Saugeyes in Maumelle Lake

[NIMROD]

Being it is connected to the Arkansas River and worries over polluting the Sauger population there, I was told the AGFC was'nt suppose to stock Saugeyes? Awhile back it was printed thaty they did? A top biologist told me they should'nt be stocked anywhere that connects to the Arkansas River where the Sauger is native. He feared the hybrids (Walleye/Sauger cross) would polute the gene pool there by breeding with Sauger.



Maumelle Lake, Pulaski County, 35,640 fingerling saugeye

[flyflinger]

Is a saugeye the same as a yellow perch? If so, we have a lot of them in the upper reaches of Bull Shoals. Really a great eating fish, almost all meat and taste just like walleye.

[NIMROD]

No they are 2 different fish.

[Slipcork]

Need to check with Ben. He is the man over there.

[gooch]

I did some reading on them years back when I found they had been stocked in the lake. I learned that sauger and walleye cross breed and in some cases up to 10pct of the hatch are saugeye fry

[rockmike]

They've been stocked in Crown Lake at Horseshoe Bend for years. They're a good sport fish, and good table fare. Don't know if they're capable of reproducing.

[Bigben7]

NIMROD - Hello, this is Ben Batten, assistant fisheries biologist with AGFC, with responsibility for Pulaski County. This is a tough one, because there is some truth to what you are saying. Saugeye have been stocked in Lake Maumelle in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009. These things are a great sport fish that are also delicious. First of all, while escapement and intermingling with native sauger stocks is definitely a possibility, it is not extremely likely. Also, this fish is a naturally occuring hybrid, and not some impossible frankenfish that was cooked up in the lab. The reasons mixing is unlikely, and exetremely unlikely to occur in large enough instances to "muddy up" the sauger genetics are mostly tied to distance, and viability of saugeye.

First of all, it is unlikely that a saugeye would go over the spillway, swim the 4.5 miles from the spillway to the mouth of the where the Maumelle River meets the Arkansas, then the 24 miles to get from this place to the Toad Suck Dam, where the aggregation of spawning suager are. Again, this happening is unlikely, but is definitely possible. Now, the fish arriving there has to be viable, and able to reproduce with the sauger. There are rumors that saugeye are a sterile hybrid, but this is untrue. Saugeye are able to reproduce with themselves, or either parent species (Walleye and Sauger). However, the numbr of saugeye that are viable is usually low. I found different studies that showed differing percentages, but the consensus was that the number of viable individuals is generally not very high. So, again, it's not to say that it would be impossible for saugeye to mix with the natives but not likely to occur to the point that it would do longterm damage to the native sauger population. When stocking occurred in the past (and will likely occur in the future), the decision was made that the benefits of the fishery in Lake Maumelle outweighed the potential costs.

On the positive side, I regularly catch these fish in my sampling nets when I'm generally out looking for white bass. Common size for this fish can go from 1.5-5+lb. Did I mention they are delicious? I had an angler tell me recently that he had an Aqua-Vu type underwater camera, and was looking at some of our artificial habitat strucutres (http://www.crappie.com/crappie/arkan...nt-points.html). He claimed that he saw a ton of saugeye hanging around them. I tend to catch them in nets on the north side of the lake. Another angler that I have talked to says that he catches them by getting on top of our structure, and dropping a trick worm, or other small worm, and vertically jigging it very slowly and patiently.

If anybody has catching these things figured out, and wants to teach a biologist how to do it, shoot me a PM!

Thanks for asking the tough questions NIMROD.

[LazyJ]

5 lbs!!!

I've caught a few accidentally around Big Island but never over a pound in size.

[NIMROD]

I caught a few several years back in Nimrod, but they seem to have left or died out. There was a bunch caught below the dam , but I figured they were Sauger. Others said that the Saugeyes had went through the dam with the high water releases at the time? Could this be possiable ? You are correct in they are fine table fare.

[rockmike]

We catch them on Crown in the winter by tipping a jig with a slick and vertical jigging the steep drop offs .