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| How do you keep your suckers lively and swimming when in the water?
The last couple of trips out I've been dragging suckers and between them getting hung up on weeds or having them just drifting along belly up, it gets rather frustrating. I've caught a couple fish on suckers in past years so I'm not a total noob.
I've been using single treble rigs trying to keep the weight on the sucker to a minimum after buying a double treble rig with blade that I just didn't like. I would think less is more in terms of the harness. I usually do not add weight to the rig or line at all. Maybe I should. Also, usually have one suspended on a float behind the boat and one hanging just over the side in a holder.
Anyways, I hate checking the suckers periodically to find them just hanging near lifeless on the rig. I'm thinking I am going to try using the safety pin method to attach the hooks and see if I notice any difference in action.
Any general tips for sucker fishing? Just not having much of any success/action with them! Maybe I need to focus more on fishing my lures and less on the suckers because lately just babysitting the sucker rods has been irritating. Thoughts? |
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| possible your suckers are just too small and can't handle the rig?
otherwise an un-lively sucker is usually the result of poor rigging or balance. your ideas about your rigs aren't wrong, but your sucker might be unbalanced with just one treble. use the classic two treble rig and make sure your hooks aren't too high up on the sucker, and spaced front to back, so the weight of the hooks is distributed along the sucker, not all in one spot. make sure your hook leads aren't so tight your sucker can't swim freely.
use a 1oz weight above your leader whether you're running boatside or under a balloon. weight will help pull the sucker forward with the motion of the boat instead of planing it up toward the surface.
i'd forget that safety pin rig too and just bend one treble point down, will be faster to rig. balance and fast rigging=less time out of the water for your sucker, less work for it to swim along.
just suggestions of things that can throw your rig off. you said you've caught a few on suckers so i bet it's probably just one little thing that's throwing off your rigging. always important to have max oxygen on them too whenever possible so they're not lethargic to begin with. |
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| as far as getting them hung up in weeds, run your boatside sucker off the shallow side just couple feet down, run your balloon sucker off the deep side behind the boat, no more than 4-5 feet down and you'll avoid more weeds. don't feel like you have to run right on the edge either, lots of the deeper stuff is patchy this time of year and you can run right over it and if a fish is hungry they'll find the sucker whether it's right on the weededge or 10 feet off. |
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| Guest - 10/19/2012 10:57 AM
"make sure your hooks aren't too high up on the sucker, and spaced front to back, so the weight of the hooks is distributed along the sucker, not all in one spot."
use a 1oz weight above your leader whether you're running boatside or under a balloon. weight will help pull the sucker forward with the motion of the boat instead of planing it up toward the surface.
QUOTE]
When I was rigging with just one hook, I was trying to keep it high on the sucker, just behind it's head. I thought that would be the best position for good hookset. Like you said, I think I will switch back to 2 hooks and keep them down on the sides more. I'll also try adding that weight. It makes sense to me now that you say it, if I run the mainline through an eggsinker before tying to the leader, so the sucker isn't carrying the weight on the rig itself.
I've just been in a slump for the last few weeks and the suckers I've been using haven't produced squat. Last weekend I actually had a decent fish chasing a large sucker around the boat for a minute but wouldn't eat it. So when I went out Wednesday night I picked up a few smaller suckers thinking that they would be an easier snack and the fish might just inhale (theoretically speaking) them little guys. No luck. I don't think I've really been doing anything all that wrong, just looking to improve the presentation a bit. Thanks for the ideas. |
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| Like the guy above said I've noticed small(5-6 inches) suckers just don't have the hardiness of the bigger ones 7+ inchers. The weight will help because if you drift too fast the sucker will basically be skiing behind the float instead of swimming. I never try and drift to fast because that will almost drown your sucker minnows. Try throwing out a 5 gallon bucket when drifting to slow you down.
I like to find back bays and places out of the wind when really fishing hard with suckers on windy days.
I might not always be in the best spot but feel I can fish the calmer spots better and more thoroughly instead of constantly fighting a stiff wind which can be pretty annoying.
I make up my quick set rigs almost like the big tooth tackle company "Natural rigs" except I use a single hook thru the mouth and a treble next to the dorsal fin. I might experiment with using a treble in the front but for now my suckers sit horizontal in the water and swim nicely. Another thing I've learned is that playing with your sucker really adds that erracticness that muskies seem to love. Sometimes I'll grab my line and give it a few pulls to make the bobber bounce around and WHAMMO!!! Fish on!
I've even tried scents and they do work but I feel I attract big catfish when using scents. Do any of you fish with a single hook and two trebles? It seems to me that that's too much hardware. I'm no expert, just throwing out what I know.
Nail a pig! |
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| Also don't rule out the fact that some suckers just die. Be picky when you select them at the bait shop, stay away from the pale ones and don't get the ones that are easy to catch. I like to get the ones racing around the tank and not the ones playing possum.
When I'm rigging up the sucker and the sucker is cooperative, it most likely will be belly up in a short period of time. |
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| "Small" is relative I guess.
When I said I tried some smaller suckers I meant 10-12"ers. Otherwise 14-18" is the norm. |
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Posts: 8781
| There are lots of ways to kill a sucker. Water too warm, moving too fast, fishing in big wind and waves... If you're not doing any of that, there's a pretty good chance they weren't worth a #*#* to begin with.
You could try keeping two rigged up and alternating them. When one starts to get lethargic, put it in the livewell and use the other one.
Hard to say for sure. We had a day last year where I had 5 suckers die on me and Samantha used the same one all day, that stayed lively until it got eaten. Same batch of suckers, same rig, fishing them the same way in the same place.
Edited by esoxaddict 10/19/2012 2:19 PM
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| We have been using both suckers and casting lures at the same me. For whatever reason we have been doing better on the lures. We have been really strugggling at times getting bit on the suckers and the lures have saved the day. So don't forget to throw some baits if the suckers just aren't happening. |
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Posts: 1220
| Like PT Barnum said of suckers, "There's another one born every minute!" But seriously folks, I find that once water is below 55 degrees, a healthy sucker should stay alive virtually all day long if it is not clobbered by a fish and it is rigged correctly. For me, that means minimal hardware--one point of one single trebble in the sucker and a small rubberband through the nostrils AKA "Herbie Rig." Rigs with a hook in the mouth and two more in the body can be effective during an agressive bite...but IMHO all that metal inhibits your bite and is better sent to the Junkman for recycling! |
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Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | They last longer if you name them. If an angler feels connected to a sucker emotionally he/she is more likely to take proper care of it. And muskies are more likely munch it because well cared for suckers are much more appealing to muskies. |
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| Snooki and The Situation died last week!! |
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| why do guys think that suckers only stay alive or work in cold water???
Used suckers with success the last 3 years with water temps over 70 all the way to 78. Small streams and rivers they live in don't just miraculously stay below 70 degrees in the summer.
Suckers work great ALL year.
Use a single hook rig with a smaller hook for suckers under 12".
bigger the sucker the more it can handle for hooks/rig. |
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Posts: 8781
| Flambeauski - 10/19/2012 2:32 PM
They last longer if you name them. If an angler feels connected to a sucker emotionally he/she is more likely to take proper care of it. And muskies are more likely munch it because well cared for suckers are much more appealing to muskies.
Maybe I should stop naming them after people I don't like. 
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Posts: 1516
| They like it when you play the radio and seem to last longer. They love country music. |
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