Sauger, Walleye, Saugeye identification

[ND_Outdoorsman]

Question for you guys. Caught some tank Saugeyes on Boysen the other day and noticed that the fish had sauger and walleye characteristics. The fish were built like a walleye as they were stout and not long and skinny. The skin was spotted like a sauger and the back dorsal fin was also spotted. The fish also had white tips on their tails giving it a walleye identifier.

According to WY rules do I consider this fish a sauger or a walleye? If there is any sign of sauger on the fish do i consider it a sauger.

I’m so confused. In ND the walleye and sauger limit is combined so determation doesn’t matter. At LOW in MN if a fish has any sign of sauger it can be considered a sauger but the limits there can consist of all sauger.

[PablitoPescador]

The game and fish consider this a sauger in Boysen, anything with the sauger characteristics will be towards your sauger limit of 2 per person, I do not think we have any saugeye in boysen because with all the protection that is going on since this is one of the last pure strains of sauger in the world from all the things the game and fish keep saying around here for the rivers that feed boysen, we were out a couple weeks ago and caught 4 sauger, and out of the boat this summer we caught a few sauger while we were out fishing, looks like the sauger population is coming back and glad to see some nicer ones than the 10 inchers I caught last winter out of the lake.

If both walleye and sauger exist in a body of water I think it's virtually impossible that there wouldn't be saugeye.....

[ND_Outdoorsman]

I can tell you the sauger I caught were not pure strain sauger and were saugeyes. Saugers do not have white tips on the tails and are not built like that. I get trying to protect pure strain sauger but why wouldn’t they want you to keep more saugeyes so they don’t taint more sauger offspring? There is no way to prevent saugers from spawning with walleyes if both are present.

[appleye]

Hope this helps

[Kinkyline]

   Count the dorsal spines,,, sauger will have 12 and walleye will have 14.

[Elkhnter]

if it has the spots all along the dorsal fin its considered a sauger and you have go count is as a sauger. In Wyoming we only have two different fish in the listing Sauger or Walleye.

So Green colored body, one black spot on dorsal fin and white spot on lower part of tail- Walleye

Grey colored with Black splotches on the body, Black spots along dorsal fin- Sauger