Fall River Sauger

With fall in full swing, we are headed out to the river for prime sauger fishing, the first cousins to the walleye. The Illinois River is one of the top sauger fishing locations and fall through late spring is when sauger are schooling in predictable locations and bigger fish can be caught.
Our best fall locations for these crafty toothed cool-water fish are river bends, along channel breaks off flats or bars at inside sharp bends, mouth of tributaries, just below warm water discharges and holes downstream of dams where there is usually broken concrete or rocks to be cautious of.
As for presentations, the most standard and simplest is jigging which is associated with slipping. Slipping is using your trolling motor to control the boat speed or drift downstream to match the current while maintaining a near vertical presentation with your jig and keeping constant contact with the bottom. We use a 3/8 to a 3/4 ounce jig of my favorite color chartreuse/orange and Linda likes pink/white. Those with more experience will even use ¼ ounce jigs with good success but current, depth and wind will dictate your jig size. For gear, a spinning reel with 10# FireLine and a medium action rod works well for us and a good size fathead minnow for attractant. Sometimes we will dress our jigs with hair or feathers. Detecting the subtle bite may take some skill but just be aware if you feel anything different.
Next is pulling 3-ways slowly upstream which covers a little more water. This presentation starts with the main line from the reel tied to a 3-way swivel and on the second eye attach a short 10 – 14 inch of mono line with a 3/4 or 1 ounce jig or pencil weight. On the third eye tie a mono line of 2 – 6 foot and attach a small colored bead and hook or a floating jighead or even a floating crankbait. Again, fathead minnows are used and if you use the jig for weight, it to can be baited and fished on the bottom. Maintaining bottom contact with the jig or weight is important so as you go over deeper water let out line or slow your speed. If at anytime you find you are getting short strikes on any of these hooked baits, make use of a stinger hook.
Another method is trolling upstream where we have tried a couple methods including in-line weights. The common presentation on the river is to tie a 3-way on the main line from your baitcasting reel and on the second eye attach 24 inch of mono line with a heavy 2 ounce pencil weight on two 6 foot rods and a 3 ounce weight to two 8-9 foot rods. Now on the third eye attach about 6 foot of mono line and tie on a crankbait snap and a floating Rapala or other floating minnow crankbait for which we like about a 2 ¾ inch bait but can go one size either way. Now place the shorter, lighter weighted rods in the back rod holders and the longer heavier ones in front rod holders. Using a gas kicker motor, start heading upstream at about 1.2 - 2 mph while you and a partner slowly let out line till the weights just start ticking bottom. You cover more water with this presentation and the key points here are to try to keep the boat in the same depth as you start, adjust speed to what feels good or what catches fish and keep adjusting line out to assure weights are bump, bump, and bumping bottom. As you change depths along the breaks looking for fish, let out or take up line and be sure to set your drag light in case your lure hangs up. If this happens, the line can slip out and you can turn the boat around to get your lure.
Lastly, and one we have little experience with is trolling with leadcore line. Leadcore is tied to a good swivel with mono line or 4 – 8 foot to the lure. Length of line out and speed are important since leadcore runs deeper at slow speeds and shallower at faster speeds.
Keep in mind that sauger are very bottom-oriented which means if you are fishing a bait 2 foot or so off the bottom, you may be wasting your time. These presentations take some practice but all will catch river sauger.
We are looking forward to fishing the Spring Valley Walleye Club member’s tournament this month. This clubs dedication, hard work and contributions have helped the sauger/walleye population in the river and keep running the MWC Tournaments each year.
Our 2009 Fishing Calendar is available with best times and days along with all the money saving coupons, visit www.larrysfishinghole.com for details, current Fishing Reports, latest Product Field Test Results and more.

Till Next Time, GOD BLESS & GOOD FISHING !