Northern Hog Sucker questions

Can you see them? If so, they might be had by sight fishing. This is a lot of fun, although (in my limited experience) I've found that they can be really finnicky about it, and act like they don't want any part of the bait. At other times, it could almost seem too easy...

Their mouths are fairly small (unless you're dealing with giants), so a smallish hook and bait is recommended. Not that they can't slurp down a whole crawler, but if you're after hogs specifically, smaller is easier. Say, a size 10 hook (or thereabouts) and a small piece of crawler. Like a third, or even a quarter of a crawler. Reasonably delicate line, and however much weight you need to keep your rig on bottom.

If you can see them, and sight fish for them, approach quietly, and carefully place the bait in front of them. You'll be able to tell by their movements taht they've noticed it. And hopefully they'll take it. Sometimes they'll jump or zoom in on it from several feet away. Sometimes they won't take unless you put it righ under their nose.

If you're blind fishing, riffly areas are hogish waters. And they also seem to like shallow, sandy areas. But I bet some of the experts on here could go into a lot more detail about these things...

Around here worms work great, if they don't work where you are then start turning over rocks in the riffles.  Start with the most abundant decent sized larve you find - likely they are feeding heavily on that.  I know I read somewhere they feed heavily on various beetle species larve but like any fish they will adjust and feed on whatever is common in your area.

So you are seeing the fish, correct?  Because you have crossed the hardest part, just experiment with the larve you find if a crawler chunk dropped right on them doesn't work.  

They will take a small, size 16 bead head phesant tail if sight fishing.

Not that I have ever done this but fly fisherman match the the hatch to maximise results. Maybe you should get familiar wiht some of the cycles in your part of the woods.

Also have you tried fishing different times to avoid competing fish? Dusk, dawn, night? 

I would fish in water that's too fast for dace and chubs. Rocky, very fast water. That's where the hogs feed. You will need quite a bit of weight, and you have to get the weight to "catch" on a rock. A 1 oz. pyramid is a good sinker. Or take a regular bank sinker and pound it flat with a hammer so it rolls less. Small hook, small piece of 'crawler. The bait must be perfectly stationary and the bite will be soft, so lean your rod on a forked stick or other solid object to enable you to see the very soft bites. You'll never see the bites while holding the rod by hand.

Stonefly nymphs are easy to catch.  Just start picking up football-sized rocks and look at the bottom of the rock to find the little buggers clinging on.  If you can't find them on the rocks in the fast water, I have also found lots of them on submerged wood along shore.  Drag a nice log onto the bank near the fast flows and you are sure to collect some stonefly nymphs.

That being said, I believe worms to be the best bait for hogsuckers.

I've only targetted them once as they're not in my immediate area, but the key to my success was definitely wading and uproaching the fish directly from downstream. That way, the fish (which will always be facing into the current) has no idea you're there. Stalking from the bank or from upstream will spook the fish, or at the very least put them on gaurd and make them very unlikely to feed. So yeah, stealth is your friend when it comes to hogs. Be mindful of time of day as even if you're approaching from downstream, if the sun throws your shadow on the fish, you'll likely spook it.

Use a long rod to place the bait as close to the fish as possible and wait a few minutes. Once the fish catches the scent of the worm, it should slowly start to inch towards it and eventually take. 

I was using small pieces of worm on a size 14 hook as all the hogsuckers where I was fishing were quite small. Chunks of worm also release a lot more scent than a whole worm. 

Anyways, that is what worked for me. Good luck.

I'd like to add one minor thing.  Use braided line with a fluorocarbon (stupid autocorrect) or monofilament leader.  That way you'll feel more bites.  Sucker bites are often short-lived.

Other than that, pretty much what Hengelaar said.

Around here riffles are best, with a cascade/pool situation I'd focus on the head of the cascade where the pool tails out.  I know a few similar spots around here that are kinda like that and hold hogs.  A pole would probably be perfect if you can see them and get close enough.  I mostly fish bigger water so that is harder for me.  They do tend to bite light, even with braid I've reeled in to check my bait only realize a Hog was on the line when I picked the rod up - no indiction of bite at all, even on Hogs in the 16"-17"+ class

I'd just blind fish for them in the fast run just before the riffle itself.  That would probably keep most of the baitfish off your offering.  Or at least enough to maintain sanity levels.  Let you do a bit of sifting anyways.  Expreiment with letting your rig find natural resting places decided by the current. Also, sometimes being snagged up when fishing super fast water isnt necessarily a bad thing.  The fish will often dislodge your rig from snags when they hook themselves.  Stick it out with nightcrawlers or redworms (leaf worms or garden worms).  There wont be a better bait for them. At least thats easy to put on a hook and keep on in fast water, that is.   Use maybe an ounce for weight up to two, depending on flow, on a standard bottom rig.  The lighter weight you can get away with the better.  Maybe a 6 to 10 inch leader to your hook.  And be sure to check every now and then if one is just sitting already hooked on your line.  Hogsuckers are notorious for pouncing on a bait and not moving off with it.  Thus they tend to be gut hooked quite frequently, especially when using tiny hooks.  I like to use smallish circle hooks for them.

I don't want to repeat What was already said, but I would follow Corey's advice to the T. That's pretty cool that hogs are so abundant where you're at in Pa, I've fished for them for a few years in the susquehanna River to no avail before landing them on a trip to MN. I'd stick with worms, and a bottom rigged sinker. Not that the fish itself doesn't warrant special attention to fancy lines and rigs, but the bare minimum sucker setup will work all the same. Sight fishing is super frustrating but will work, best to bank fish the fast water though and wait them out, the lifer will come!

This is an awesome thread. Hoping to get this lifer this year too.

Yeah,

This place is great. Buckets of info. Like Doc said a crawler is tough to beat. Do you have hellgramites in your stream? They are like crack for lots of free stone water fishes.

Like most suckers they feed all day and all night.  Usually it seems they feed more middle of the day but some streams they feed well after dark.  As a bonus that will reduce some of your bait stealers unless you have madtoms or stonecats...

light line 6lb or so small circle size 6 or 8 stuck where one sees fit with x amount of weight accordingly threaded (key) half a crawler or red worms. You'll find out real quick fishing at night if there are madtoms or stonecats same bottom rig n such swivel slip sinker

I've also found waxworms or butter worms to be effective for hogsuckers. During one roundup, I managed to add a hogsucker to my tally by using waxworms.  For this short space of time, anglers fishing nearby using crawlers were unable to catch a hogsucker to save their life, for some weird reason. Was it my precise location or my choice of bait that made the difference?  Who knows, but the bottom line was that it worked.

<p>around here in current river we catch alot of em, we anchor in knee to chest deep ,water ,with good curent an fish with red worms,, # 6 snelled hooks an 3/4oz slip sinkers. hog suckers will feed in a strip an if you arent fishing in that strip?itll be sparse but wen they are biting itll be like bluegills... fast an furious</p>