educate us on what a sauger is and why you would hybrid with walleye and then what the advantages (or disadvantages) of the saug-eye might be? are these best suited for smaller or larger ponds and are we targeting cooler/northern ponds or can they do southern ponds too?
The Saugeye came about in KS as an additional fishing opportunity that was desirable because of growth rate typical of most hybrids.
What was NOT known for some time was their tolerance of less than stelar water quality, the ability to thrive in higher than both parent stocks temp ranges and then later yet the discovery of their appetite for sunfish opposite the typical fusiform shape desired by most predators. This led to a massive shift in biomass with quantity over quality pan-fisheries. It was found by accident, really.. several stunted crappie situations turned from an untouchable number of 5-7", uncontrollable crappie populations into a suddenly increasing size of crappie that led to large crappie that had never been observed in many KS impoundments.
Over the last decade, studies have shown the Saugeye to work better than anything known for controlling massive numbers of small BG without disrupting other species population such as LMB in a negative manner. Most of the research conducted showed the LMB population structure had an over abundance of small, hungry bass that due to cover related issues, the smaller BG were not being consumed and resulted in some starvation of small LMB with a following explosion of BG. Now, we all know this is a management issue in small ponds, and it's easy to say there is cover that needs removed for predator access. When the state looks at this, the time factor plays a role and it becomes impractical for them to devote Many hours of time to lessen the percentage of habitat.
Enter the Saugeye.. Observations of these fish having one or 2 up cruising through cattails and other dense shoreline cover vegetation running smaller fish out to other waiting mouths.
Stocking rates required have been found to be fairly low when being used as a tool to modify a panfish structure, like 4-10 fish per acre, every other year and like any other fish we deal with, they are culled when desired results are noted.
Walleye can do "ok" in some ponds but if you really note body condition by the numbers, seldom will you ever find WAE above the 85% WR mark, it's just not where they do well. Take a saugeye from a small, slightly discolored, maybe 80-82 deg water body type and generally you will find them in the 90%+ WR.
Basically, the Saugeye gets only growth potential from the WAE.. They take on the traits of Sauger in preferring warmer, turbid conditions where WAE fail badly, then add the hybrid vigor that builds in the aggressive behavior and you have a very useful tool that is easily caught, does a lot of work for you and taste very well on the table.
Many states use the Saugeye in larger impoundments to replace WAE where they won't recruit for various reasons.
For archives: WAE=Walleye, SAE=Saugeye. These are widely accepted abbreviations for these 2 fish and are used by my state hatcheries for ID, so that's how I use them.
Edit: As for location, they do well in the top 1/3rd of Texas-on North. In a nutshell, they handle warmer water than WAE.
