Too Kill or not to kill a Suckerfish, That is the qustion?

[WayneChristie]

Originally Posted by harrydude

What is the limit for suckers

keep as many as you want. dace i caught some on jig and minnow last summer, never saw that before either

[npauls]

Originally Posted by harrydude

What is the limit for suckers

unlimited. They aren't a game fish so you can keep as many as you want.

[harrydude]

We are Gunna give them a go for pike bait

What you think?

[WayneChristie]

pike candy

[harrydude]

Kool

[fish gunner]

I use 10-14" as bait ,pike love them.missed biggest pike we have seen at burnstick.on sucker,we name them uncle charles or fred so others dont coin on to our secret bait.

[winger7mm]

Back home, we had a lake that had rainbows, pike, perch and suckers. SRD sprayed the lake with chemicals to kill all the fish, blocked off the inlet and outlet creeks and reinroduced the trout, growing up we were told by everyone SRD included to kill all suckers that were caught. the chemical poison got the trout and pike but the suckers made it out ok. People were just throwing the suckers in the garbage bins. I rarely seen one be taken back to camp. Havent heard of a sucker being brought out of the lake in a couple years now. The lake is a great spot for rainbows now and is a central north alberta charm. But this is a great example of the suckers. I grew up around this lake and so my views are jaded, kill em and dump em.

[glen1971]

Every one we catch ends up on the ice or in the bushes for the birds...

[mapleleafman3]

Back in Wisconsin, A bunch of buddies and myself would head out in the spring to target suckers around spawning time. We would pickle them. Anyone doing that around here?

[flockofgies]

Dipnetting for Suckers is popular in Manitoba. New a few people who pickled them, just like tuna. CO's at Reesor told us last summer to throw them in the bushes.

[TROLLER]

Not in this life wil I ever return a sucker to the water.

[niwrek]

Suckers smoke up nice!!!

[harrydude]

Originally Posted by niwrek

Suckers smoke up nice!!!

How do you get them rolled in the paper?

Do you use blues or classic whites?

Loll

[WayneChristie]

Originally Posted by niwrek

Suckers smoke up nice!!!

with those lips they could get a pretty good draw!

[Carson13]

They may not eat trout eggs but they compete for food with the trout and i have killed 20 to 30 this year!!

[WayneChristie]

Id rather catch suckers than trout anyday, they may not jump often, but they are a lot tougher fighter, pound for pound. outside a big laker anyways. dont believe me bring your trout gear down here this summer and we shall open your eyes, young grasshopper! besides around here you have just as good a chance at hooking up a big sturgeon with the same bait, try that in your trout ponds!

Originally Posted by Isopod

I've never chucked a sucker in the bush. It's the waste factor that ****es me off. You justify it by claiming wild animals will eat it -- I'm betting that more often than not those "wild animals" are flies and their maggots.

There was a time when pike were regarded as garbage fish and chucked in the bush, now we've got regulations to protect them 'cause their numbers are hurting. There was a time when ling were left on the ice to die because they were considered garbage. Now we call them sportfish.

If the fishing regulations said we should kill all suckers we catch, then I'd believe that the recommendation was based on sound science. But the fishing regulations don't say that. But apparently some random guy on the Internet named Horsetrader has decided that he knows better than Fish and Wildlife on how to protect our fisheries and says we should kill every sucker we catch. I'll stick with the Fish and Wildlife recommendations, thank you very much.

my 2 bits.

if we are allowed to keep 10 walleye every day, then we are likely killing every walleye we catch or at least the bigger ones. But when it comes to suckers we neither catch or kill them. so in the concept of keeping balance in a lake we should be harvesting species equally in some set form or the suckers will over run a lake. my lake as a kid was overfished by commercial fisheries (the rumour, but i remember seeing the trucks there in the early spring as a kid) and within 3 years we had very little fish and the suckers took over. (large pods would slowly swim across the surface at their population height). now we had 20lb plus suckers that destroyed the spawn. it was only after they died out from starvation or age that we saw a come back on the lake. i used to wade into the water in the evening about waste deep and hold my rod straight out and catch walleye like crazy. then you couldnt find a walleye for years. its been about 12 years now and i see the walleye are back. also, there arent many pike that can take a 20lb sucker so at some point they are no longer feeder fish for other species.

i guess nothing should be killed for no reason and wasted. maybe slot sizes on all fish would help alot. i dont understand why there isnt a slot size on pike for all of alberta.

also, 20lb suckers fight like crazy. real fun catch. if there are lakes around with lots, lets go get em.

[anthony5]

Well here goes, As long as we are allowed to keep the big pike or walleye on some of our smaller lakes the sucker population is going to increase and yes, they do feed on the eggs of our sportfish, so some of the control of these fish is lost as they are not harvested in any large way. The smaller Trout lakes do not have a chance as there are no predators, Pike, Walleye, Lake Trout' so these lakes or ponds do not have a chance. When you go fishing for Trout in some of these Heavily stocked trout lakes and can only catch suckers some views may be changed about our trout lakes. I personally have used these flying bushfish for bear hunting in NW Ontario and hooking on to 40"+ pike waiting at the mouth of a creek looking for an easy meal of sucker. Large pike or lake trout will hit a 1lb sucker hard enough to blow apart some of the best ice fishing rigs out there. If I catch a sucker under 2lbs it becomes bait if not, there is some serious air time.

[pickrel pat]

yes. kill off or remove any threats to our game fish....... love it when the eco system gets unbalanced and stunting and starvation occurs. would love catching 1000 six inch rainbows, perch, or walleye instead of 10 TEN POUNDERS! kill em all! grampa used to. (the same guy that smokes in the house and car as his children were in.) because he just didnt know the ramifications. nice guy though........ just didnt know back then, what we know today.

[fish gunner]

Originally Posted by pickrel pat

yes. kill off or remove any threats to our game fish....... love it when the eco system gets unbalanced and stunting and starvation occurs. would love catching 1000 six inch rainbows, perch, or walleye instead of 10 TEN POUNDERS! kill em all! grampa used to. (the same guy that smokes in the house and car as his children were in.) because he just didnt know the ramifications. nice guy though........ just didnt know back then, what we know today.

bravo,well said PP.

[WayneChristie]

Originally Posted by pickrel pat

yes. kill off or remove any threats to our game fish....... love it when the eco system gets unbalanced and stunting and starvation occurs. would love catching 1000 six inch rainbows, perch, or walleye instead of 10 TEN POUNDERS! kill em all! grampa used to. (the same guy that smokes in the house and car as his children were in.) because he just didnt know the ramifications. nice guy though........ just didnt know back then, what we know today.

exactly, have to admit we used to stab them and toss them to the gulls, but I grew up

[kinwahkly]

I throw them Back, treat them the dames any game fish which they are, I've caught many if them on light tackle and they actually put up a decent fight, no idea why someone would torture or leave out to die.

[N8orDie]

Originally Posted by harrydude

How do you get them rolled in the paper?

Do you use blues or classic whites?

Loll

Unrelated but related: I know an older guy who buries suckers in his garden as fertilizer.

Originally Posted by N8orDie

Unrelated but related: I know an older guy who buries suckers in his garden as fertilizer.

When caught out of trout lakes, that's what I do with them too. Grows a lot of big raspberries and tomatoes. Pike fisheries, I toss em back as they're important forage.

[bushman87]

In some lakes I fish the suckers and squawfish have taken over the lake and you catch about 15 suckers before a trout. Ever watched a sucker in a trout spawning area? like a vacuum. I know lakes that were poisoned to get rid of suckers and squawfish. I kill them and watch the hawks, eagles and ospreys feed.

[fish gunner]

Originally Posted by jrs

When caught out of trout lakes, that's what I do with them too. Grows a lot of big raspberries and tomatoes. Pike fisheries, I toss em back as they're important forage.

excellent gardening tip, will have to throw a few in my tomatoes next year.what abought clogs are they liable to dig them up.

[Penney26]

Hey bud, I think the answer your looking for is one of those ones that comes from within, there will be opinions on both sides, the one that matters is at the end of the day do you feel guilty or do you feel you did the right thing, I realize this may or may not help you, but this coming from an avid hunter that at sometimes has to let animals walk because it doesn't feel " right" ( distance,angle, age...etc)people will have their views but the one that counts is yours

Originally Posted by fish gunner

excellent gardening tip, will have to throw a few in my tomatoes next year.what abought clogs are they liable to dig them up.

If you mean dogs, yup, and roll in them. My dogs leave them alone pretty good (they prefer the deer bones), but the neighbors dog got in the yard in the fall (suckers mixed with a substancial amount of whitefish guts) and made a pretty good mess of himself. Neighbor seems to keep the gate closed now. They don't stink as long as they're down a few inches. I have a feeling most of the nutrients are available following tilling the second year (just scales visible at that point).

[fish gunner]

Originally Posted by jrs

If you mean dogs, yup, and roll in them. My dogs leave them alone pretty good (they prefer the deer bones), but the neighbors dog got in the yard in the fall (suckers mixed with a substancial amount of whitefish guts) and made a pretty good mess of himself. Neighbor seems to keep the gate closed now. They don't stink as long as they're down a few inches. I have a feeling most of the nutrients are available following tilling the second year (just scales visible at that point).

lol,I have a little lab that enjoys the odd dead thing scrub down. hopefully placing them in in the bottom of a large pot will keep them out of harms way.

TRUE STORY:

lazy neighbour says to my brother. you know why dont we bury my fish guts in your garden. will fertilize it for you. brother looks at his beer and says, sure why not. Brother comes back to cottage a month later and gets sprayed in the face by big skunk who is happily digging up the guts in the garden. i come to cottage 2 weeks later and being warned shine the lights on the garden. yep 2 skunks this time. i watch skunks crawl under neighbors cottage crawl space. in morning i dig up fish guts and take to dump, then tell neighbour thanks but no thanks.