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Posts: 619
Location: Seymour, WI | Better question, At what water temp do you guys start to use suckers?
I think any time the water is less than 60 degrees is when suckers really start to shine, but I know lots of guys don't use them until much later.
Grass, |
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Posts: 32884
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I use them when Slamr shows up and buys a few, rigs them, and drops them in the H2O. I net the fish for him, mostly. Seriously, I think suckers and quick strike rigs would work all year, why would a fall muskie be any more or less interested in eating a sucker dressed up in a metal ball gown? |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | A lot of waters you can't use suckers all year long due to high water temps.
I know when the temps reach about 65 degrees, my suckers really start to die after a few hours of fishing and really are not that lively.
If you are fishing a like without a thermocline, and their are muskies down 16+ feet in the summer by all means use them.
Suckers are great, if used properly. |
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Posts: 32884
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Up here it's common to have 60 degree to 65 degree water all the way through the summer with really cool water from September to ice up and quite a bit of June. I know a couple guys who do pretty well all year on 'live bait', but they have to get suckers from the rivers here because no one is carrying them. |
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Posts: 8774
| Not sure how you'd keep them alive, but if you could, I'm sure they'd work any time of the year.
Hell, we tried in July. The one we rigged made it about 10 minutes, and the two in the livewell made it about 15, and that was it.
I guess a better question would be how cold does the water need to be to keep the #*^@ things alive? |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | Like I said, anything below 65 works well. |
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Posts: 32884
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | So I would say the consensus is that once the water is cool enough to keep the sucker alive, they work just fine. No reason to wait until it's spitting snow, in other words. |
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Location: Minneapolis, MN | I found the trick to keeping them alive in any water temp is to use a rig that doesn't require you to poke a hole in their nose or stick a trebble in their back. |
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Posts: 578
Location: Sheboygan Falls, WI | Hey Steve, Kristy carried the suckers until about the beginning of July and then started to carry them again around the beginning of August. She said that it was hard for her to get them during the HOT part of the summer. The small musky suckers are what she was able to get in late June and early August. 3 sizes of suckers are in-stock and swimming strong right now. Tanks outside are taking perfect care of the suckers for her.
Quick-Strike rigs are the way to go.
Chuck |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | My current "Pile O' Crap" is not equiped with a livewell, so I made one out of an old cooler. Keeping them alive in there is not a problem. Keeping them alive in the lake in the summer is a problem. I got a couple a month or so ago, because my Brother-in-law and Niece do not yet know how to cast a musky stick yet, and I wanted one, or both of them to catch thier first musky. The suckers both gave up the ghost 1/2 hour after they hit the water |
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| i guided a kid to his first legal sunday afternoon.34" and the kids smile could be seen for miles.
we also hit a 43" sat afternoon when i finished playing with sturgeon.
i think anytime know is fine. and anytime you can keep them alive.......
good luck.
dannyboy
dannyboy's guide service
musky crazy
laona, wi
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Posts: 341
| I soaked a sucker in Vilas all last week and the action only came on artificials. The meat was nervous and most likely followed but no takers down low or top of column. Water temps 66-68. Suckers had no issues with water being to warm.
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | In addition to what the others have said, I have found that the smaller ones stay alive a bit better than the big stuff. Taking them out of the lake and putting them into a highly oxygenated live/sucker well for a spell has also helped me nurse bait through warmer days. |
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Too early for suckers?