Eating Suckers

[spinN'flyfish]

Never curse when a sucker swallows your worm for trout........ With no limit for 'em they can also be pretty delicious..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZz54y-VOHM

[sureshot]

looks pretty tasty

[AK47]

great video, thanks!

[Bushleague]

I tried pan frying a sucker once and it sucked, no pun intended. I've heard lots of people try to tell me they are fine, but having actually tried sucker I'm not particularly interested in trying it again.

[Skytop B]

When we were kids it used to be a family event netting suckers by the hundreds, would go to the ford crssings and net them out of the culverts (Swan River, MB) we used those old steel laundry tubs to carry the fish in. The aunts and grandmother canned them and it was about like eating pink salmon. Yes we were poor

[drifter]

Originally Posted by Skytop B

When we were kids it used to be a family event netting suckers by the hundreds, would go to the ford crssings and net them out of the culverts (Swan River, MB) we used those old steel laundry tubs to carry the fish in. The aunts and grandmother canned them and it was about like eating pink salmon. Yes we were poor

I was doing the same thing as a kid back home. We used pitch forks back then and the same old tubs.

[the local angler]

i'm still not sold on the whole crystallization of the bones. probably still have to pick out bones. still haven't tried suckers yet lol

[Flatlandliver]

Originally Posted by Skytop B

When we were kids it used to be a family event netting suckers by the hundreds, would go to the ford crssings and net them out of the culverts (Swan River, MB) we used those old steel laundry tubs to carry the fish in. The aunts and grandmother canned them and it was about like eating pink salmon. Yes we were poor

Neighbor used to net them during the spawning run out of the Whiteshell, gound them up and made fish patties, the dogs loved them.

[drhu22]

I decided to google it, and found a neat looking site...
http://www.bayoubill.com/recipes/suckers.html
The rest of the site looks good too.
(No im not Bayou Bill.)

[Habfan]

Originally Posted by Flatlandliver

Neighbor used to net them during the spawning run out of the Whiteshell, gound them up and made fish patties, the dogs loved them.

That's what I do with em also ! Dog food. Except the Jack Russel, you can't fool him !

[Red Bullets]

This recipe for pickled sucker sounds good. From the Manitoba gov't website.

http://www.gov.mb.ca/waterstewardshi...ion/sucker.pdf

"Suckers can also be cut into bite-sized chunks
and pickled to grace your hor d’ ouevres tray.
The fish must be pretreated in two brine solutions
before the actual pickling can be done. The first
is a salt solution of 3/4 cup pickling salt to one
quart soft water, in which the fish chunks are left
for 24 hours. The fish chunks are rinsed off and
then placed in the second solution: cover the fish
with distilled white vinegar and again let soak for
a period of 24 hours.
The fish are then packed into STERILE
pickling jars at which time you can exercise your
creativity and add any flavour enhancers that
tickle your taste buds: onion slices, lemon slices,
red pepper or pimento. The pickling solution is
prepared by combining the following ingredients
in a saucepan: 1 cup soft water, 2 cup white
vinegar, 3/4 cup white sugar, and 2 heaping
tablespoons of pickling spice. Simmer for fifteen
minutes. Cool a little before adding to the packed
jars. Allow the jars to mature for a few days and
then eat and enjoy."

[Isopod]

Any fish in Alberta with "no limit" has to be disgusting. I'll toss any I catch back so the sucker-guy can catch them and have a fry.

[Jimboy]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

I tried pan frying a sucker once and it sucked, no pun intended. I've heard lots of people try to tell me they are fine, but having actually tried sucker I'm not particularly interested in trying it again.

And watch out for the gut worms.

[dryrush]

I caught a few from the bow this spring and when I was cleaning them a few had this black layer of film in them, I was unsure what it was so they ended up in the compost.
Any one know if its normal or something to avoid?

[KegRiver]

Like a few others I've eaten a fair bit of Sucker when I was growing up.

Dad would catch them with a gill net, back then it was legal.
He'd fillet them and he'd soak about half the fillets overnight in salt brine.
Then he'd put them in the smoke house for a couple of days, till they were dry as leather and about as tough.
Us kids love them that way. It helped us develop tough teeth and jaws too I think.

The rest were cut up and cooked with a pressure cooker. As I recall they were like canned Salmon. 100 quarts seldom lasted till Christmas.

Since I left home I have only eaten Sucker once that I can recall.
It was caught in much warmer water. Not far from Wetaskiwin actually.
Seems to me that one tasted rather muddy. For sure not the way I remembered them from back home.
Maybe it has a lot to do with the water they come out of.

A few years back I was with a group that was fishing up in the Territories.
We came across a local fisherman with a boat load of fish.

He had Suckers, Walleye, Pike, Coony's and Lake Trout.
He told us he kept the Walleye, sold the lake trout and gave the rest to the dogs. Yup, to him Pike, Coony and Suckers were trash fish.

I think it's more about personal preference then the particular eating qualities on one species or another. I liked them all.
One of my favorites is Gold eye. I know very few people besides myself and my family member who will eat them.

[kap10]

Yumm

[spinN'flyfish]

Originally Posted by KegRiver

Like a few others I've eaten a fair bit of Sucker when I was growing up.

Dad would catch them with a gill net, back then it was legal.
He'd fillet them and he'd soak about half the fillets overnight in salt brine.
Then he'd put them in the smoke house for a couple of days, till they were dry as leather and about as tough.
Us kids love them that way. It helped us develop tough teeth and jaws too I think.

The rest were cut up and cooked with a pressure cooker. As I recall they were like canned Salmon. 100 quarts seldom lasted till Christmas.

Since I left home I have only eaten Sucker once that I can recall.
It was caught in much warmer water. Not far from Wetaskiwin actually.
Seems to me that one tasted rather muddy. For sure not the way I remembered them from back home.
Maybe it has a lot to do with the water they come out of.

A few years back I was with a group that was fishing up in the Territories.
We came across a local fisherman with a boat load of fish.

He had Suckers, Walleye, Pike, Coony's and Lake Trout.
He told us he kept the Walleye, sold the lake trout and gave the rest to the dogs. Yup, to him Pike, Coony and Suckers were trash fish.

I think it's more about personal preference then the particular eating qualities on one species or another. I liked them all.
One of my favorites is Gold eye. I know very few people besides myself and my family member who will eat them.

Wow... that's delicious..... smoked suckers

[leloinjunior]

Awesome site - hopefully the rest of the Provinces will follow Manitoba's lead.

https://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/f...ges/sucker.pdf

[straight]

Originally Posted by dryrush

I caught a few from the bow this spring and when I was cleaning them a few had this black layer of film in them, I was unsure what it was so they ended up in the compost.
Any one know if its normal or something to avoid?

I guess it is normal. There is a fish in Central Asia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizothorax .
It looks very similar to north american sucker and very fan to catch. That fish is a very good eating, but it has the same kind of black film inside which must be removed, otherwise it could be poisonous.

[Girlsfishtoo]

Catch them by dipnetting in Manitoba make sucker cakes they're great eating