocking the sauger up in the Maumee yet to try to reestablish the sauger in the Lake Erie water shed!


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## nixmkt (Mar 4, 2008)

c. j. stone said:


> A google inquiry mentions that some water from the Portage Lakes flows north to Lake Erie, some flows to the Ohio River. Nothing specifically abt which flows where!





winguy7 said:


> Thanks for the info. Especially on reproduction. As for the flow, it could drain north via the canal. I just doubt that the canal still connects to lake Erie. The only way it still connects to the Ohio is through the Tusc.





Bprice1031 said:


> If you look at a map the canal below Long Lake does run north to Summit Lake and continues north through the city of Akron until it dumps into the Little Cuyahoga River.



A concrete culvert runs under Manchester Road from Long Lake (about where the Indian portaging a canoe statue is located near the dam - which is also where the Tusc used to outlet into Long Lake before it was relocated) to a combined transfer structure that outlets full time into the canal heading north and an overflow structure that goes into the Tusc only during high water events. Believe it is a continental divide location and generated controversy about sending water from one major watershed into another over the divide.


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## sonar (Mar 20, 2005)

Southernsaug said:


> I didn't bother looking up the last stocking, but I will answer the other questions.
> 
> Can they breed? Yes Saugeye can and do carry viable eggs. The main obstacle to reproduction is they are usually 70% or greater Males. Then the eggs will usually have a lower hatch rate.
> 
> ...


At Manchester Rd at Carnegie, Long lake dumps into the Ohio Canal,the Canal runs West to Barberton and North East to downtown Akron.. Between Waterloo Rd & Manchester Rd,, the Little Tusc flows in from the East... The Canal,runs on into Akron and meets with the Little Cuyahoga & continues to the Cuyahoga R.


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## rickerd (Jul 16, 2008)

Even if that canal moves north, which it appears to do, Summit Lake is still the high point, I believe. Fish from LE would have to swim upstream through Cuyahoga, leave big C for a little canal heading under Akron and into Summit Lake. Then go downhill and downstream to the upper Tusc, then turn around to go up canal and get into Portage Lakes system. I'm not saying it impossible, but doesn't seem likely. The canals are usually not flowing full of water all the time now. If you tagged those migrating fish, I bet most would go into Tusc not find way back to big C even if that is where they came from.

Rickerd


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