Saugeye to be stocked Friday in Grand Lake St. Marys

Saugeye will be stocked for the first time in Grand Lake St. Marys on  Friday, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced today.

The stocking will take place at 1 p.m. at the boat ramp near the State Park office in St. Marys.

Saugeye are a hybrid fish that results from crossing a female walleye and a male sauger. Saugeye have proven to be a much better fit in most of Ohio's inland lakes. They have created outstanding fisheries in canal lakes like Buckeye and Indian, which have conditions similar to those at Grand Lake.

Given the success of saugeye stocked in those lakes, the Division is hopeful that after a few years of stocking, a quality saugeye fishery will develop in Ohio's largest inland lake.

Walleyes have been stocked into Grand Lake since 1999, but have not resulted in a successful lake fishery. The shallow, warm and often turbid waters of Grand Lake are not ideal walleye habitat, and likely limited survival of the stocked walleye.

Until this year, saugeye were not considered for stocking in Grand Lake because fish escaping the lake from the west end have the potential to reach Lake Erie. Division of Wildlife hatchery biologists were successful this spring in using a pressure-shock treatment on saugeye eggs to induce triploidy, which creates a sterile fish. Should any escape the lake and make their way to Lake Erie, they will not be a threat to interbreed with Lake Erie walleyes.

The saugeye were raised at the ODNR Division of Wildlife's St. Marys State Fish Hatchery.