Suckers have started biting

the boy went down to the river today and caught 3 suckers

I have them in the salt and vinegar now Tuesday night they will be at their 5 days and can get pickling spice and sugar vinegar wine then 3 more days. I am trying the pickled fish recipe posted here a few times

Its great to hear that the baitfish are biting. I am getting fired up about catching some edible fish...
Just messing with you.
I have eaten sucker. It wasn't bad. It made a turd.

GCP I recommend you add more sugar. I used his exact recipe (except with crappie fillets) and it was very tangy.

they will be on the riffles here in a couple weeks

I saw the Night crawlers were up in the yard the other night. I usually put some set lines out with crawlers for carp to can this time of year. Only have a couple pints left from a large batch couple years ago. I'm busy with a Beaver job right now but think I may have found my next project.

he has 8 cups vinegar and 7 cusp sugar. do you think 8 and 8 would be about right and keep it 1:1 for the vinegar to sugar?

equal amounts seems easier to remember any how.

Maybe the original is supposed to be 7 vinegar and 8 sugar but it wasn't easy to remember???? LOL

I will need to go out and get some suckers to make some pickle fish. also some trout , when out monday and got only one but the river was up.

don't knock easy to remember when it works

one of my favorite recipes is cup O cobbler

cup O flour
cup O sugar
Cup O milk
1/2 stick butter
pinch of salt and it is supposed to be 2tsp but I just shake what I think is close in
that and a 15 ounce can of pears and 30 minutes oven at 350

toss the stick o butter in a cast iron skillet on the stove on low so the butter melts
pre heat the oven to 350.
mix the batter in a bowl
when the batter is ready and the butter melted pour the batter in the skillet over the butter
open the can o pears and use a fork to spread the pears out even and pour in all the juice

35 minutes oven at 350


I typically double it and do 2 cups of everything , full stick o butter and a 30oz can o pears

my kind of recipe

Go at least 8. Maybe a little lighter on the vinegar, there will be more than enough liquid if your jar is pretty full of fish and onions. I think next round I'll do half batches too. A gallon is a lot of pickled fish since I don't get much help around here eating it.

my wife and son eat pickled fish but the girls are not pickled fish eaters

the boy brought home a dozen today , they are all filleted up and skinned and soaking , will get them cut up and in brine shortly.

Its a PIA when the suckers are running. I fish for Trout in the Tribs. When the suckers are in you can't swing a fly in some areas without getting a sucker.
Don't know the size of the suckers your talking about but the ones from Lake Michigan are about a foot and a half long.
I always wondered why nobody ever caught and kept them for pickling.

If the suckers hand you lemons while trout fishing, pickle some lemonade.

these are in the sugar river.

not much for trout in there ,some catfish , small mouth and bass at times but the kids like catching the suckers they found a place where they get some decent action.

my son is mostly happy to be out of the house. as is his friend they drive separate and both have been under fairly strict quarantine now 14 days his friend has a 2 year old brother and grandmother living in the house with them so they are being more carful.

I fried up some fresh water drum and trout the same day about 2 years ago , my wife liked the Drum better than the trout SO I guess we will just keep eating limitless garbage fish.


now lake trout I really like those boiled

yup about 16-20 inches I get a 2 inch by 8 inch strip of meat approximately

Are the suckers boney? I only ever used them for northern bait.

Do you all score the fillets like we do down here

lots of small y bones but they cut easily with a knife

I am hoping the bones soften enough in the vinager that they won't be a problem when eating

I have just been cutting them to cracker sized pieces

We score the fresh filets and deep fry with cornmeal .

No no, not knocking it at all. That’s exactly what I try and do. Round up or down to make it easier to remember.

I think I can remember the cup o cobbler recipe, gotta give that a go!

the boys caught more than 50 yesterday

cleaned 29 that was a cooler full and plenty I figure I am decent with a knife but that puts me at about 2 1/2 to 3 minute a fish stop to sharpen a few times and hour and a half later cleaning fish is getting old and it is getting dark.

running out of containers picked up some 6 quart deli buckets have 2 of those full of fish and brine from last night.
I think he is going to take a break from bringing fish home for a bit.

And if they don't bite, you just gotta give em a little poke!



This was last spring, but I'm hoping to get after them again this year. Should be up the river here in the next week or so. Planning on using the bow, net, spear and hook n line this year.

tlguy, nice shooting there.......jk

Here was a lucky shot... I mean, I meant to do that!

TLguy what do you do with them all?

can , pickle , other

I keep a couple for trapping bait, donate a lot to the wildlife sanctuary nearby to help feed their birds of prey. This year I'll be pickling a bunch.

for those wanting the info

my son said lighter poles were catching better than heavy

15 pound braid , down to the 3 way swivel , 2-3 oz of weight as short as you can tie it off the swivel , 12 inch leader from the swivel to the #4 bait holder hook baited with a worm to cover up the hook

light medium action pole laid in a forked stick pushed into the bank, taut line ,bells clipped to the tip watch the line and listen for the bells , start reeling as soon as you can that sets the hook , but they will spit it if you wait to long and they figure out it has a hook hidden in that worm is what he said , they were not getting a fish on every bite but still getting a good number of fish

is that bay beach wild life sanctuary?

That's the one! My aunt is one of the main volunteers over there and works with the PAWS program to rehab a lot of orphaned animals in the spring and summer, and I've volunteered there a few times over the years as well. They didn't want my muskrat carcasses, but were happy to take some fresh frozen fish.

About 25 years ago I was steelhead fishing a small stream off the east end of Lake Ontario. The suckers were pretty thick and a couple of guys ahead of me would catch one every so often and throw them onto shore. I felt kind of bad for the poor suckers laying there gasping for air so as I fishes my way down I’d toss them back into the creek. I finally caught up to the guy and ask how the steelhead fishing was for them, they told me they weren’t fishing steelhead but were catching suckers and had a bunch on the bank upstream they would collect on their way out. Well, I’d never heard of people fishing for suckers and didn’t tell them that they weren’t gonna find any on their way out. I just kind of moved off on down the creek hoping to put as much distance between us as I could.

been there a few times I have family on both sides of the bay pestigo and on the penisula

they should really take the rats for the coyote they would love them.

we used to fish the Fox river in Burlington Wis when I was a kid , we would catch some carp , we never did keep one but there was always a mexican family close buy who if they saw you taking a carp off the line would ask if they could have it.

I at the time I wondered if they liked carp so much why they didn't fish for them themselves this is what a 6 year old was thinking back then , after all you could buy a used rod at a garage sale for a few dollars and dig worms yourself . with the wisdom a more years I realize they had no papers so they could not buy a fishing license , no license is a bad Idea in WI the wardens are around a lot to check your license

My brothers and I where just talking about sucker fishing. Watab creek that flows into the Mississippi River in Sartell MN. First the suckers. Then Red Horse. Then the carp. Sold a lot of fish when I was a kid. Glad to see people are still doing it. Good to eat pickled and smoked. Fried ok as well

to start to answer the question how long can you keep fish pickled


I have a half gallon of fillets that are in the brine and salt and have been in my basement refrigerator since late March 2020 when I started this thread.

9/11/2020 today I opened the jar fished one out with a fork , dried it off with a paper towel and ate it , very salty and a bit vinegary but firm and would be good to put in a wine sauce for a few days and serve.

also the Y bones are un-noticeable even after just 7 days in the vinegar

I have a few jars left my goal is to move a gallons worth to wine sauce mid November for deer camp and thanks giving.

sucker gigging is getting close to start here . Its a big thing in the ozarks in the fall . On the merimac , bourbouse, gasconade ,and many other ozark rivers . they put lighted gigging rails on their boats and spear them at night . The rivers are spring fed so they dont freeze up until it gets down in the single digits . some years you can gig all winter long . Many gravel bars will have bonfires , fish dressing tables made from ironing boards , deep fryers and beer coolers set up on them as people go out gigging in shifts and bring back the suckers dress and fry them. There will be hunderds of these gigging parties going on any time the water is open and clear . There is somthing special about eating fryed suckers with family and friends on the gravel bar on a crisp november night .

Bigfoot. I learn something new. Why are the suckers traveling? To go to deep water for the winter?

no they live in them streams . In the winter the water gets real clear and you can see them on bottom with lights The gigs used are '14' -16'eaven 20' long , most fish are gigged in 8'-10' water , deeper if you have the gig for it . when the water is clear it is fast paced and chalenging . the fish are cruising along ahead of the boat most of the time .

there are some good videos on youtube of Ozark sucker gigging

they are not running or biting here now that I know of , this was a spring thread but since there was a pickled fish question I updated the info on how long the fish in salt and vinegar is keeping.

in WI March April seem to be the time for hook and line at least.

this thread made me hungry Pete!!!

There's some good eating in those jars.. I don't catch them in large numbers but the ones I do, mysteriously end up on a quick strike rig dragged behind the boat

When gigging gets started here ill try to get a post up on it and a tutorial on scoring fish for frying .