Ok, this is one for the sucker experts on this board.

I'm probably going to be leaving Oklahoma in under a year or so, and I don't have many options to go out fishing for suckers in the eastern part of the state. Basically I have this winter and spring, and the places I'd be fishing in the spring run notoriously high. So, when do suckers really slow down feeding? Do you often run into them during the wintertime? Is it a bit like trout, where you drop down several fly sizes and just fish slower current?

I'd tried to get into sucker fly fishing a few years ago when I first found this site, and I'd even tied up a box of nymphs geared towards suckers, but I really didn't know where to go. After a year's worth of fieldwork, I've finally got some great sites where we regularly shock and seine several species, and I'd love to take a shot at them before I end up somewhere without hogsuckers and redhorses.

Thanks!

Loren-

Not sure about Oklahoma's waters, but in Northern Indiana suckers slow way down when water temps get into the 40's and I have never caught or fished for them in water below 40 degrees. Also, I notice that you catch many more white suckers in colder water. Thus, in the fall, if you are catching whites, you are at the tail end of sucker fishing. In spring, whites are the first to feed, when the white suckers start to tail off - it is Redhorse season.

Thus, I would be fishing right now - or wait until spring and find some fishable water. Some areas (Creeks, small rivers) can hold lots of suckers in high water. Also, it is possible to catch suckers in backwaters, etc. when the rivers are up.

Good luck

Match

Well, I know there are folks who catch suckers, including redhorse, through the ice all winter long when water temps are in the 30's. I think they do reduce their activity levels - but they still eat. The difficulty is in finding them (they migrate and stage for the spawn) and detecting bites (coldwater suckers are very light biters). Ice-fishing tactics involving spring-steel rod-extension indicators (like the spring bobbers typically used in ice fishing), legers, etc. might be helpful. I find winter suckers catchable with scaled-down, very sensitive tackle, light lines in the 2-4 pound class, and deep, slow water near spawning runs - which as you guys all know will be rubble/gravel areas less than a foot deep with pebble size varying between 2 and 10 mm and slightly broken riffle surface - 1 foot per second or more. Remember to always look upstream of spawning riffles first.

I think the reason you don't hear about it too much is because ice doesn't form on moving water very good (the preferred water for Suckers) and very few people are chasing them on the rivers that time of year. However, I would love to find a system that works on them.

I agree with Matchman about the White Sucker being most active during the cold water seasons. They make up probably 90 percent of the catch after November 1st or so for me. But still, you must always consider water temprature and warm winters.

I do have some spots where I get into Golden Redhorse and Greater Redhorse when the weather is rather cold and nothing else seems to bite. I have caught these fish during december, if the water stays unfrozen. Also, I have a warm water discharge where you can get them all winter long, if you want. As far as Hogsuckers go, I cant say I've ever heard of one being caught in very cold water.

Down here in Florida, I'm getting into Blacktail Redhorse on a local river. You could consider this the winter season, with low temps at night in the 30's. They are still pretty active around here. You would be suprised how cold the water actually is here right now. Probably in the upper 40's or lower 50's. I even had a few Grayfin Redhorses hooked up the other day. Sadly, they both escaped back into the jungle of cypress roots.

But one things for sure, the redhorse and suckers will be the last remaining active fish in just about any state....

Don't forget the spring fed streams, primarily trout waters like the whitewater system in S.E. MN. I have caught them while flyfishing for trout in the MN early trout season (January through March) in the whitewater and a small handful of other similar waters in that part of the state.
I have had ok luck with white suckers in the slower deeper pools drifting small nymphs (in the sz 16-20 range).
I suppose technically the constant temps of a spring fed water might not affect a sucker the way a deeper cold might affect a regular river/lake,, but they are still extremely light biters. I have spent hours dead drifting tiny nymphs through clusters of suckers with only one or two caught! Sometimes the trout have been very willing, whereas the suckers slow and moody.
I caught only one white through the ice on a city lake last season, along with the perch, 'gills and a couple of bullheads.