Interesting Catch....a Hogsucker

[Fishidiot]

I catch many, perhaps dozens, of white suckers every year (as you probably do too).....usually on small nymphs in the springtime. However, I can't remember the last time I got a hogsucker. I've long felt hogsuckers were intriguing and often see these shy and elusive fish in riffles and faster water than where I typically expect to see white suckers. Their barred bodies provide a striking appearance and provide good camouflage. They also have very large, fan-like pectoral fins - note the orange tips.
Neat.

Anyway.....you know the old saying, "it takes a sucker to catch one."

 

[Swattie87]

Cool catch FI...I see them too in cooler, clean transition streams usually. Never caught one, despite as you mention catching plenty of White Suckers. They do look cool in the water with the banding across their sides.

 

[bikerfish]

is it a stockie or wild?! :lol:

 

[McSneek]

I'm pretty sure the only fish I caught on the Tully this year in about two hours of fishing was a hog sucker. At least 15 inches long and heavy. Thought I had a big trout at first. Caught on a nymph in a riffle.

 

[BelAirSteve]

bikerfish wrote:
is it a stockie or wild?! :lol:

Gotta be wild - the stockies don't get the orange tips on the fins! ;-)

 

[pcray1231]

Yeah, I rarely catch hogsuckers.

In western PA it's usually redhorses, not sure which type.

In central and eastern PA its white suckers.

 

[PennKev]

pcray1231 wrote:
Yeah, I rarely catch hogsuckers.

In western PA it's usually redhorses, not sure which type.

In central and eastern PA its white suckers.

White suckers are not uncommon in the western part of the state. I regularly catch (usually foul hooked) all three in a given day.

The suckers I catch in LJR, Spring, Penns, etc. are are very similiar if not the same as the ones I get back home. They seem to be redhorse. The white suckers I've caught are a bright greenish silver color and have a much more streamlined and sleek body shaped.

Kev

 

[pcray1231]

Kev,

Pretty sure the drainages are as follows:

White sucker: Found in all PA drainages.
Hogsucker: All PA drainages except the Delaware
Redhorses: Present in the Ohio and Lake Erie drainages only.

 

[PennKev]

Yeah, your right I had redhorse and white suckers mixed up.

 

[greenlander]

I got one of those on Pickering last year, I believe.

 

[Chaz]

I must be doing something wrong, I've never caught a sucker on a fly.

 

[pcray1231]

Bottom rolling nymphs is how you catch em. If you ain't ticking bottom, forget about it.

 

[linuxSpark]

Who wants to catch a sucker in the first place?

 

[pcray1231]

I rarely set out with intentions to target them. You catch them on occasion trying to catch trout.

And then there are days where the trout fishing is slow, the sucker fishing isn't. Suckers are in schools. So when you "accidently" catch one, you don't bother moving for a little while.

I don't mind em. They're big, easy to find, yet tricky enough to catch without being "impossible", and they give you 30 seconds or so of good fight. They are native and don't hurt anything. Just amazes me how they can go from being good fighters to laying over on their side and letting you pull them in so quickly.

 

[Biggie]

When I saw the title of the thread, I thought it was about a large sucker "hog sucker" LOL..........I don't mind catching them, some days they keep the skunk away.

 

[wgmiller]

pcray1231 wrote:
Just amazes me how they can go from being good fighters to laying over on their side and letting you pull them in so quickly.

That sounds about right... Foulhooking them is fairly common as well since they "pod" on stream bottom and don't quickly move out of the fly's way. Been there, done that.

 

[Swattie87]

I feel like Rock Bass fight like that sometimes too...hit very hard, and fight hard (and bigger than their size) for 10 seconds or so, then they come to the surface and you drag in a 5" fish ...it's like they know they're gonna get released.

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

There good live bait for musky I hear. There a soft ray fish.

 

[Cornholio]

Nice catch, i have always found them to be a very interesting fish.