ok so im unsure where i should look first - the sender or the gauge. The needle is like pinned on the other side of where the numbers are (ive seen a couple like this). any ideas?

Remove the bezel and lens and see if the needle is stuck. If so bend it slightly to unstick it.

Do a search. Find a post from your friendly neighborhood Drooster, you'll be looking for the one about adding a couple stops to the gauge face so the needle doesn't swing to 11 right off the scale, so it doesn't get hung up on the edge of the gauge face. Done right, you can't even see them when the dash is all back together.

Problem is that the dash is wired for "Gauge Test". Basically, when you first turn your key from off to start, all the little indicator lights on the dash come on, so you can see if one of your warning lights is out. Camaros could be had with gauges or idiot lights. Some genius engineer figured that having the dash wired the same for the gauge as the light would let you know if the gauge worked (How thoughtful of them). Only trouble is that the sweatshop that manufactured the gauges didn't really build them to take a full bore 12V surge during the "Gauge test". So over time the gauge gets slapped around like an abused housewife until finally one day the internals have had enough, and they breakdown to the point that the needle flies around uninhibited, and gets stuck off the scale. So you add a stop, and it'll stop flying off the top of the scale. But then you'll find that the needle will ricochet off the stop at the top of the scale so violently that it'll recoil back and stick on the low side. Add another stop at the bottom of the scale and it'll just pinball around until maybe someday the needle divorces the gauge and hopefully by then GM Restoration Parts will have a solution.

tl,dr - The gauge is worn out. Modify the gauge and pray for an improved restoration part.

I fried mine because of that gauge test not long after I bought my car. Had to replace the ignition switch, and was having issues adjusting the switch for the car to start. Multiple attempts meant multiple pegged temp gauge. After I fixed my ignition switch, discovered my gauge read ridiculously low, and only up to 100 once the engine was heated up. Had to replace the gauge to get things right again. IIRC, it wasn't terribly bad, about $60.00 for an NOS gauge. Taking the cluster out of the car was harder than physically replacing the temp gauge.

i will dig into these suggestions tomorrow. Thanks!