Hooking Mortality of Saugers in the Tennessee River

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Abstract We assessed hooking mortality of saugers Stizostedion canadense in two Tennessee reservoirs by holding fish overnight in a net-pen. We also attached radio tags equipped with a mortality switch to 19 saugers to document survival. Rates of gas bladder overinflation and foul-hooking using common terminal gear were estimated. The mortality rate for saugers observed in the net-pen was only 4% (3 of 74). Seventeen of 19 radio-tagged saugers were located and 15 were alive 12 d later (12% mortality). Although we could not detect a statistical relation between mortality and gas bladder overinflation, depth of capture was weakly related to the occurrence of gas bladder overinflation. When we caught saugers using the terminal gear most common in these fisheries (a bucktail jig tipped with a minnow and equipped with a trailing treble hook), equal numbers of fish were caught by the jig hook and stinger hook. Despite the fact that 42% of all the saugers we caught were foul-hooked, blood flowed from the primary...