lO 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
(July 3, 1897. 
SUCKERS IN MISSOURI STREAMS. 
Abotjt the first week in May the suckers move out of the 
deep waters of the White Eiver, and begin to ascend the 
smaller creeks and tributary streams, taking advantage of 
the April rains, which have by this time raised all the streams 
considerably. All the streams in this section are fed by 
springs, and after the spring rises, instead of the river im- 
mediately falling or running dry, it is thereby kept full, and 
soon assumes a bluish tinge calculated in a measure to hide 
the movements of the fish. 
As the suckers come out of White River in great quan- 
tities, hundreds of thousands of them in a school, and 
ascend the smaller streams, it is a signal for a general fish- 
fry the entire stream's length. So regular do the suckers 
move that not a day's difference intervenes in their move- 
ments from one year to another. On May 13 without fail 
the suckers begin to shoal, and they occupy the shoals about 
three days before they leave to descend the streams. For a 
week or more previously, however, they may be found play- 
ing on the shallows or shoals, as the long, shallow stretches 
between deep holes are called. 
. At this season of the year there is a lull in farm work; 
com has been planted and pretty well plowed, and wheat is 
not yet ready for harvesting. The farmers, therefore — who 
do not indulge much in fishing, for the gamy bass and trout 
of thege streams are beyond their patience and skill to angle 
WOBKING !EH;E DIP-HBT. 
for, and indeed, they have no taste for hook and line, any- 
way — now lie off for a big fish-fry. They flock to the 
streams in great numbers and bring with them all sorts of 
contrivances for capturing the sucker Large parties come 
many miles and camp for days at a time on the river banks. 
Scarcely a shoal for the entire length of each stream but has 
one or more camps. All day and all night they drag the 
shallows, dip with the nets, seine, gig and shoot suckers. 
Thousands upon thousands of fish are killed annually in this 
way. Not until the wagon beds are full of fish do the fish- 
ermen break camp, and, returning home, divide the catch 
among the neighbors. For the next few days or until the 
supply is quite exhausted, no other meat is eaten but fish, 
and the way these bony suckers are dispatched is a wonder 
to behold. 
Last May my wife and T spent a week, during the shoaling 
or spawning season, at Nelson's Mill, on the James fork of 
White Eiver, and were considerably amused with what we 
saw. The season had been extremely wet and farming .was 
greatly behind. We had taken advantage of a spell of dry 
weather to spend our usual week of vacation at our old 
friend, John Nelson's mill, hoping that the good weather, the 
fir^t in a long while, would set the farmers busy at their 
crops and leave the river free from the usual crowds that in- 
HOOKINS A Bla KBDHOBSE WITH GRAB-HOOEl ON THE BHO^AtiS. 
fast it during bad weather ; for farmers in this region only 
indulge in fishing, if at all, during the planting season, when 
it is too wet for farm work. 
We arrived on Saturday afternoon, and with us came an 
old-fashioned April downfall, putting plowing for the 
farmer and bass fishing for myself quite out of the question. 
The miller told me that the next day would bring crowds of 
natives to the mill, and I might witness a big fish for suckers 
and join in it if I would. Now, sucker fishing had always 
been beneath my notice, but as everything else was out of 
question and I had to wait until the river cleared up be- 
fore there was hope for bass, 1 did the best thing under the 
circumstances, and fell into the sport gracefully. 
With the morning, and, indeed, that very evening, wagon- 
loads of noisy countrymen began to assemble, &xed their 
camps and secured places for their dip nets. These nets are 
constructed as follows: A square net, about 5ft. each way 
and very baggy in the center, is suspended to four prongs of 
hickory wood fastened into a- block, which works in a slot 
at the end of a long pole. The one managing the dip net 
lowers it to the bottom of the stream in some eddy near the 
bank; after few moments it is quickly raised, and often has a 
number of fish struggling within, 1 have known as high as 
nine suckers, averaging Slbs. each to be caught at one dip. 
It is quite a load and about all one man can lift out, espe- 
cially when the entire weight comes at the further end of a 
long pole. 
We had a specially reserved place directly underneath the 
mil), where the water eddied around, and beyond which the 
ascending fish could go no further. By daylight the river 
bank on either side was lined with dip-nets. The river 
banks for some distance below the mill were walled up with 
rock, and formed an excellent place for dipping. Then, it 
so happened that, this spring, the apron of the dam had been 
washed away, and it was quite impossible for fish to go 
higher. So here they congregated in great numbers, and 
fell easy prey to their destroyers. Thousands of fish 
crowded themselves below the dam, and all day long the 
busy dip-nets were raised and lowered, casting the struggling 
suckers on the rocks above. 
For some hours I became quite interested in catching, 
after this fashion, the abundant fish. Now and then the 
dip-net would bring out a great, flopping redhorse that 
would tip the scales at 6 or 71bs. Then a school of sun fish, 
or perch, would become entangled in its meshes. We even 
caught crappies and catfish, and a few— though a very few — 
bass were brought out. The hogsuckers that chanced to come 
up were thrown away; so were the hickory shad, a pretty 
but worthless fish. On one occasion I got a gar clear of the 
water, but it was only momentary, for he shot his slim 
length through the meshes in a jiffy. 
Before very many hours I had more fish than the miller's 
family and his neighbors knew what to do with, and sur- 
rendered the net to one of the many spectators so he might 
catch himself a "mess." 
Wandering along past the row of dip-nets down to the 
■ ford, I came upon a crowd of men seining Provided with 
a 60ft. seine, and wading up to their waists, they dragged 
out quantities of fish upon the shore. Further down, there 
were scores of men and boys on the high banks overhanging 
the shoals, dragging for redhorse. They had long cane 
poles, with about 2ft. of line at the end, attached to which 
was a grab hook, made by tying three ordinary hooks to- 
gether at angles from each other and welding them by means 
of melted lead, thus forming a sinker and grab hook at the 
same time. This they would drag over the bottom of the 
stream; and so plentiful were the fish that every few drags 
would hook one. This was quite exciting, and differed 
largely from the wholesale slaughter going on around. For 
though the suckers are not a game fish by any means, yet 
when a grab-hook fastens into an 81b, redhorse, he makes it 
pretty lively for the man at the other end of the pole. Along 
with the grab-hook men were others wading out in the 
stream, armed with gigs— long poles provided with a thret- 
pronged spear at their ends. These men, though not able 
to see in the muddy water, were nevertheless reaping a har- 
vest by merely plunging their weapon on this side and that 
side, often missing, but now and then securing a prize. 
There was one party with trammel nets, though they had 
to keep it pretty quiet, and another with old-fasnioned hoop 
nets. They say, but I never come in contact with such pro- 
ceedings, tLiat very often those who have no nets or traps 
and lack skill or patience for the grab-hook or gig, use 
gianl powder or dynamite to get a mess of suckers, as well 
as other fish. 
Each man and party were using that mode which they 
happened to possess or found best to their taste, but all bent 
on the same purpose. Outside of these were another set of 
loungers, who, either caring nothing for the sport or not 
being provided, stood ready to beg or buy, and sometimes to 
steal, the coveted mess. 
Toward night the white corn juice whisky, which is dis- 
tilled in this section, began to get in its work ; and as night 
drew on and the many camp fires lit up the river, the air 
resounded with drunken yells and shouts, while boozy coun- 
try Jakes reeltd around, threatening every moment to tumble 
into the river or the camp-fires. VVhen one set of men grew 
tired working a net or seine, another crowd took their place, 
and the fun went merrily on all night long. Even the arab- 
hooks, gigs, trammel nets and traps worked m well in the 
dark as in the day. 
You see, shoals are not very plentiful, d'ften many miles 
intervenes between them ; and as the fish will not stay long, 
no time is lost catching them. 
As fast as one party secured a load they departed ; and the 
next day found many new faces, but all at the same work. 
For two or three days the fun was fast and furious. How 
many fish met their fate I have no means of estimating, but 
certainly thousands. As this scene was repeated at nearly 
every shoal on the river, as well as on every other stream in 
this part of the State, hundreds of thousands of fish certainly 
perished in a few days. 
As the river ran down and cleared up we knew the fish 
would soon take their departure, and since the sport was 
short-lived to us, and having assumed more the aspect of a' 
wholesale slaughter than anything else, we looked forward 
to their going, since with them would depart the rough, 
noisy and too often drunken crowd. The day before, which 
I think was Wednesday, following our ai-rival on Saturday, 
had been the best day of any for dipping. Our live-boxes 
were overflowing with white and yellow suckers and red- 
horse. Next morning, however, John Sanders, who had 
been running a hoop net along the Sanders shoals a mile 
below, came up to the mill and reported the suckers gone. 
Which, indeed, they were. He had caught but three that 
night, against 140 the preceding night. His traps were all 
set mouths down stream to capture the fish as they 
ascended, but they were no longer coming up. A day 
more and not a sucker would be caught on the shoals, only 
a few lingered now. Only six or eight fish were dipped up 
at the mill, where many hundred had been caught the day 
before. 
By noon not a countryman was to be seen anywhere save 
in the fields. Tet the sucker fishing was not entirely over. 
There were a certain few proud possessors of fish traps, who 
had been biding their time until now. These fish traps, 
which now come in for their share of the plunder, are con- 
structed about as follows: A low dam is built in the shape 
of a V, the apex pointing down stream. At this angle of the 
dam the water escapes over a slightly inclined upward shoot 
constructed of long boards closely laid at the base, but grad- 
ually widening at the tip, so that some of the water escaping 
through the cracks will reduce the weight on the shoot's 
extremity. At the end of this shoot, and underneath it, 
standing with its sides well above water, is a wooden frame- 
work made of slats, fitted together close enough to prevent 
the escape of fish on either side, but open at the top, and per- 
mitting the easy outflow of the water as it tumbles in from 
above. As the suckers descend the stream the low dam 
obstructs their passage, they are carried by the current to 
the apex of the angle and thus over the shoot into the cage 
below, from which there is no escape. Fish travel at night, 
and often of a morning these traps are found to contain 
many hundred pounds of fish of all kinds, but at this season 
largely suckers. 
Following in the wake of the suckers and feeding upon 
their spawn or roe, come the game fish. An unu')ually large 
migration of the suckers always guarantees an ample supply 
of the others. Game fish in our rivers are endeavored to be 
protected by law, yet I know, to my positive knowledge, 
that no heed whatever is paid to the law. Fish of all kinds 
are ruthlessly destroyed in their spawning season, just when 
they should be most jealously protected. They are netted, 
shot and blown up by giant powder and dynamite. And 
while the suckers are looked upon in disdain by sportsmen 
GIGGINQ SUCKERS. 
and lovers of bass and trout fifihing, and therefore permitted 
to be destroyed by hundreds of thousands, they are slowly 
thereby exterminating the game fish. Nature has made a 
wise provision; the despised sucker, feeding upon the vege- 
tation and refute in the muddy river bottom, provides, in the 
shape of its roe and young, food for the game fish. These 
two widely different families must dwell or die together. A 
full-grown .sucker will deposit over 300, 000 eggs. You can 
soon see what an immense amount of eggs and young must 
be eaten by other fish, when you stop to consider that a 
A NATITIS WATCHING THE SEWERS SEININS BMLCfW THB DASt. 
million or more suckers ascended the James this spring, at a 
very low estimate. But each year sees the crop of suckers, 
as well as all other fish in our streams, grow less and less, 
and if our Legislature and courts are not awakened to some 
cold, hard facts very soon, these streams will be depleted. 
WiLLmi H, Johnson. 
Gone Fishing. 
Mr. W. a. Hoisington, of the Page Fence Company, 
left New York June 26 for a six week's absence, to be de- 
voted to rest and recreation. Mr. Hoisington'sheadquarurs 
will be at his home in Adrian, Mich., where, parenthetically, 
it may be stated the bass fishing is excellent ; but several 
weeks of the time will be spent in camp in company with 
llr. W..N. Swift, also of the Page Company, at Gull Lake, 
Kalamazoo county, Mich., where both gentlemen have pur- 
chased cottage sites. 
Fishing near New York. 
A corrbbpondent in Forked River, N. J., writes that the 
blue fishing at that point at present is excellent, and that 
some weakfish and striped bass are also being taken. 
A gentleman who spent two days at Greenwood Lake this 
week caught an Oswego bass weighing Slbs. and a small- 
jnouth of 4ilbs. weight. B. 
