Name/Relations || Range/Sizes || Habitat & Habits ||  Notes

	Note: Unlike walleye, no white spot on tail. Has spots on dorsal fin.

Common Name:  Sauger
Other Common Names:  pike, grey pike, jack salmon, jack
Scientific name:  Stizostedian canadense
Family:  Percidae (perches)
Related Species:  Walleye, Blue Pike, Yellow Perch, Saugeye

Sizes:  Up to 9lbs, common 1lb-4lbs.
 

Habitat:  Large rivers and associated impoundments.   Can survive in larger lakes.  Prefers cool, turbid, moving water, especially in tailraces below dams and around gravel bars near deep water, 45-60 degrees F but can range well outside these temperatures.

Spawning Habits: In spring schools move into shallow backwaters or tributary creeks and streams with gravely/weedy bottoms.  Males move along side a larger female and drop the eggs and milt, then either mate again or leave.  Largely occurs at night and when the water temp reaches 45-55 degrees F. No effort is made to guard eggs or build nests.

Feeding Habits:  Saugers like current and tailraces.  Smaller saugers feed largely on nymphs, worms, and small crustaceans while their diet moves to mostly fishes as they grow, especially silversides, shiners, shad, alewives, smelts, and chubs.  They will school near the current boundry layer on the bottom or in whirlpools and intercept or chase disoriented minnows or other food item. They will also hug rocky banks, or sit behind downed trees,  and sit near the edges of wingdams, jumping into the current to intercept food.  At times in the spring and fall they will also enter channels into sloughs and side channels to feed on minnows.
 

Notes:  A popular river fish, especially in the winter and early spring, when they feed heavily in large schools below dams, especially in the Mississippi River.  Bouncing a minnow or worm on the bottom is a high payoff technique, as is jigging with heavy jigs tipped with minnows.  They are also caught under the ice on the big rivers using ice jigs tiped with minnows or worms, and will hit many of the same lure intended for walleye.  This fish can both naturally and artificially hybridize with walleye, creating the saugeye. This hybrid is exceptionally hardy and is a favorite of fisheries managers who commonly stock it to enhance lake fisheries.