Where to get suckers for bait?

[Brandon5555]

Little red deer river near water valley is full of them. Head upstream from the campground and net away. Bring your spin or fly gear for some bastardly browns and whites

[leloinjunior]

Agreed. NSR in any of the holes attached to the big cement run-off outlets. Average is smaller ones, although you will occasionally get bigger ones.

[mikebossy]

Originally Posted by waterninja

Quite honestly I have never seen or heard of a trout pond that overwinters that has suckers. Are you thinking of those little 2" sticklebacks?

Carson lake is full of em, and believe it or not you can catch em on the surface with flies, crazy but true, i couldn't believe my eyes when i did it

[mikebossy]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

You are right in collecting your bait fish next summer and fall and freeze them.
Freeze them individually on a sheet first and then bag them. Then you don't have a messy block of minnows to thaw.

In late May and early June the dacy minnows and spot tail shiners school in the shallows at lakes. Lakes like wizard or pigeon have endless schools in 2 to 5 feet of water in the spring. Collect a pail full in minutes.

Ashland dam would be a great place to collect 6 to 10 inch suckers during open water.

I think sucker fishing would be pretty slow in winter. A tip up with mealworms right on the bottom maybe.

do you still see these schools of minnows in Pigeon? i remember them 20 yrs ago, but as far as within the last 5 haven't seen any, think the walleye have eaten every last one