Eating Sauger?

I am curius, I have been reading post on her for a while now and I get the impression that a lot of you guys actully eat the sauger you catch out of the ohio river, does anyone really know if that is a safe thing to be doing?
Thanks, Perk

I stole this from the following site:

[url]http://web.epa.ohio.gov/dsw/fishadvisory/limitmeals.html#Ohiobrush[/url]

Ohio River All Waters
(Adams, Athens, Belmont, Brown, Clermont, Columbiana, Gallia, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Scioto, Washington Counties)

Fish type: 1 Meal every: Contaminant:
Channel Catfish 2 Months PCBs

Black Crappie, 1 Month PCBs
Common Carp,
Flathead Catfish,
Freshwater Drum,
Sauger,
Smallmouth Bass
Smallmouth Buffalo,
Striped Bass Hybrid,
Walleye,
White Bass

I generally try to stay within the guidelines set by the epa...however that being said if you had a whole legal team standing behind you while you made your consumption report I would imagine you would err on the side of caution, waaay out on the side of caution. I noticed that all 3 states (KY OH IN) have different consumption advisories for the river so I am not sure which one is valid. I will eat sauger out of the river because I cant seem to catch them (their cousin the walleye) at Brookville lake so I am stuck with what I have locally and boy oh boy! do they taste good!! I think this is a personal issue kinda like smoking cigars or having unprotected intercourse with a skanky hooker outside of a drug rehab center. By the way enjoy your river caught sauger! (oh and that rubber casing around the fish isnt to keep it fresh, it's a used condom, you might want to toss that.)

Good Luck!
Bill

I eat quite a few sauger caught from the Ohio from the Big Sandy to the mouth of [I]Kinniconick Creek.Kentucky recommendations are more lenient in the advisory.
Jake
UPPER REACH (Mouth of Big Sandy to Markland Dam)

Species General Population
Paddlefish (and eggs) 6 meals / year
Carp 1 meal / month
Channel catfish (Greater than (>) 21”) 6 meals / year
Channel catfish (Less than (<) 21”) 1 meal / month
Smallmouth buffalo 1 meal / month
White bass 1 meal / month
Drum 1 meal / month
White crappie Unlimited
Hybrid striped bass 1 meal / month
Sauger 1 meal / week 1 meal / month
Flathead catfish 1 meal / week
Black basses (largemouth, etc.) 1 meal / week
[/I]

Hey guys,,,I`ve been fishin the river hard for over 25 yrs,, I`ve seen it go from being nasty to a great fishery. The Walleye have made a great comeback, it takes good water quilty for the stripers which are thriveing. I have no proplem eating fish out of there,,,well lets take that back,,,i eat the sauger/walleye,,yummmmm, I take a striper every now and then, But I see nothing wrong with eating them,,,they taste great to me. So EVERYBODY keep thinkin its a nasty ass river,,,and stay out of my honey hole....LOL

[QUOTE=onemorecast56;388818]Hey guys,,,I`ve been fishin the river hard for over 25 yrs,, I`ve seen it go from being nasty to a great fishery. The Walleye have made a great comeback, it takes good water quilty for the stripers which are thriveing. I have no proplem eating fish out of there,,,well lets take that back,,,i eat the sauger/walleye,,yummmmm, I take a striper every now and then, But I see nothing wrong with eating them,,,they taste great to me. So EVERYBODY keep thinkin its a nasty ass river,,,and stay out of my honey hole....LOL[/QUOTE]

I for one am very glad the river is getting straightened up, it's good to hear from guys who have seen the river in its "not so good" times and see it back in a big way.

[QUOTE=onemorecast56;388818]Hey guys,,,I`ve been fishin the river hard for over 25 yrs,, I`ve seen it go from being nasty to a great fishery. The Walleye have made a great comeback, it takes good water quilty for the stripers which are thriveing. I have no proplem eating fish out of there,,,well lets take that back,,,i eat the sauger/walleye,,yummmmm, I take a striper every now and then, But I see nothing wrong with eating them,,,they taste great to me. So EVERYBODY keep thinkin its a nasty ass river,,,and stay out of my honey hole....LOL[/QUOTE]

I have been eating them for 40 years . But I suggest everyone else that catches a sauger to throw it back as fast as possible :)

Here's a link to KDFWR's fish consumption advisories:
[URL]http://fw.ky.gov/fishadvisory.asp[/URL]

I know alot of guys do but I'm not one of them. I have seen too much junk that flows in the river to ever enjoy the fish meat.

consumption advisories are GARBAGE............pure legal speak GARBAGE........

Here is one from the cleanest, most pristine water I've EVER BEEN ON..........The border lakes in Canada.

[url]http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/showreport.html?downum=16063300[/url]

Does this look familiar.......

Boys and girls.......EAT away.........you're more likely to die from about 10 billion other things BESIDES polution in fish.

This reminds me of the advisories on artifical sweeteners.......yea, they cause cancer....if you eat oh say 10 LBS of the stuff a day.........

Later,

Geo

I looked at the entire list and only four listings (all lakes) were more than once a month.

I still think the EPA uses highly paid lawyers to advise when writing a consumption guide...and God forbid there are trace amounts of certain chemicals in the animals we consume. I would love to see what goes into our beef from McDonalds, now that would be a report the lawyers would go ga-ga over! My favorite is when a guy says he doesnt eat the fish from a certain body of water while taking a drag on his cigarette!!! ahahahaha Life is full of little ironies....

Bill