CHAPTER L 



THE ORDER OF SUCKERS, CARP, AND MINNOWS 



PLECTOSPOND l'LI 



THE SUCKER FAMILY. 



Cat-os-tom'i-dae- 



This huge Order contains 60 genera and 311 

 species, divided into 4 Families. Of these 

 Families, the Sucker Family is the most impor- 

 tant. It contains about 70 species, all of which 

 save two are habitants of North America. Be- 

 sides the Suckers themselves the Family includes 

 the buffalo fish, the red-horse and fresh-water 

 "mullet." These fishes have the mouth placed 

 underneath the head, and fitted with very fleshy, 

 tubular lips, well adapted for sucking food from 

 the bottom. They have been specially formed 

 to live upon mud bottoms, and in murky water, — 



THE COMMON SUCKER. 



precisely the conditions that high-class fishes 

 abhor. 



There are times when a sucker (or a carp) 

 seems like a good fish for the table; and that is 

 when one is very fish-hungry, and there is no 

 other kind of fish to be had. To my mind, the 

 flavor of the flesh is either barely tolerable, or 

 verging closely upon disagreeable. The very 

 numerous and wholly unnecessary bones seem 

 like a positive affront. Although these fishes 

 are seldom eaten by choice, by the landlocked 

 dwellers in the interior of our great continent, 

 to whom clear streams and good fishes are only 

 long-distance memories, the sucker, carp and 

 bull-head are eaten with real relish, and a feeling 

 of thankfulness that they are no worse. And 

 after all, men who can eat musky squirrels, and 



call them "game," ought to be pleased with 

 suckers and carp. 



The Common Sucker, 1 Brook, or White 

 Sucker, is qualified to represent a large section 

 of this Family. In the home of this fish, ac- 

 quaintance with it nearly always begins in the 

 month of June, when, if ever, come perfect days, 

 and the annual spring "run " of Suckers, up river 

 and creek to their spawning beds, brings them 

 prominently into notice. 



I remember one wildly hilarious day of boy- 

 hood, when a great run of Suckers came up Eagle 

 Creek, Indiana, from the Ohio, via White River. 

 Now Eagle Creek is a very beautiful stream, 

 flowing over a fine bed of clear gravel and sand. 

 Its waters are as clear as the sea, and 

 the big sycamores that reach their long 

 white arms across them are truly 

 grand. All the young men and small 

 boys turned out en masse, and rushed 

 to a shallow, rock-bound channel 

 above a big "drift." Each able-bodied 

 "angler" was armed with a snare of 

 soft brass wire loaded with enough 

 lead to kill an elephant, and a pole 

 that would have driven a real angler to a 

 mad-house. 



The Suckers moved about restlessly in the 

 swift current, and occasionally paused, head 

 up-stream. That was the snarer's only oppor- 

 tunity ; for the fish refused all baits. The heav- 

 ily loaded snare was set as a hoop five inches in 

 diameter, gently lowered ahead of the fish, and 

 with a very steady hand and correct eye steered 

 downward over the victim until it passed his 

 pectoral fins. Then, at precisely the proper in- 

 stant, steam was turned on, the erstwhile quiet 

 fisherman became a raging demon of activity, 

 and if the snare held just "so," a 16-inch Sucker 

 weighing 4 pounds would be yanked high in air 

 by a human derrick, amid the shouts of a de- 



1 Ca-tos' to-mus com'm.er-son-i. 



412 



