March, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
117 
They are grossly guilty of pervert- 
ing the facts. An all-wise Creator saw 
fit to endow the sucker with a snout 
resembling somewhat a molasses spigot 
in shape, that has been used by the 
grocer long enough to accumulate a 
crinkled midge crust on its mouth, 
which should instantly reveal to the 
careful observer that the species was 
designed to fulfill a particular mission 
in life. It works on the same principle 
as the business end of a vacuum cleaner, 
and, during the hot summer months 
they glide up and down shallow water 
sucking up small particles of waste 
detrimental to fish life. 
The sucker does not feed upon de- 
cayed and putrid matter to the same 
extent as the eel, which in the smoked 
or pickled state is considered a delecta- 
ble dainty, so their flesh lacks that 
finesse of flavor eagerly sought after 
by people who can afford to patronize 
delicatessen stores. But nevertheless 
the sucker is a piscatorial scavanger 
and, what is more, from November to 
May the sucker is an article of diet 
that compares very favorably with the 
whitefish family and half a dozen others 
of recognized merit. No man who can 
swallow six inches of smoked eel need 
quibble over eating suckers caught 
while the water is hovering around 
forty degrees, for their flesh is as sweet 
as a fresh herring and mighty agree- 
able to the taste. 
The specific charge brought against 
him by many able exponents of fish and 
game preservation and protection is 
that he is a pernicious destroyer of 
trout spawning beds, and so should be 
exterminated in the interest of good 
fishing. On the hypothesis that a blind 
hog will get an acorn every now and 
then it is reasonable to suppose that 
the sucker is guilty to a certain extent, 
because it is an irrevocable law of na- 
ture that a species shall destroy and be 
destroyed by its co-inhabitants, that the 
balance of nature shall remain nicely 
adjusted, but in reality their presence 
in the brook is not half as detrimental 
as the presence on the brook of a class 
of human pelicans who do not hesitate 
to stretch an illegal trout to meet the 
required length or to take them in num- 
bers considerably undersized if reason- 
bly sure of escaping detection. 
A LL trout spawn in the fall, select- 
ing for the purpose gravel bars 
and riffs, so located as to insure 
plenty of fresh, pure water. By the first 
of September the roe has nearly reached 
full development but they do not seek 
the spawning beds to any considerable 
extent until October, continuing until 
the latter part of November, particular- 
ly in the north. 
The nuptial period, coming at this 
season of the year, is accompanied by a 
lowering temperature which is the sig- 
nal for the sucker to disappear from 
the neighborhood. He is a heat resist- 
ing creature, if there is anything of the 
sort in the piscatorial realm, and loves 
a more balmy climate than the shallows 
afford, so he retires to deep water where 
there is a nice silt bottom for him to 
loaf upon during the long cold winter. 
If there is an old mill dam on the 
stream, and there usually is, the sucker 
knows its advantages as a place of 
winter residence and establishes himself 
in it, after which nothing can induce 
him to remain away for any length of 
time except a fish hook, or some kindred 
contrivance employed to separate him 
from his natural element. 
In the course of much snow shoveling 
spring appears and the trout eggs on 
the spawning beds hatch in March or 
April, depending upon the temperature, 
but the sucker sticks to his winter quar- 
ters until the water is about right for 
a cold morning shower bath, then he 
commences to work up stream and the 
ponds and sucker holes lose their 
charm for the small boy who begins to 
explore the bullhead regions in search 
of pleasure. So you see Nature is a 
great deal wiser than some human be- 
ings. She never makes a mistake. 
I N the spring it is almost as easy to 
catch suckers as it is to catch cold. 
Anything in the shape of a 
pole, from six to twenty feet long, 
will answer every practical require- 
ment exactly as well as the finest 
game-fish tackle ever devised for human 
pleasure. There is no need to hesitate 
or discriminate in selecting a line. You 
the point you select to fish from. Usual- 
ly the best locations are in close prox- 
imity to the channel near the upper end 
of a pond or deep hole, however, there 
may be a dozen pot holes that will yield 
a day’s sport, so if you are a stranger 
in the neighborhood it is advisable to 
keep a watchful eye on the small boy; 
in the nude state he usually acquires a 
wealth of information concerning pond 
bottoms during July and August which 
is of untold value when the spring fish- 
ing season opens. 
M Y first piscatorial triumph was a 
sucker twenty-six inches long. 
How well I remember the thrilling 
moment when I marched majestically 
through the village streets, head erect, 
chest out, light of foot, carrying the 
monster over my shoulder patent medi- 
cine style, to the envy of a dozen small 
boys and the astonishment of many a 
grown fisherman who had not tasted 
anything but salt cod since the first of 
November, and whom I fondly believed 
beheld my prize with covetous eyes. 
Never did a fish taste so sweet as this 
Ajax of the saw-mill pond, or the hum- 
ble efforts of the village editor sound so 
rhapsodical. But alas, my triumph was 
short lived. The very next week the 
village minister caught a bigger one. 
One who knows why the sucker was given a place in nature. 
can use a cotton thread or a bed cord, 
whichever you prefer, however, a strong 
moderate-sized line is recommended as 
suckers are generally whopped out on 
the bank country style, but extreme 
care should be used not to employ too 
large a hook, on which your worm 
should be threaded so as to leave no 
dangling ends. 
Some fish will glide up to a baited 
hook and give it a yank that instantly 
apprises the angler that the psycholog- 
ical instant is at hand to pull up, but 
the sucker is of necessity a low stealthy 
fellow who sucks his food down grad- 
ually like a boy prolonging the taste 
of candy, so a small piece of dry wood 
for a bobber is essential. However, if 
you are of an artistic temperament and 
crude makeshifts jar your sensibilities 
you can use the cork out of the family 
demijohn, or buy a float painted to 
please the eye for two bits. It is op- 
tional with you and whichever you 
choose will make no ultimate difference 
in your string of fish. The sucker is 
only interested in the bait on your 
hook and he possesses remarkable abil- 
ity to find it even in the muddiest of 
water. In this respect he is an ideal 
fish for Mississippi anglers. 
To ia great extent, whatever interest 
he displays will depend largely upon 
I T must be admitted that a preponder- 
ance of trout in a brook is far more 
desirable than a super-abundance of 
suckers. The latter condition miay pos- 
sibly occur because of some peculiar 
circumstance, as there are exceptions to 
all rules, otherwise there would be a 
dearth of such county-fair attractions as 
three-winger roosters, five-legged calves 
and human freaks to flim-flam the gulli- 
ble public out of the customary ten 
cents admission, but the fisherman who 
beholds an excess of suckers in a fairly 
well stocked trout stream may safely 
conclude that a serious epidemic of Sal- 
monidae dyspepsia has prevailed for 
some little time. In the majority of 
trout brooks ninety per cent, of the 
sucker hatch die long before attaining 
a length of two inches. 
However, it sometimes happens that 
during the winter a pond or big hole 
will become over-crowded, to the detri- 
ment of the game fish. Then it is time 
to hold a sucker carnival. One is held 
every year or so at the Schenevus Elec- 
tric Light Dam and about the only per- 
sons who do not look forward to it with 
a great deal of pleasure are the butch- 
ers and fellows who sell canned salmon 
and pickled ciscoes. 
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 143 ) 
