Charlie Duggan unhooks a keeping-sized sauger taken in the dark of night. click photo to enlarge
photo by Richard Simms
Okay, here comes the best sauger-fishing tip you'll get from me for a while. Maybe the best fishing tip period.
In the words of dearly departed Lewis Grizzard, "Lissen to me. I'm gonna hep ya now!"
Do it in the dark!
That's right. Take your sauger fishing 3rd shift.
I stopped in the bait store the other night about 9 PM to buy minnows. I asked the proprietor -- a trustworthy gentleman -- how the sauger fishing had been.
He frowned and simply gave me a "thumbs down."
"They just haven't done anything. Most people have just quit fishing for them."
I said, "they just haven't been going at the right time."
I was really just running off at the mouth. I hadn't been sauger fishing in a month so really had no idea what was going on. But three years ago I learned a trick from my nephew. That would be the sauger fishing at night trick.
I guarantee two things (really three things). 1) You will have the place to yourself. Tailwaters that are normally bursting at the seams with fair-weather, daytime anglers will be devoid of all life on a wintertime night, which leads us to 2) It will be cold. Damn cold. But generally speaking you don't have the wind at night you can plan on in the daytime. But wear everything you've got, plus some. 3) No guarantees (there never is in fishing) but I'd lay good odds that however many sauger you can catch in the daylight, you'll catch four times as many at night. Those 10 fish days turn into 40 fish nights. And the exceptional 20 or 30 fish days turn into 100-plus nights.
I will also bet that your percentage of "keepers" will be higher. These days sauger have to be a minimum of 15-iches to go in the cooler. Those typically older, wiser fish will be more susceptible when the sun is not in their eyes.
The other night was one of the rare times when my brag actually turned to fact. My buddy and me had great fun from 10 p.m. until 4:30 a.m. (when we basically froze out). In the interim we boated several dozen sauger along with an assortment of other species. We lost a couple of good fish at the boat, but eleven legal sauger still joined us for a free ride to the frying pan. Counting the good fish we lost at the boat, we had about 180-inches of sauger filets.
We were off the water and back in bed about the time most sauger fishermen were waking up.
How do you fish at night?
The same way you do in the day. Some like plain minnows, others like to cast hair jigs and others like to tightline heavy football jigs in the current. Whatever method you prefer, it'll work better if you do it in the dark.
"Lissen to me. I'm gonna hep ya now!"