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Posts: 146
Location: Shawano, Wi | Has anyone used suckers in early spring when the water Temps are still pretty cold? |
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Location: Contrarian Island | yes, they work year round.... |
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Posts: 146
Location: Shawano, Wi | Cause I've never seen anyone use them besides in the fall. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | They're missin out. I've caught them on suckers in every month from May thru December.. |
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Posts: 162
| they work just as good in spring as they do in the fall |
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Posts: 574
Location: Elk Grove Village, IL & Phillips, WI | Steve Heiting has written a few articles about small suckers in the spring on jigs and using a spinning outfit. Never tried it myself, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | the lakes I fish, I would say they haven't worked as good as the fall... but they still get some hits... I use them on quick strikes just like in the fall... at times 14"ers have worked better than smaller ones |
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Posts: 1425
Location: St. Lawrence River | You never hear about it, but, has anyone ever tried to use big dead suckers?? We catch many of our large pike 20lb class on big dead baits. Bass will eat them, I've had huge walleyes eat them. Nelson?? |
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Location: Contrarian Island | have had a couple over the years eat more or less dead ones...but low % rate... usually livelier the better... but muskies are dumb so... |
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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | BNelson - 1/11/2017 1:28 PM
have had a couple over the years eat more or less dead ones...but low % rate... usually livelier the better... but muskies are dumb so...
What he said. |
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Posts: 20181
Location: oswego, il | The times i have had a muskies eat a dead sucker, they were pretty stupid and were very agressive at taking them. The days when they stare at them like an alien, not so much |
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Posts: 371
Location: Northern Illinois | I don't know about the big ones dragged on a traditional sucker rig in the early spring, I'm sure you could get a taker sooner or later. However, casting a 5-6 inch chub or "Northern Sucker", as they are sometimes called, can pull one out in the spring in some conditions when maybe nothing else will. I sometimes use my bass gear with maybe 30 lb line, no leader, and a small lightly weighted jig hooked through the mouth of the small sucker. I'll gently cast it near shallow water, structure, or along breaks (including current breaks) and then just use small upward twitches of my rod to get the sucker to flash and impart some action. You can use them even after they're on life support, or dead, since you give it the action with the twitches. Seen it enough as a kid, reminded of it in the Tony Rizzo books, and successfully use it now.
Edited by mm3 1/12/2017 1:44 PM
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Posts: 221
| They definitely work year around. Problem is keeping them alive. I've used them in "warm" weather and kept them nice and fresh in my livewell by filling it up and adding a block of ice to keep the water cold. Problem is, if the lake isn't cold then you're going to shock the crap out of them and they'll die quickly. It's not always the most efficient way to fish. If we have a cold spring and ice comes off late this year, it would definitely be a good time to try it out. |
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Posts: 99
| As a cat fisherman here are some tips for sucker care in warm weather.
Most bait tanks have cold water around 50 degrees. Bag the suckers. When you get to the lake if the temp is warmer than 50 put the sealed bag into a bucket with lake water and let the temps acclimate a bit.
Dump the suckers into livewell with aerator or constant supply of fresh water. Or use a large basket or 5 gallon pail with holes drilled in the top half and drop them in the water. Suckers will stay healthy and lively this way. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | good point on the water temp thing... I have used them in summer w low 70s water and they were fine all day.... |
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Posts: 31
| In the bad old days we threw nose hooked (and tied on) suckers as much or more than artificial lures. Usually, we had more action on the dead suckers than artificials. Work them just like using a glider. Smaller suckers usually worked better, and usually the musky swallowed it almost immediately so you didn't have to follow it all over the lake waiting for that hard run (meaning that the musky had finally swallowed the bait) to set the hook. Once the sucker was swallowed, those big square hooks weren't going to let that fish get away, because they snagged in the throat or the gut, and the musky was toast. Today, non-kirbed CIRCLE hooks work as good as the old square hooks, and won't damage the musky nearly as much when the hook sets. You don't have to SET the hook! When the fish hits, just keep lots of pressure on and just hang on! The circle will almost always snag in the muskie's mouth before it gets away and if you want to release it, you usually can, with no damage to the musky other than its pride being abused somewhat. |
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Posts: 26
Location: lawton, ok | Highly effective year around in the hills of West Virginia. |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | Smaller suckers in the 6 to 8 inch range work great in the spring. I will run suckers and cast every Opener. In years past my boat has had 4 doubles and one triple using suckers and quick-strike rigs.
Set one or two rods just over the boat for following fish. Set another Rod or two behind the boat with slip bobbers and enjoy your action.
Muskies love suckers. Only issue with spring time suckers is the weeds. Spring is a shallow water bite mostly so you will be working in or around weeds. Suckers love to dig into weeds when they can. It's not as easy fishing suckers in the spring as in the fall but lots of fish eat the suckers when presented correctly. |
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