F
Fishidiot
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2006
- Messages
- 9,960
White suckers are in full spawning mode right now here in southcentral PA. I'm seeing them almost everywhere I look in both trout streams and warm water creeks - typically in a riffle section with depths of about a foot. I always enjoy seeing suckers color up with their big black lateral stripe - it's a reminder that spring has sprung.
Anyway, I've spent some time lately watching this annual phenomenon. In most cases, but not all, I have seen trout working these suckers. Usually, it's a wild brown trout and they seem to like to lay up about 4 to 10 feet downstream of the pod of suckers. Often, however, they'll be a trout right up in the swirling mass of suckers. If you get close to them, you'll often see the trout spook right out of the pod (the suckers are slower to spook - distracted no doubt). These trout, if you can present to them, are suckers for sucker spawn.....quite naturally. These trout, as I've watched them lately, seem pretty subtle about their feeding but they can be seen eating from the drift if you watch carefully. Perhaps they may also be opportunistically feeding on nymphs dislodged from the substrate by the activity of the suckers.
The suckers themselves don't cut redds like trout or bass do, but rather disperse their eggs/milt over gravel with current. I suspect that much of the actual egg/milt deposition probably occurs at nighttime but I'm not really sure. Certainly, trout are picking their eggs during the daytime. I'm still trying to figure this out.
As you know, FFers have long matched this "hatch" with various sucker spawn flies, most of which are tied in white or cream colors. Certainly, these colors have worked well for me in the past.
During one of my recent sucker watching episodes, I got a handle on a large, egg laden female and stripped some of her eggs. As can be seen, they are bright yellow - almost a deep lemon color with just a faint touch of blood infused through the eggs, which likely explains the popularity of red thread for sucker spawn flies. The eggs are small, about half the size of BBs. In the future, you might consider bright yellow for your sucker spawn flies rather than white.
Also, I've noted that most groups of suckers have some casualties from the rigors of spawning and these dead fish contribute to the ecosystem. The pic below shows a big snapper enjoying the feast of dead fish. The other photo of the suckers actually shows a trout in the upper right corner although this is hard to discern due to the poor photo quality (sorry for the yellowish pics - they were taken by aiming my camera through my yellow polarized sunglasses).
Keep your eyes out these days for spawning suckers - it's a rite of spring and can make for some good trout catching too.
Anyway, I've spent some time lately watching this annual phenomenon. In most cases, but not all, I have seen trout working these suckers. Usually, it's a wild brown trout and they seem to like to lay up about 4 to 10 feet downstream of the pod of suckers. Often, however, they'll be a trout right up in the swirling mass of suckers. If you get close to them, you'll often see the trout spook right out of the pod (the suckers are slower to spook - distracted no doubt). These trout, if you can present to them, are suckers for sucker spawn.....quite naturally. These trout, as I've watched them lately, seem pretty subtle about their feeding but they can be seen eating from the drift if you watch carefully. Perhaps they may also be opportunistically feeding on nymphs dislodged from the substrate by the activity of the suckers.
The suckers themselves don't cut redds like trout or bass do, but rather disperse their eggs/milt over gravel with current. I suspect that much of the actual egg/milt deposition probably occurs at nighttime but I'm not really sure. Certainly, trout are picking their eggs during the daytime. I'm still trying to figure this out.
As you know, FFers have long matched this "hatch" with various sucker spawn flies, most of which are tied in white or cream colors. Certainly, these colors have worked well for me in the past.
During one of my recent sucker watching episodes, I got a handle on a large, egg laden female and stripped some of her eggs. As can be seen, they are bright yellow - almost a deep lemon color with just a faint touch of blood infused through the eggs, which likely explains the popularity of red thread for sucker spawn flies. The eggs are small, about half the size of BBs. In the future, you might consider bright yellow for your sucker spawn flies rather than white.
Also, I've noted that most groups of suckers have some casualties from the rigors of spawning and these dead fish contribute to the ecosystem. The pic below shows a big snapper enjoying the feast of dead fish. The other photo of the suckers actually shows a trout in the upper right corner although this is hard to discern due to the poor photo quality (sorry for the yellowish pics - they were taken by aiming my camera through my yellow polarized sunglasses).
Keep your eyes out these days for spawning suckers - it's a rite of spring and can make for some good trout catching too.
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