# Spring sucker run



## fishfray (Jul 19, 2012)

Out here in northwest ohio we don't get a steelhead run, just plain old white suckers. I am just wondering if anyone here fly fishes for suckers during the spring spawn. A creek near my house gets a really big run, I saw hundreds today. It seems like the ones in the shallow water did not want to bite though. I drifted small wooly buggers and egg patterns by them but they ignored it. I did catch one sucker swinging a white wooly bugger in deeper water downstream of the gravel. Are they like steelhead in that the ones on gravel bite less and the ones in the pools are more aggressive? What flies/techniques do you guys use to get suckers to bite during the spawn?


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## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

Id say fish a sucker spawn pattern with a nymph below it ...Suckers eat nymphs and I'd bet they eat their own spawn as well .... never have fished them but have caught my share on the mad nymphing for trout in the spring more so than any other time of the yr .


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## brodg (Sep 6, 2010)

I've caught plenty of them while going after steelhead. The bigger ones can put up a decent fight. We wouldn't be so annoyed with them if not for the fact that the fight can spook nearby steelhead for a while. I've had them hit sucker spawn, nymphs, wholly buggers, eggs, crystal eggs, pretty much anything steelhead hit except zonkers. Never had one hit a zonker. I bet just like steelhead, they are probably not likely to hit while spawning. They always seem to hit while I'm drifting pools.


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## fishfray (Jul 19, 2012)

Thanks for the help. Here's the one I caught


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## fishfray (Jul 19, 2012)

I tried for suckers again today and they did not bite anything. I think it is at the tail end of the spawn and they are probably too beat up and exhausted to bite. I'm not into snagging them but I did get a few by accident


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## brodg (Sep 6, 2010)

Nice fish, definitely a big one. How was the fight, what did it hit?


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## sbreech (Jun 6, 2010)

Dang! I wish I could get the suckers to bite. There have been times that I have been wading streams up to my chest, looked down, and seen a whole school of those big beasts, and think to myself, "I'd love to catch them!"


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## fishfray (Jul 19, 2012)

It struck a white wooly bugger swung downstream.


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## fishfray (Jul 19, 2012)

I figured out how to catch them today. I didn't see any suckers on the riffles, but found them at the bottom of the deepest pools. A small black beadhead wooly bugger with split shot was the ticket. I caught about a dozen this way, all in the mouth and they seemed much healthier and hungry now that spawning is over.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

I need to get out and try for some. I see them all the time in my creek but I can never get them to bite. The water is clear and by the time I've seen them they've already seen me and spooked.

They do look good with those spawning colors.


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