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Sucker Grabbing in the Ozarks!! (DUW)

Posted: April 13th, 2011, 11:19 am
by KingCam
I'll be headed down to southern MO this weekend to do a bit of sucker grabbing (below pictures will help clarify what that is, lol). Hoping to find a plethora of local herps while I'm there. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures, but for now I'll post pictures from last year's sucker grabbing trip!

So, sucker grabbing. You basically cast a brightly colored large sharp hook out into the water, wait for the spawning sucker fish to swim over, and if you jerk the rod at just the right moment you'll snag one! It's more difficult than it may sound, it's not uncommon to bring your hook back with just 1 scale on the tip.

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My little brother being a goober

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My cousin Tiffany loves to show me up at this

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Closeup of the sucker fish

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Nerodia sipedon

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Long-pincered Crawdad (native only to the white river basin)

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Very large N. sipedon

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These were on the menu for most of the snakes in this area (gotta love that waterproof Canon Powershot D10)

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Sometimes you miss your target and snag the wrong fish

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...and of course she had to out do me on who could snag the smallest target

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Map turtle

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FINALLY SNAGGED ONE!! WOO HOO!!

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Thanks for looking! :D
- Cam

Re: Sucker Grabbing in the Ozarks!! (DUW)

Posted: April 13th, 2011, 2:56 pm
by Andy Avram
I personally have never been a huge fan of snagging (the legal term of your "grabbing") unless it is being done for a purpose. Are you eating these fish? I have caught lots of suckers, but never tried eating one before, although I know a few are highly esteemed.

Also, do you know what species of Redhorse you are snagging? Suckers, especially Redhorses, are notoriously hard to ID. Lastly, your Nerodia food are all Central Stonerollers, a type of minnow, that looks to be just entering breeding coloration.

Andy

Re: Sucker Grabbing in the Ozarks!! (DUW)

Posted: April 13th, 2011, 3:07 pm
by KingCam
Andy Avram wrote:I personally have never been a huge fan of snagging (the legal term of your "grabbing") unless it is being done for a purpose. Are you eating these fish? I have caught lots of suckers, but never tried eating one before, although I know a few are highly esteemed.

Also, do you know what species of Redhorse you are snagging? Suckers, especially Redhorses, are notoriously hard to ID. Lastly, your Nerodia food are all Central Stonerollers, a type of minnow, that looks to be just entering breeding coloration.

Andy
wow, thanks for all the information!! To be totally honest I didn't even know to call them Redhorses (or stonerollers, lol). I just like to catch them :P And yes, we typically eat them, they are a pain to clean because of their bones and you really need to season these babies up to make them any good. I don't like to kill animals only to throw them away, so I eat them to have an excuse to catch them :P The fish pictured here we didn't end up eating because we lost our ice half way through the float and by the time we got back home with them they were rather smelly. I didn't feel good about cleaning and eating the fish from this particular batch. These were caught in a steam near Branson, MO if that helps you ID them :-\

- Cam

Re: Sucker Grabbing in the Ozarks!! (DUW)

Posted: April 13th, 2011, 7:19 pm
by Andy Avram
Holy triple posting. I guess since I started on the fish one and I am talking about fish I will just keep posting under this thread.

Anyways, there are 4 Redhorse species native to the Branson area of Missouri: Shorthead, River, Black and Golden. Unfortunately some the key things to ID Redhorses you really didn’t get good pictures of, namely the tail color (yours appear to be mostly the same color as the body) and the lip shape looking from underneath. Since your fishes’ tails appear to be body color and not bright red it should eliminate the Shorthead and River. And just because the dorsal fin looks closer to the Peterson Field Guide picture I am going to go with Golden Redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurum).

Also, in case it was confusing the Central Stonerollers (Campostoma anomalum) are in the minnow family Cyprinidae while the suckers are in the family Catostomidae, but both families are fairly closely related.

Re: Sucker Grabbing in the Ozarks!! (DUW)

Posted: April 13th, 2011, 7:36 pm
by Joseph S.
Seems like a possible way to accidentally have a hook fly into your face though!

I have actually caught a sucker or two that way here when they ran over my lures meant for trout.

Re: Sucker Grabbing in the Ozarks!! (DUW)

Posted: April 14th, 2011, 7:50 am
by KingCam
Andy Avram wrote:Holy triple posting. I guess since I started on the fish one and I am talking about fish I will just keep posting under this thread.
Should I not do that? I'm a little foggy on the etiquette for this forum. It seemed like a relevant post for all three forums and I didn't know if the same people would visit all three or not. I can stick to just posting in the main forum if stuff like this bothers anyone.
Andy Avram wrote:Anyways, there are 4 Redhorse species native to the Branson area of Missouri: Shorthead, River, Black and Golden. Unfortunately some the key things to ID Redhorses you really didn’t get good pictures of, namely the tail color (yours appear to be mostly the same color as the body) and the lip shape looking from underneath. Since your fishes’ tails appear to be body color and not bright red it should eliminate the Shorthead and River. And just because the dorsal fin looks closer to the Peterson Field Guide picture I am going to go with Golden Redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurum).
I will try to get some better pictures of the areas in question this weekend (if I can manage to snag any this year, that is :lol:)
Joseph S. wrote:Seems like a possible way to accidentally have a hook fly into your face though!
Depends on where you're standing and at what angle you jerk your rod. If you do it properly the hook should never leave the water.

- Cam

Re: Sucker Grabbing in the Ozarks!! (DUW)

Posted: April 14th, 2011, 6:19 pm
by Andy Avram
KingCam wrote:
Andy Avram wrote:Holy triple posting. I guess since I started on the fish one and I am talking about fish I will just keep posting under this thread.
Should I not do that? I'm a little foggy on the etiquette for this forum. It seemed like a relevant post for all three forums and I didn't know if the same people would visit all three or not. I can stick to just posting in the main forum if stuff like this bothers anyone.
Naw, you are right it really could apply to all three subforums and technically it is fine, I personally try to keep my posts to one forum, otherwise it just gets confusing. Personal choice.

Andy

Re: Sucker Grabbing in the Ozarks!! (DUW)

Posted: April 29th, 2011, 2:12 pm
by wild child luxy
I swear those have to many bones to try and eat. I use to catch those (nice size) then I use to mistake em for carp. nice post.

Re: Sucker Grabbing in the Ozarks!! (DUW)

Posted: April 30th, 2011, 7:33 pm
by Tim Borski
When I was a kid, in the spring, my Dad would take me down to the Plover river in Stevens Point, WI. We'd catch suckers below a dam on worms and he'd bring'em home. He'd fillet, skin, run them thru a meat grinder and make patties out of them. They were one of his favorite fish to eat. Me, not so much.
They were Red Horse.

Looks like pretty country there.

Tim