Who eats suckers. (Fish).

How do you prefer them?

Smoked

I prefer them as coon and mink bait

X2 and my mom would grind the fish and make fish sticks w/bread crumbs and seasoning. Very good!

smoked, but its been many years

Scored and deep fried

As a kid, the sucker run was a big deal! Families would bridge-hop on Sunday afternoons using trammel nets. The kids would go ahead of the men pulling the nets and chuck rocks and sticks in the holes and undercut banks to move the suckers from their daytime haunts. It was a big deal in the 50’s. If there were some families ahead of you parked at a bridge, you just jumped to another bridge up or downstream.

Ma only fried suckers along with the egg bags all fried in bacon grease and served with mashed potatoes. A lot of bones to pick let me tell you!

At night us kids would use Coleman gas lanterns and spear suckers in the creeks & riffles in the local rivers that I now trap beaver & mink on. Ma would chew may butt if I nicked the egg bags with the spear because the eggs would pop out hot and burn her arms while frying them!!!

Admittedly, I haven’t eaten a sucker since that time! I think if the property owners saw someone with a lantern in a creek today, they’d call the frigin Law on you!!!

Smoked and have ground the fillets and with seasoning and onion and made fish patties out of them.

The old people here called them "freshwater mullet" and would break your arm taking them to fry.

Down here in south Gawga..this^^^ is the preferred way too.

Canned.Canned Suckers was our "Tuna Fish" when I was growing up on the farm.Speared hundreds of them.

Smoked !

I don't eat bottom feeders for obvious reasons

Like Walleye & Halibut !

Fillets canned - Great like tuna.
Fillets smoked and canned - Never met a smoked fish I didn't like.
Fillets through the grinder with some potato and onion seasoned to taste, made into patties and fried.
Fried roe sacks.

I've only eaten a sucker once. I fried it and found it okay, but not as good as sunfish or crappie.

Every year, when I see these posts, I am tempted to go to a creek I know, that gets many thousands of suckers, in some pools, in the Spring. The last time I was there during the run, I quickly caught dozens, which I chunked up for bait.

I don't like bones in canned salmon. How bad are the bones in canned suckers?

Keith

Good eating smoked. Just smoked canned 5 pints this morning.

Do you remove the bones after smoking, before canning?

Keith

We fillet ours off the ribs just like you would a walleye or Crappie. Once smoked, peel it off the skin, pack in jars and can it. The small bones will dissolve or at least get so soft that you don't even notice them. I hate eating fish with bones in them!

I personally take them out after just because I think it’s easier once there cooked and you get more meat.

Thanks. Since you are peeling the skin after smoking, do you still scale the suckers?

I stoped skinning catfish, when I grill them. Leaving the skin on catfish during grilling works well. I do score the thicker parts with a knife.

Keith

Scored and deep fried.
Fresh never frozen is best.

This is my favorite.

I also pickle them.

smoked and can, just like 160,

They taste OK smoked, but I don't like them because of the fine bones.

This is why I canned them after! Seems to intensify the smoke too

Any of you southern guys got a pic of this?

Chunks or whole fish or what? Scaled, score and fry? Then just pick it apart and eat?

As far as suckers, used to hit em hard as a kid. We'd smoke them, grind them and do sucker patties or pickle them like lake trout or pike.

I haven't purposely fished for suckers in a long time.

Tried it one time as a kid.Tasted like mud to me.

canned

I am from north MO, so more of a fried carp / buffalo guy. Gigging suckers is a MO Ozarks thing, as they have shallow, clear running water. Gigging done at night, using tricked out boats under lights.

This video pretty much sums it all up, including a fish fry on a gravel bar towards the end. Same guy has other videos that covers each part, including how to clean and score them.

Pickled suckers are great! Pickled with onions in brine, they are close to herring. Eat them on crackers is some good stuff. Used to make them by the gallon, take em into work and the old timers would have them gone in an hour! Lol! No need to de bone as bones turn soft after a couple weeks in brine.

As I was pulling beaver traps on one of our local rivers this morning, I saw a property owner with a nice dip net setup(fire ring with plenty of wood, chairs, party lights, etc) at the bottom of the high bank below his house. First one I’ve heard of on a local river.

Agreed. I've never seen one locally.

River or creek? I've seen a few spots on the Salt and up some of the bigger creeks/ditches up near Mills and off Wixom that a dip net would be advantageous. Saw quite a few fish traps made out out pig fence and chicken wire on those ditches.

same here

On a river. Ya, fish trap making was a thing when I was a kid but old Carl Herman the CO would check the traps looking for pike. Never a good thing!
Say “Hi” to your dad for me if you would!

Will do!

When fishing for Trout this time of year in the Lake Michigan Tributaries you can't but catch tons of suckers. They run about 12-16", some larger.
I have quit fishing to the abundance of these things makes catching trout almost impossible.

Quite a few dip nets on the Rifle River downstream from Omer bridge.

Ya, dip nets up at Omer is a historic thing but it certainly isn’t something often seen on Midland Co rivers. I’ve lived here for 78 years and have never seen a dip net on the County’s rivers until this year, especially a Super Fund river!!!

We run a very similar setup but IMHO metal halide lights are supreme to all others for water penetration. LED don’t penetrate as much. A buddy and I worked with a couple local gig makers over the years to get a design of a 4-pronged gig that is cut via water jet versus forged out of hay forks like in the past. Wish we would have patented it but didn’t. I like a longer shank then showing the video for when the redhorse start running. Less drag.

Where can you purchase the gigs used in the video?

Keith

are the suckers running anywhere yet??

I'd rate them as so-so. There are much better fish to eat than suckers, IMO. They rank pretty far down on my list of good eating fish.

They've been running by me in the Cattaraugus Crick ever since the ice went out a few weeks ago

I have been checking my local creeks every 2-3 days here. No fish yet, but when the run kicks into high gear I will be spearing a good mess to can. They are great tasting fish and both fry and bake well. The meat it white, firm, and tasty..........but the "Y" bones turn most folks off. I like to gut a fresh one, fill it with onion slices and butter and toss it in the coals after wrapping it in tin foil. Great camping food!

There are much Bettah choices ..Yuck

All depends on water quality. The clear cooler water north of the Saginaw Valley watershed where I live, produces a lot better tasting sucker. The suckers J Morse speaks of are of that kind of water are way better tasting fish than mine. Hard to even compare!

I like em. I fry em whole.

yes, cold water produces better fish all around

They are running down in Menominee

Dont eat them anymore Bottom feeder

There are a thousand different ways to prepare suckers, none better then the next. That's why it's been tried so many ways.

I only eat them smoked

When I lived in the Missouri Ozarks , we'd snag ( some called it 'grabbing') in the spring and speared them in the fall/winter. Filet and score them and then into hot grease on the gravel bar. Best fish I've ever had.

I don’t think I have ever seen a sucker fish. Heard of them just never seen one