Sauger

Sauger are most often mixed up with walleye, and the two do overlap in the same rivers, so look closely before you decide which one is in your hand. The clearest tell is the first dorsal fin: sauger have distinct black spots scattered across the membrane between the spines, while a walleye's first dorsal fin is plain, dusky, or blotchy without sharp round spots. Sauger also lack the white tip on the lower lobe of the tail fin that walleye almost always show, though sauger do share the milky, glassy eyes that both species use to feed in low light.

Body pattern helps too. Sauger have several dark, saddle-shaped blotches running down their sides that are more distinct and angular than the vague mottling on a walleye. Sauger also run smaller and more slender on average, with a more torpedo-like build, and their cheeks are usually rougher and more scaled than a walleye's. When in doubt, the spotted dorsal fin is the single fastest way to separate the two.

Sauger live in large, turbid rivers and the tailwaters below dams. They hug the bottom in main-channel current, holding in deep holes, wing dams, and current seams where the flow slows enough to rest but still delivers food.

In North Carolina and Virginia, the best populations turn up in the larger river systems and reservoir tailraces, particularly stretches of the New River and other Ohio River basin waters in the far western mountains. They are not a coastal-plain or piedmont fish. Where they exist, they stack up below dams in cold months, which is where nearly all of them get caught.

Sauger are bottom-oriented predators that feed mostly on small fish: shad, minnows, and young sunfish, along with crayfish and insect larvae picked off the river bed. Their eyes are built for low light, so they feed heavily at dawn, dusk, and after dark, and stay active in muddy water that would shut down most sight-feeders.

Fish slow and deep. A jig tipped with a minnow, bounced right along the bottom through a current seam or below a dam, is the standard rig. Keep it close to the bottom at all times. Sauger will not chase far or rise up to hit something.

Cold water is prime time. Fish tailrace pools and deep holes in winter and early spring, working the jig with a slow lift-and-drop retrieve. Because they see well in stained water and poorly in bright light, overcast days and low light hours produce far more bites than a sunny midday. Vertical jigging from a boat anchored on a seam is the most consistent method where the fish are known to run.