The preponderance of male sauger in tributary spawning streams 

 is probably related to the fact that most males in the Yellowstone 

 River mature at age 3 while most females are not mature until age 

 5. Also, males tend to enter the spawning areas earlier than 

 females and remain throughout the spawning period while females are 

 usually present only for the short time necessary to complete 

 spawning activities. 



Recapture Rate During Spring 



Sauger were readily recaptured in the Tongue and Powder 

 rivers, the same spring they were tagged in these tributaries. 

 Depending on the year as many as 118 and as few as 8 sauger were 

 recaptured in the Tongue River during the same year, 12 and 2 

 percent of the total number of sauger captured, respectively. For 

 all years combined, 8 percent of the sauger captured were 

 recaptured in the Tongue River the same year they were tagged. 



The number of sauger recaptured within the Powder River during 

 the same spring they were tagged in this tributary ranged from 1 to 

 18, 1 and 6 percent of the total sample, respectively. Priegel 

 (1970) observed that male walleye arrived early on spawning grounds 

 and remained throughout the spawning period. Over 90 percent of 

 the sauger captured in the Tongue and Powder rivers were males, and 

 the incidence of recaptures suggests that: 1) sauger, particularly 

 males, remained in the Tongue and Powder rivers throughout the 

 spawning period, and 2) the Tongue and Powder rivers are important 

 spawning streams. 



31 



