Early Spring Sucker Fishing Tips & Tricks

[@jlmize1507]

Any fisherman who targets suckers wins my heart! I learned a great deal about fishing by fishing for suckers during my formative years. We dug our worms from our backyard garden and used size 6 or 8 Mustad hooks, and Zebco reels. Suckers taught me how to fish patiently. I subscribed because of this video. Thanks, again, for sharing your knowledge and skills.

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

Thanks!

[@Unsensitive]

I just started fishing for suckers this year. Love sight fishing for em in one of my local creeks. Fun to catch and they taste pretty damn good. Gonna fry up some fish patties tomorrow if catch a few.

[@laszlobacs]

Fishing for sucker is fun. My favorite technique is float fishing. Great video.

[@whyyunggod7473]

Thanks for the infomation. ❤😁

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

You're very welcome! I hope you catch a ton.

[@whyyunggod7473]

@@teamcramerfishing8441 caught a 5 lb red fin sucker last week

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

@@whyyunggod7473 Nice! That's a big one!

[@whyyunggod7473]

@@teamcramerfishing8441 recently caught 8 Redfin suckers upstream on the same hook. I hit a big school of them.

[@CedarPinesFieldGrove]

I see largescale suckers all over where I'm at near the Columbia River, I've always ignored them but have been giving them some more consideration lately. Great video to get me started, thanks!

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

The Columbia River is beautiful. We did a big national parks trip in 2018 and had a chance to see it a couple of times, but no time to fish it. I'll probably make some more sucker videos next spring, with some new and improved tips as well. Thanks for stopping by.

[@CedarPinesFieldGrove]

@@teamcramerfishing8441 The smallmouth bass fishery is pretty underrated around here IMO. Seems like most anglers chase salmon and steelhead in the PNW, as such they're a pretty heavily regulated species. Warmwater and 'rough fish' like suckers are much less regulated, if at all. There's even a bounty on the native northern pikeminnow! Some guys catch enough of em to make a very good living. Anyhow, I'm rambling. Subscribed!

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

@@CedarPinesFieldGrove Thanks, Andrew. I'm somewhat surprised about a bounty being put on a native species. I say 'somewhat' because I'm sure there is a good sportfishing industry that has more political pull than a native fish. We've seen a little bit of that here in Iowa with yellow bass, which are native, but generally considered a nuisance in some fisheries because of their relatively small size, so there are no limits on them. Other fisheries in Iowa have taken advantage of yellow bass like Clear Lake, where they have a huge yellow bass ice fishing tourney each winter. The yellow bass in that lake get a little bigger than the ones in southern Iowa do, though. But the DNR has completely killed off small lakes if there are too many yellow bass, and restocked them. In general, rough fish are slowly gaining popularity for both sport fishing and food fish. I saw someone with a whole stringer full of freshwater drum the other day, and I'm starting to see more and more sport carp fisherman, too. Thanks again for the sub!

[@CedarPinesFieldGrove]

@@teamcramerfishing8441 Northern pikeminnow populations exploded around here with dam construction. Dams create new habitat for the pikeminnow while also impeding salmon migration. The pikeminnow also prey upon salmon smolts. It's a bit of a mess. Sea lions also make their way up the rivers and hang out at choke points on the Columbia and Willamette. The sea lions usually just eat the salmon bellies and that's it. Fish and Wildlife has taken to shooting sea lions at these choke points. Relocation to California only saw the same sea lions return in short order. Salmon are pretty big business around here! I'm glad rough fish are taking off in popularity. Carp are plentiful in lakes and ponds. Funny how states manage fisheries sometimes. All the best!

[@jeremyowen1]

From Ontario, Canada and most species are closed right now. Trout, bass, walleye, pike. The options we have are pretty limited. We do have some big channel cats, carp and suckers though. First year I've tried to fish the spring when the water is high and ripping and I definitely don't have the gear for it. Throwing more than 2oz would probably break every rod I have and even at 2 the current slowly catches my pyramid sinkers. Heading out again tomorrow with a few tips from you. See if I can find a nice calm inside bend or some slack water eddies. I will literally take anything after this winter.

[@koukensaefong8309]

Red worms is good bait for them fish

[@repoman666dirty]

Suckers are really good. White flakey fish. We fish them every year

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

We just started catching them this week around here.

[@repoman666dirty]

@@teamcramerfishing8441 We are on the southern Michigan boarder near lake Michigan. We fish them hard every spring

[@EBspeciesfishing]

For the lighter rig, I would recommend making the leader slightly lighter than your main line. That way you leader breaks on snags first and you don't lose the majority of your rig. Can't wait to see these next few videos! :)

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

That's a good idea. I haven't been using the lighter rig this year. I mostly just wanted to let people know that they can use about any line they want. We've had about 4 good outings so far the past couple of weeks. Ironically, the one we caught the most suckers (7 or 8) I'm not going to post a video of because we each caught new species the next couple of outings and I needed to clear some memory and hadn't taken the clips off the camera yet because we fished three days in a row (and I didn't decide to make a sucker focused video until the last day). We do catch plenty of nice suckers, though, especially in the second upcoming video. Vivian is still trying for a hognose. I caught 4 the first outing...:)

[@canadianhuntress4529]

Just started running in our creek out back here in southern Ontario..will be out catching them this week👍

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

It's that time of year! Good luck!

[@twopassionsfishing386]

Great video friend

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

Thanks!

[@jakedeal6508]

Even suckers are fun to catch!

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

They really are! I particularly like shorthead redhorses. I've had them jump two feet in the air and shake off hooks just like a smallmouth.

[@ftree123]

Great video man :)

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

Thanks, Chad!

[@perofish]

Once you mentioned bendable hooks and bending the barbs in, I'm done watching.

[@Thatguysep]

Hey man dont be leaving hooks in fish.

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

Research has shown that if they in deep, most of the time the fish's body will eventually eject them and that the survival rate is very high that way.

[@jeremyowen1]

Most fish and wildlife recommend cutting the line as close the hook without disturbing it. Trying to get it out is what does damage. Most species are incredibly adept at ejecting or passing foreign objects. They eat all kinds of weird stuff they don't mean to.

[@MidwestBassHunter]

Good information!

[@teamcramerfishing8441]

You can catch musky bait! :)

[@treverlawrence3071]

cut the hook off seriously dude this video deserves a thumbs down

[@StrategicFishing101]

You do realize fish have a higher survival rate by doing thing. When you try to get the hook out most people tend to destroy the fishes throat this way. 10 % mortality rate when leaving the hook in vs 40% trying to take it out. www3.carleton.ca/fecpl/pdfs/FR-Forbert%20et%20al2009.pdf

[@jeremyowen1]

Does no one read their local catch and release guidelines? Almost every single one - Circle hooks recommended, barbless recommended, stainless steel not recommended, wet hands when handling, don't hold heavy fish by jaws/lips, angle fish quickly to prevent exhaustion, keep fish in water as much as possible, *If fish is hooked deeply, cut the line and release the fish as quickly as possible.* They even teach you how to resuscitate a fish. There's no reason not to know this.