Cache said:
Used to love fishing that part of the wolf. Caught a sauger one day on a spinnerbait about 200 yards up from the Moscow bridge on 57.
Thats it, it had the spiked top fin with kinda golden brownish sides with patchy dark spots and that tail exactly. Everytime I go in that place something bigger than a few feet long will swirl next to me and scare the piss out of me it never fails, there are some big fish in there.
http://www.allfishingbuy.com/Fish-Species/Sauger.htm
Description
Sauger are long and thin, with dark backs, brassy sides, dark spots, and a pale belly. They have a forked tail with a pale streak on the bottom edge. Some sauger have a black spot on their body near where pectoral fin attaches. Sauger are usually less than 3 pounds and 18 inches in length. Gray or brown on their backs, sauger have an orangy metallic sheen on their sides, light undersides, and black spots. Saddle-like markings on body, black dots on the dorsal (back) fin, large glossy eyes, and sharp teeth.
The sauger is a large species of the family Percidae prized for its sport fishing character and its flavor. Cylindirical in body form, the sauger has a large horizontal mouth and well-developed pointed teeth. The back and top of the head are mottled brown to golden olive, the lips are less mottled and appear distinctly speckled, and the lower sides and venter are white or light cream. Four dark saddles traverse the back and may be expanded along the sides to produce large lateral blotches, while the back and sides are variously speckled with pigment. The lining in the eye behind the retina appears silver, a trait characteristic of the genus and presumably an adaptation for night feeding. Membranes of the spiny dorsal fin have distinct spots that sometimes appear to be banding, while the soft dorsal fin and caudal fin rays are definitely pigmented, producing delicate banding. The sauger can be distinguished from the walleye, Stizostedion vitreum, by its fewer (17 to 20) soft dorsal rays (19 to 22 for the walleye), by lacking a pigment concentration at the spiny dorsal fin base, and by having the lower lobe of the caudal fin mottled, compared to a white tip for the walleye.
Adult saugers feed primarily on fish, crayfish, and other crustaceans and insects. The habitat of sauger is much like that of walleye, except that saugers are more tolerant of high turbidity (muddy water) and strong current. Saugers spawn when water temperature is between 41 and 45 F. Adults enter backwaters or tributaries and search for gravel or rock substrate where they can deposit their eggs. Saugers are an important sportfish on the Missouri River. The flesh tastes like walleye and thus is highly valued. Saugers grow more slowly than walleyes; most fish taken by anglers are less than 18 inches in length.
They may be distinguished from walleyes by the distinctly spotted dorsal fin, by the lack of a white splotch on the caudal fin, by the rough skin over their gill, and by their generally more brassy color, or darker (almost black) color in some regions. The average sauger in an angler's creel is up to 1 lbs (300 to 400 g) in weight but the world record was 17 lbs (8 kg) Saugers are more typical of rivers whereas walleyes are more common in lakes and reservoirs. The sauger is highly prized as a food fish.
