Fishtales

Pickwick Sauger
by Jim Pope

Dateline 2/1/99

When the temperature began to plunge into the teens, the waters of the Tennessee River began to cool sufficiently to activate the instinctive nature of sauger to begin feeding in preparation for the late winter spawn. This is always a great time of the year for this angler. The attached pictures are samples of some of the sauger catches this writer and his fishing buddy, Heath Daniel have caught this winter.


photo by Jim Pope
sauger and crappie

This writer does all of his sauger fishing from the bank just below Pickwick Dam. Pickwick Dam is a TVA hydro-electric facility on the Tennessee River located in Southern Middle Tennessee. The upstream migration of the sauger comes to a halt here, and there are times when they are stacked up like cordwood looking for a meal. That is not to say that they are easy to catch. Sometimes sauger can be very finicky and only a particular presentation will draw a strike.

The fish shown here were all caught on synthetic imitations of shad or crawdibottoms. As you can see in one of the pictures, grubs and bucktails are displayed as the lures used. The grub/leadhead combination is easy to find, but 3" and 4" bucktails in weights as small as 1/32-ounce are virtually impossible to find.


picture by Jim Pope
sauger and jigs

This writer ties his own bucktails (Granddaddy's Jigs) in various colors and in sizes ranging from 1/32 to 1/4-ounce. Different weights are used according to the current situation. The lightest jig possible seems to produce the most strikes

For further information related to the techniques used to catch Pickwick sauger, go to the FISHTALES LIBRARY in this site and look for the October 27, 1997 FISHTALE (Sauger, the Toothy Critter of the South).


picture by Jim Pope
Sauger

Fishtales Library