Sauger weight in!!!

[Boat Bums]

How many would like to see a size limit on sauger on the ohio river?

[mhall]

How many would like to see a size limit on sauger on the ohio river?

Me for sure but you'd have to hire five hundred more DNR guys to enforce it. Some of those guys down there act like they are starving or something.

[Boat Bums]

Trying to find infor on this matter is a b#^$%^!! But what if we are the reason that the sauger run is not what it used to be. If we are keeping fish that are not reaching maturity then we are cutting our own throats!!! They don't spawn until spring so every fish we keep are not going to spawn. These fish can get on average of 3-6 pounds. We as fisherman know what a little mangerment can do. There is no reason why the ohio river can not be our Lake Michigan.

[kyjake]

I would like to see them try it for a few years and see if it helps.Seems there are plenty of first year sauger but they don't know what makes them disappear in their second and third year.This is copied from a study.
Age and growth information indicated that sauger grew fast (15 inches by their third year of life), but very few survived beyond age 3. Something caused sauger to disappear at younger ages in the Ohio River. Fisheries managers use the term total annual mortality to describe all sources of fish mortality within a population. This may be further divided into fishing mortality (fish removed by anglers) and natural mortality (fish dying from “natural” causes). Total mortality rates for sauger between ages 1 and 2 in the Ohio River ranged between 63 and 98% and generally exceeded 90% in most tailwaters. Biologists were concerned that the truncated length and age structure and high mortality rates may be indicative of over-harvest. However, over-harvest cannot be confirmed until biologists determine the actual fishing and natural mortality rates.
Jake

[JD7.62]

I would like to see a 12" or maybe 14" limit on these fish. Nothing pisses me off more then seeing a 6" on a stringer! WTF?!

[BASSKING]

a 12" limit would help but i think it is a selective harvest practice that would help most. what i mean by that is no over harvesting theese fish like it is done now. i generally dont keep many of the fish i catch. i tink last year we may have kept 20. those little cigars have no reason to be put in a basket or on a stringer but there is not much i can say about it. the bigger fish have to be harvested (specially the big females) with caution because you dont wantwipe out your breeding stock and the little cigars need to growto some sort of maturity so the inbetween sized fish which would be 12-15or 16 inches long and the accasional bigger male or female would be the taget size to harvest. from what i know about the sauger they dont spawn until the spring so right now is there pre-spawn i would imagne and they will be fattening up for the spawn. they will show up sooner or later and the nastiest days are the best days to be fishing for them today they might be on fire and come a decent sunny day they may never show up. i have also heard a few guys catching them at night and before the sun gets up so there is another option right now.

[F16ENGMGR]

I vote no limit. Remember the limit imposed on spotted bass? Yeah that was removed later. Too many little guys and there's no shortage for sure. Creel limit of 10 on the Ohio River too.

[BASSKING]

conservation is going to be the key for keeping the sauger population as strong as it has been for last few years. without some type of plan they will be extremely depleted with in the years to come. if we didnt have the regulations on other speices of fish look at what shape our fisheries would be in. probably some of the worst around huh?? a 10 fish a day limit with a keepable size being 12-15 inches would probably greatly increase the quality of our sauger population. just something to consider if theese fish are going to be plenifull in the future. Bassking

BTW, sunday the fishing was showing a pick up with what i saw were some being caught with the occasional bigger fish at Mcalpine.

[Boat Bums]

Hey I think this some great stuff. And once again I glad to have found a site with people who talk without being one sided. I have post else were that I have room for someone to buddy up for a boat ride but I'm only going to let sauger above 15" in the boat. This will be my stand maybe I'll be fishing alone. I'm not going to go cry to the government. We as fisherman should be able to do this our selves. It is small area and why should we not see the same size fish as they do up north of here. I would like to see a day when 3-4 # sauger are not so uncommon.

[Rudypoo4444]

I never keep a sauger under 12", but that is just me. There are plenty out there that keep them smaller than that, and that is why we catch dinks all the time. I can't wait until the department wises up and puts a size limit on them.

[riverrat12]

I to only keep sauger that are at least 12 and usally lean closer to the 15in. mark. The last few years that has been no problem. I think right now we have a much bigger problem in the rivers eco system with the bighead and silver carp for these fish are litterly going to take over due to there eating and spawning habits, not to mention no real predaters...Didn't mean to highjack the thread...sorry mike. Chuck

[JD7.62]

Chuck, you are totally right.

Laws are made and the media makes a huge fuss over exotics like piranhas and snakeheads that would never survive our winters, yet the silver and bighead carp along with other less spectactular but just as bad if not worse invaders such as zebra muscles and round gobies are recking havoc. Do you ever here new laws made about them or a news special on their destruction?