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Sauger

A member of the perch family, the sauger (Stizostedion canadense) is a smaller, slimmer relative of the walleye, which it closely resembles. Like the walleye, it is an important commercial and game fish. Some of its other common names are sand pickerel, sand pike, and doré noir.

In the commercial catch, average-sized saugers weigh about 300 gm and measure 25 to 40 cm. A few weigh as much as 900 gm. The body of this fish is slender and almost cylindrical, and the head is long and coneshaped. Back and sides are a dull brown or grey flecked with yellow and shading to white over the belly. It is easily distinguished from the smooth-cheeked walleye by the presence of rough scales on its cheeks and two or three rows of distinct black spots on its spiny dorsal fin.

Habitat preferences of the sauger tend to large, turbid, shallow lakes and large, silty, slow-flowing rivers. In Canada these fish are found from the St. Lawrence-Champlain river system westward to the North Saskatchewan River and northward to the Hudson Bay watershed.

Saugers are caught commercially with gillnets and poundnets. Most of the catch is taken in Manitoba where fishing is carried out in summer, autumn and winter. Due to its small average size, the species is not prominent as a game fish, although in certain areas "saugering" or sport fishing for saugers is a popular pastime.

Saugers are marketed almost entirely as fresh and frozen fillets, with much of the catch being exported to the United States. As a food, their flesh is slightly softer, sweeter and finer in texture than that of the walleye.

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Last updated: 2006-06-06

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