Sauger are a fish of low light, be it by depth of water, murkiness, or the cloak of night. Hypersensitive eyes, trim bodies built to slip current, they are a fish you must target to connect with. Sauger and walleyes may look remarkably alike, and sauger may overlap with walleyes, at least at times. But sauger have a separate identity and distinct habitat preferences. To ignore the differences between them is to catch sauger only when the two fish intermingle and to miss out on prime feeding periods.

Understanding Sauger

That eerie glow in a sauger’s eye comes from a light-reflecting pigment called tapetum lucidum in the retina. Walleyes also have tapetum in their eyes, but in sauger, the pigment is more uniformly distributed, making sauger even better suited to living in dimly-lit environments. Sauger tend to prefer murkier water than walleyes. The typical “walleye zone” on major rivers extends down to about 18 feet, while the “sauger zone” on the same fishery rarely gets shallower than about 12 feet, at least during the day. Some experts say you can draw an imaginary line at 15 feet, with walleyes normally shallower and sauger normally deeper. Sauger may stray shallower, however, in murky water, at low-light periods of dawn and dusk, after dark, and on extremely dark days.

The deeper or more turbid water that sauger tend to inhabit offers prime light levels for feeding during late morning and late afternoon. In the dim light of deep water, the vision advantage sauger have over their prey remains even when the sun might be blaring overhead. In muddy rivers, they can bite all day, and midday can be the best bite of all, creating intriguing game plan possibilities on waters with good populations of both sauger and walleyes. On relatively clear waters, however, sauger tend to feed primarily at low-light periods, just as walleyes do.

Sauger have a more tubular-shaped body than walleyes (which, by comparison, are more pear-shaped), giving them an advantage in swifter current. Sauger tend to be found in stronger current than walleyes, and they hold to the “current side” of structural elements more than walleyes do. Sauger seem to do better than walleyes in murky water. Sauger live in a niche they can successfully exploit, capturing food in zones where other species would struggle.

Sauger are found in large, turbid, slow-flowing rivers; in large, shallow, turbid lakes; and in reservoirs with creek arms having comparatively turbid water and at least some current.

A classic sauger bite occurs in late fall, winter, and early spring in deep holes just below the dams of major river impoundments, such as on the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Ohio rivers. For anglers from northern climes, sauger can provide open-water fishing when they need it most.

Deep Jigging

Sauger are a fish of current and deep water much of the time. Deep, flowing water calls for heavy jigs, nicknamed ‘thumper jigs’, that get down and pound the bottom.

“Down South,” says Walleye In-Sider Senior Editor Dave Csanda, “tradition calls for an ounce or ounce-and-a-half jig. People who jig deep holes below dams are programmed into using big jigs, but typically they don’t have to be quite that big. I can see using an ounce-and-a-half jig in extremely deep water and strong current, but an ounce is a lot of weight, and the heaviest you need for most situations. Often, you can get by with less. Get down and thunk the bottom, though, because it’s an important triggering element.”