UPLR Sucker Run Report (4/9/07) (4 pics)

[Tyler Holm]

Last night was a blast. The suckers are plentiful right now and that should continue until mid to late May. The best bite was when the sun was on the water, but we caught fish up until dark and even after dark.

We had 13 folks fishing last night with 60+ fish caught. The favorites Dan and Alex really put on a clinic. Together they probably landed nearly 30 suckers. I know they had at least 3 doubles between them. It was a fish every 5-10 minutes. Rugbyguy, crazyice, and I just watched most of the time as we fished right next to them and only caught a fraction of the fish they did.

Alex took the top prize (He probably caught 3 of the largest 5 fish of the evening) and one of those brutes managed to completely break my net. That was kinda comical.

Last night we caught Silver Redhorse, Shorthead Redhorse, Northern Hog Sucker, Golden Redhorse, and smallies.

It was a great night.

Golden Redhorse

Shorthead Redhorse

Silver Redhorse (2nd Place fish!)

Northern Hog Sucker (Dan T caught this one). This fish was all of 14” long and we found out today that the state record is 14.25”. Nice fish Dan. Congrats!

If anybody else has pictures or more to add, feel free!

[hogsucker]

Awesome fish! That Silver really is a brute. I can't wait for the sucker runs to REALLY get going. Soon..........~hogsucker

[winona walleye]

Hope you don't mind me asking what the bait and technque of choice was? Theres a creek down here that gets chuck full of redhorse, but i never seem to be able to get them to bite....

thanks

tim

[Tyler Holm]

Dan T put some good info here.

I'm not a sucker expert but I can let you know what worked for us.

You rod should be fairly long (6'+) and a soft tip helps. A great rod would be a 7' medium light rod with a soft tip.

Bait is simple, crawlers on the bottom. For a hook a # 4 or #6 octopus hook or baitholder hook should treat you well. We tried circle hooks as well and they caught some fish. Half or whole crawler (depending on the size)

For weight, you basically need enough weight to keep your bait pinned to the bottom in the current. I prefer a slip weight with about 12-18" leader from the weight to the hook. We were using flat style sinkers (no snags & no rolls), but egg or round ones seemed to work as well.

8-10# test should be fine.

Cast out to a current seam or near fast current. Put your rod down in a Y stick with the tip high. Then reel in the slack until the line gets tight. Watch that tip and line like a hawk. If the line or tip bounces, that's a strike.

It's kinda tough to hook them. The pick it up and drop it often. I bet I missed 25+ fish (including my first 10 or so). It took catching a few to get it figured out.

[hanson]

Hey Dan-

Congrats on the Hogsucker man! Thats a beauty!

[winona walleye]

thanks for the help tyler... we'll see how i do this weekend

[crazyice]

Good luck this weekend. If you get into them it will surely be alot of fun.

[Tyler Holm]

Here's some more pics from Friday. We caught over 40.

Here's a couple of Silvers

Shorthead and a Silver Redhorse

We also caught smallies, sheephead, silver redhorse, shorthead redhorse, golden redhorse, and white sucker. The fish bit very well, even after dark.