Frierson produces another record saugeye

      LORADO – Robert Kern of Paragould caught a 6-pound, 4-ounce saugeye Oct. 12, 2003, from Lake Frierson at Lake Frierson State Park on the Greene-Craighead county line.
      Usually, state records are broken by a few ounces, sometimes a pound or two for larger species. But Chris Owen of Alicia, barely in Lawrence County, tacked on 2 pounds, 7 ounces to Kern’s mark with a 9-pounder he wrestled from Frierson Jan. 30.
      Owen was using a Cotton Cordell crankbait. Zack Yancey, an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission natural resources program technician, identified the fish as a saugeye. The weight was verified by scales at the Jonesboro Post Office. Justin Huss, superintendent at Lake Frierson State Park, assisted with photographs and application forms.
      The AGFC, which owns Lake Frierson, stocks it with saugeye because history has shown the lake is too muddy to produce largemouth bass on a regular basis.
      “Several years ago we found out that Oklahoma had good success with stocking saugeye into their turbid lakes so we thought to give it a try,” said Sam Henry, an AGFC fisheries biologist based in Jonesboro. “We decided to try to turn the lake into a fishery that featured saugeye as the principle predator. It seems to be working.”
      A saugeye is a hybrid produced in fish hatcheries with a female walleye and a male sauger. A 9-pounder is large, although the world record, caught in Montana, stands at 15 pounds, 10 ounces.