Saugeyes have  a better shot  in Grand Lake

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By Jim Morris, Staff Writer 2:36 AM Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The walleye experiment failed at Grand Lake St. Marys, so now it is time to see if saugeyes can live and thrive in the lake.

For the first time, saugeyes were stocked at Grand Lake on Friday, May 29. About 23,000 saugeye fingerlings from the St. Marys hatchery were put in the lake.

The saugeye, a cross between a female walleye and a male sauger, is a hardier fish than the walleye. While the walleyes, first stocked in 1999, did not thrive in the shallow, often warm water in Grand Lake, the saugeye has a better chance.

The reason saugeyes have not been stocked at the lake in past years was concern for walleyes in Lake Erie. Grand Lake is in the Lake Erie watershed and biologists felt it was possible for a saugeye to work its way through the system to Lake Erie, where it could corrupt walleye breeding.

This year, however, the Ohio Division of Wildlife has come up with a way to sterilize the saugeyes that were released, using a pressure-shock treatment on eggs to induce triploidy, which creates a sterile fish.

Saugeyes, which grow faster than walleyes, are stocked in almost all of Ohio’s inland lakes. In southwest Ohio, only C.J. Brown Reservoir near Springfield is stocked with walleyes. They are used as a brood stock for hatcheries raising walleyes and saugeyes.

Short shots

A lure: Today’s Greene County Sportsmen’s seminar, 7 p.m. at the Greene County Highway Dept., 615 Dayton Xenia Road, Xenia, will feature local lure-maker Floyd Lindsey demonstrating how to fish the Zook lure. Saugeyes at Caesar Creek Lake also will be discussed.

Fishing and boating: Next week, June 6-14, is National Fishing and Boating Week. It’s a push to get kids who live online to go outside and put a fishing line in their hands. For info, visit takemefishing.org.

Swimming: Children who swim at Ohio State Parks with their families this summer can receive credit toward the ODNR Explore the Outdoors Swim with a Buddy activity. Explore the Outdoors is a hands-on, family program. For information, visit exploretheoutdoorsohio.com.

Take a hike: NatureCache is coming to Greene County. This new series combines naturalist-led interpretive hikes with global positioning system (GPS) technology. The next NatureCache hike, sponsored by Gander Mountain, is scheduled for Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve on at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 6. Pre-registration is encouraged but not required.

All pre-registered participants (over age 18) will be entered into a drawing for two Garmin GPS units. For more information or to register, visit ohiodnr.com/dnap.

Bird watching: If you have been watching Dayton’s peregrine falcons on Boonshoft’s Falcon Cam (boonshoftmuseum.org/falconcam.html), you will notice two of the chicks are missing from the nesting box. Betty Ross of Glen Helen Raptor Center said they are safe, just exploring the roof of the Liberty Bank building, which has a wall around the edge. They should be safe there until they learn to fly.

Contact this reporter at  (937) 225-2409 or  jmorris@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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