Saugers

[Murphfish]

I'm curious. We catch alot of nice saugers on the southern part of the Missouri in South Dakota and I'm wondering what the folks on this board consider a trophy sauger to be?? I have one I mounted from several years back that is 26 inches. I cheaped out and took it to a sub-par taxiderist which I regret today. Someday I'd like to get another one done and I was curious what most guys consider to be a trophy.

[Big Sky Eyes]

Where you are, 26" is a darn good one.
There's only a very few places you could expect to get one much bigger than that today.
10 years ago was different. In Ft. Peck and the Missouri above Ft. Peck had some 27s and even the odd 28+. They seem gone now. Saskatchewan River and Tobin used to have quite a few biggies, too. That size seems gone, now.

[tbomn]

Here on the Mississippi River, a 25 inch sauger is a big fish. Most run around the 14-18 inch range. Last weekend we fished pool 2, and we were catching super nice sauger in the 20-23 inch range. I had a 26 incher on pool 4 a number of years back. I think there are some really nice sauger to be found on the upper Mississippi River, but they are becoming fewer every year. Those that we caught last week were so fat with spawn, a couple were dripping eggs, "tis the time.....

[Murphfish]

Missouri river below Yankton, Sd. I usually catch some every year in that 20+ inch range. A couple of years back got one that went 24. Last fall I was up at the Red River at Selkirk adn they had one mounted at the bait shop that might have been 18 inches. I asked the guy if they ever caught any big saugers up there and he said the one on the wall was big, that's a pretty common sauger down here.

[MINK TRAPPER]

24 inches is the biggest I have ever caught on the Ohio River weighed 4 lbs . I haven't seen any bigger come from the Ohio River . The Ohio record came out Erie and weighed something like 7 or 8 lbs. I love the color of a sauger , neat fish .