Analyses of the Sauger Fishery with Simulated Effects of a Minimum Size Limit in the Tennessee River of Alabama

Abstract

Abstract Saugers Stizostedion canadense were collected in winter and early spring of 1993–1994 and 1994–1995 to describe population characteristics and exploitation rates in the tailraces of Guntersville, Wheeler, and Wilson dams along the Tennessee River in Alabama. Population modeling simulated the response of the fishery to the effectiveness of a newly imposed 356-mm (total length, TL) minimum size limit. The sauger populations in these three tailraces consisted primarily of fish age 2 and younger that were less than 400 mm long. Total annual mortality between age-1 and age-2 fish was high, based on catch rates of specific year-classes, and ranged from 64% to 83%. Age-1 and age-2 saugers averaged about 270 and 350 mm total length (TL) respectively, and from our observations, sauger anglers routinely harvested fish at age 1. Unadjusted (not corrected for tag nonreporting) exploitation rates over the 2-year period ranged from 16% to 30% at the three tailraces and averaged 24%. However, the two methods us...