"Feeling the rod bend!"

[jonny_redhorse]

With a 4 day weekend and the sun shining ....I grabbed the rods ,a couple a dozen night crawlers , and the cameras and headed to the St.Louis river(Forbes) this morning to take part in the annual "sucker run"...no one else there this morning but me! .......and the suckers! .....a nice morning to say the least!....a sucker on almost every cast!(probably caught and released 2 dozen)...feels good to feel that rod bend again!....these guys don't get enough credit

the river this morning...

fish on!...

a smaller white sucker...

a fat one !....

these guys can fight!....

[redogman67]

Nice pics, I wouldn't mind catching some suckers.

[USRanger]

At least one person kept the annual "sucker run" tradition going. Good job! This will probably sound dumb, but you have ice still on the river?

[jonny_redhorse]

Thanks guys!.... the "white" you see in the photos is frothy foam from the moving dam waters which is about a hundred yards up stream from where I was fishing here.......but....there is some secluded little "nitches" along the river banks in the shaded areas that harbored a bit of ice and snow yet...

the dam an "alot" of foam....I don't think I've seen as much foam as this year for whatever reason....

[finnbay]

Those buggers sure put up a fight! Great series!

[panthrcat]

you catch these guys on a rod 'n reel? we use our hands to catch these guys,, although I have had one on a rod one time,, we were fishing for speckles,, lol boy that was a fight!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jonny_redhorse]

Lol!...We used to catch em with our hands also Sue.....when we were kids in the smaller creeks that were 3' wide and in the shallow rapids with a foot of water....Haven't done that in 45 years though .....I've been going after these guys every spring for 45 years....just a "spring ritual" kinda thing I guess....kinda like smelting for others....as far as eating em....I let em all go but years ago used to smoke em up.....or grind em up and make deep fried fish patties(cakes)...no bones to worry about with the fish cakes....really good!

[panthrcat]

yea we used to eat em too,, fish patties,, but more now we just keep a few for the trout,, we go in the spring for them now more for the fun it gives our 12 year old daughter,, she reminds me soooooooooooooo much of me when I was her age,, it gives me a chance to be a kid again!!

that time is just around the corner for us!!! can't wait!!!