@TnRiver46 Great smallie by your buddy and I'm pretty sure your fish is a saugeye. Spots on the dorsal and barred tail. Walleye have a black splotch on the back end of the dorsal and white tip on the bottom of the tail. Cool fish.

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

and a walleye

Not a walleye. They have a white spot on the tail.

I believe it's a sauger or a saugeye.

Looks like @JonB2 beat me to it above

1 hour ago, 2earlye said:

I apologize. I came off rude. Tight lines.

I'm sure she's retired. There are a lot of regular posters here that are.

I'm not lol

32 minutes ago, JonB2 said:

@TnRiver46 Great smallie by your buddy and I'm pretty sure your fish is a saugeye. Spots on the dorsal and barred tail. Walleye have a black splotch on the back end of the dorsal and white tip on the bottom of the tail. Cool fish.

I rarely catch any of them so I’m not great at telling them apart. Not sure if we have saugeye but we do have lots of sauger, caught a nice one in the same river (I think)

And another below the dam last week

And then a couple weeks ago, I think I got this (maybe) walleye

All I go by is black blotches are sauger and no blotches are walleye 😂. And I’ve never heard of anyone catching a saugeye in my region so I just assumed they don’t exist here

35 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I rarely catch any of them so I’m not great at telling them apart. Not sure if we have saugeye but we do have lots of sauger, caught a nice one in the same river (I think)

And another below the dam last week

And then a couple weeks ago, I think I got this (maybe) walleye

All I go by is black blotches are sauger and no blotches are walleye 😂. And I’ve never heard of anyone catching a saugeye in my region so I just assumed they don’t exist here

Those first two are sauger, blotches on the body, and your third fish is indeed a walleye...you can see the black mark on the dorsal. Your fish in question has no body blotches, but spots and barring on the fins; likely a saugeye which is a hybrid between sauger and walleye. You folks with sauger and spotted bass are lucky. We only have the basic largemouth, smallmouth and walleye in MI!

@JonB2 , gotcha! Thanks. I know some states stock saugeye but I’m guessing they can also naturally hybridize?

And if you ever get a chance to fish for coosa strain spotted bass, now known as Alabama bass, do it! They are ferocious

Back on the water yesterday morning and today after a few weeks.

A couple 17" buzzbait eaters, amongst a bunch of short fish on Lake 19 yesterday:

This morning was a bit more interesting. I revisited a new place I tried for the first time back in May. It's an out-of-the-way backwater, publicly accessible only from a walking trail on county land. I've been aware of it for a long time, but only got around to trying it this year, as the extra physical effort of carrying down was not very appealing given I had other choices. But....of course that's true for everyone else too, so there was high possibility of a low-pressure situation.

Fortunately the trail is fairly short, regularly mowed, wide and smooth enough to pull the kayak on a cart down to the water.

On my first trip in May, I spent 3 hours, and caught 10, all in the 2-3lb class. Trip #2 today produced 19 more, most the same size. Once located, they were seemingly willing to bite whatever I threw, which ended up mostly being a buzzbait, frog, senko, spinnerbait and speed worm.

I was greeted by some moody fog on arrival:

Some of the better fish were these two 17"-ers on Cavitron buzzbait and Pad Crasher frog

and two 18"s on a spinnerbait

Bonus crappie on the spinnerbait too.

No giants yet, but so far, the place seems like a bit of a hidden gem, and on both days I was the only one there.

8 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

That is so very kind of you. You're a real mensch.

I had to look up what that meant before I knew if it was a compliment, or an insult. 🤣 I'm an average angler, but I try hard to be a decent person. Thanks for expanding my vocabulary.

6 hours ago, 2earlye said:

I apologize. I came off rude. Tight lines.

I didn't take it as rude, just an opportunity to introduce you to a BR favorite. Stick around, and get to know the whole group. There are a lot of great folks on here. It truly is one of the best forums I've ever been a part of.

8 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I've been using Owner hooks and have had no more broken hooks

I don't think you will. I've yet to break one, and I use their 1x strong ST-36 trebles on my muskie cranks. They're unbelievably strong for their wire diameter without being brittle. Their screw loc flippin hooks have been really good for me also. Owner is top shelf.

Got me one fat little largie at my secret retaining pond tonight after a shopping trip. I had another one blow up on the Berkeley Choppo, but he missed like an idiot and didn't care to try again.

On 7/7/2026 at 2:53 PM, Lottabass said:

We have a saying in Iowa...."it's so hot and humid you can hear the corn grow!"

That's what it felt like at our Tuesday night tournament this week. So hot, still, and humid, it was tough to breath and the water was 90-92 degrees so it didn't even feel good to dip your feet over the side of the kayak.

a couple from yesterday

Made a return trip today and I am so, so glad I got back into fishing again. Got rewarded this morning with this unit. I did not have a scale but I did have a tape measure. 20.5" and it had a 15 inch girth. Pit boss off the end of a point triggered a big gulp from this beaut.

20.5!!! Woo-hoo!

@BluegillsTightlines LETS GOOOO!

@BluegillsTightlines Right on, I like the pit boss a lot. It plain gets bit and will get good fish to boot. Nice greenie