MIBowhunter
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2002
- Messages
- 2,089
- Reaction score
- 0
Fishermen line riverbanks as suckers make run in Michigan
April 1, 2004
Walleye and steelhead aren't the only fish drawing anglers' attention this week. Suckers are engaged in spawning runs in rivers all around the Great Lakes, and they draw a crowd of anglers whose idea of an epicurean feast is smoked sucker or perhaps suckers ground into a spicy patty like a hamburger.
Several of those anglers were lined up on the banks of the Rifle River at Omer, near Standish in the eastern Lower Peninsula. They were tossing hooks baited with pieces of red, yellow and green sponge into a swift current that was a good foot higher than last year at this time.
Suckers feed by running their sensitive, tube-like mouths over the bottom, and anything that looks or feels like food is drawn in.
The sucker run began in the Rifle about a week ago and was relatively sparse for the first few days, but increasing numbers of fish began making the run upriver at the beginning of the week. The run should peak this weekend and then slowly taper off for another week to 10 days.
At the height of the run, good anglers might hook a two- to four-pound sucker on eight casts out of 10, with most of them using a bottom rig similar to that used to fish for steelhead.
A small treble-hook (No. 6-10) is tied to the end of the line, and two or three split shots are attached a foot above it. The split shots are pinched directly on the line or on a dropped line on a three-way swivel (a rig that makes it easier to free snags).
The angler should use just enough weight to feel the rig moving "tick, tick, tick" across the bottom as the current sweeps it downstream. The sucker's bite is often subtle, but it doesn't take most anglers long to learn the difference between a rig hung up briefly on the bottom and the slight tug of a fish that has taken the bait.
Kris Smith of Harrison and her son, Seth, 11, were intense about the competition on the Rifle.
Kris and her husband and their other son, Tyler, 13, come to fish for suckers for a week during school break each spring, and she said it's "a great time for the whole family. We have a lot of friends who come, too. It's great for the kids to get outdoors and into the fresh air, and we always catch a bunch of fish.
"Seth and I have a bet that we call first-to-five-for-five. The first one to land five fish wins $5. He usually gets me every time, and he was up, 2-0, a little while ago. But now I'm up, 4-2, and that boy is going down."
By Eric Sharp
April 1, 2004
Walleye and steelhead aren't the only fish drawing anglers' attention this week. Suckers are engaged in spawning runs in rivers all around the Great Lakes, and they draw a crowd of anglers whose idea of an epicurean feast is smoked sucker or perhaps suckers ground into a spicy patty like a hamburger.
Several of those anglers were lined up on the banks of the Rifle River at Omer, near Standish in the eastern Lower Peninsula. They were tossing hooks baited with pieces of red, yellow and green sponge into a swift current that was a good foot higher than last year at this time.
Suckers feed by running their sensitive, tube-like mouths over the bottom, and anything that looks or feels like food is drawn in.
The sucker run began in the Rifle about a week ago and was relatively sparse for the first few days, but increasing numbers of fish began making the run upriver at the beginning of the week. The run should peak this weekend and then slowly taper off for another week to 10 days.
At the height of the run, good anglers might hook a two- to four-pound sucker on eight casts out of 10, with most of them using a bottom rig similar to that used to fish for steelhead.
A small treble-hook (No. 6-10) is tied to the end of the line, and two or three split shots are attached a foot above it. The split shots are pinched directly on the line or on a dropped line on a three-way swivel (a rig that makes it easier to free snags).
The angler should use just enough weight to feel the rig moving "tick, tick, tick" across the bottom as the current sweeps it downstream. The sucker's bite is often subtle, but it doesn't take most anglers long to learn the difference between a rig hung up briefly on the bottom and the slight tug of a fish that has taken the bait.
Kris Smith of Harrison and her son, Seth, 11, were intense about the competition on the Rifle.
Kris and her husband and their other son, Tyler, 13, come to fish for suckers for a week during school break each spring, and she said it's "a great time for the whole family. We have a lot of friends who come, too. It's great for the kids to get outdoors and into the fresh air, and we always catch a bunch of fish.
"Seth and I have a bet that we call first-to-five-for-five. The first one to land five fish wins $5. He usually gets me every time, and he was up, 2-0, a little while ago. But now I'm up, 4-2, and that boy is going down."
By Eric Sharp
