GREAT OUTDOORS: Sauger introduced into northwest Ohio rivers

After years of researching, evaluating, planning and preparing, the Ohio Division of Wildlife (ODW) did some pilot stockings of 65,000 sauger fingerlings each into the Sandusky River at the Darr-Root Fishing Access in Fremont and into the Maumee River at the Maple Street boat ramp in Perrysburg on Thursday. After two years of these "test runs" in 2026 and 2027 to work out the logistics of capturing wild sauger to obtain fertilized eggs in its hatchery, then successfully raising them to stocking size, the DOW is committed to a 10-year restoration initiative designed to restore a self-sustaining population. Sauger, Sander canadensis, were once a very plentiful fish in Lake Erie, harvested by commercial and recreational fishermen all along the south shore, especially from fall until spring. The commercial catch from 1884 was 5.3 million pounds and peaked in 1916 at 6.2 million pounds, according to a 1956 Ohio Department of Natural Resources report. Sauger were one of the species raised in the Put-in-Bay State Fish Hatchery, which may explain their high catches around the islands during ice fishing seasons. During one winter in the mid-1940s, islanders caught nearly 4 tons by hook and line to sell to mainland fish markets. They disappeared from the sport catch in the late 1940s and became commercially insignificant by 1964. As happened around they same time with blue pike, their disappearance is blamed on widespread pollution, the expansion of the dead zone into the Western Basin, competition with invasive species, collapse of the mayfly population and hybridization with the more numerous walleye population. Sauger fry and fingerlings were stocked into the Sandusky Bay from 1974-76. Netters and anglers caught some of them for the next several years, including the state-record specimen weighing 7.31-pounds caught in the Maumee River on March 10, 1981, measuring 24.5 inches. Some natural reproduction was documented in 1977, but the species is considered to be extirpated from Lake Erie. According to the Ohio Division of Wildlife, "Restoring a self-sustaining native sauger population in Lake Erie's western basin could enhance year-round fishing opportunities across nearshore waters and tributaries" and may, "seasonally and spatially fill a unique role in the western basin fish community without expected impacts to other species." Prior to this reintroduction effort, they sought to match similar strains of sauger previously living in Lake Erie with populations found elsewhere. Genetic analyses identified the plentiful Ohio River sauger as the most appropriate candidate to use as broodstock. Meanwhile, researchers from the University of Toledo determined that sufficient spawning and nursery habitat existed for sauger in the Maumee and Sandusky rivers as they did prior to sturgeon releases that have occurred. Other goals and details of the project listed on a DOW fact sheet state that their intention is to stock 500,000 fingerlings annually from 2028 to 2037 at upper, lower and bay locations in both the Maumee and Sandusky rivers. Strategies will be routinely evaluated and adjusted based on hatchery capacity and survival of fingerlings after stocking. They will use a chemical marker, oxytetracycline, to evaluate differences in survival and movement between rivers. Obstacles to overcome include collecting enough female and male gametes (eggs and sperm) to meet annual production goals and predation and hybridization from Lake Erie walleye. Outreach and education efforts will need to occur so anglers can learn to distinguish the differences between sauger and walleye. Fishing regulations currently will require that saugers must be in excess of 15 inches to keep in Lake Erie and its tributaries and anglers count them as part of their walleye/sauger daily bag limit of six.