Everyone needs to do this once in their life

[uncle buck]

https://youtu.be/WsG6hlKQAME

As younger man.. .When the trees would flower in the Spring  I would go sucker gigging at night with a Coleman lantern and a gig! Sucker were spawning up the creeks.. We would walk up all the feeder streams that ran into the non trout rivers and or creeks.. Nothing like the feel of the gig.. Made me think this is probably what the Pa Native Americans experienced.    I wonder how some of our head lights would work now.. Especially all the ones that have a white light?  I'm going to have to do this again some Spring...  At night the creek would be filled with hundreds of suckers going up these small streams from the main creek...

[Misterjake23]

I never knew anyone ate suckers!

[Pa Goosehntr]

  They are fine if you don't mind pickin through the bones...

[dreamcatcher]

The key to suckers is early spring. My Dad loved them and preferred them to trout.

[Dale]

I never knew anyone ate suckers!

They are fine if you don't mind pickin through the bones...

the native Americans said that God put all the bones in the suckers, to slow you down to savor the flavor... I've eaten a bunch of them over the years, steamed, fried and smoked and never had any complaints about them...

The key to suckers is early spring. My Dad loved them and preferred them to trout.

I can only agree whole heartedly with this statement... most anytime if you can get them outta cold trout waters...

[jaspr1]

  Haven't fished for them for years  My friend lived right where Fishing Creek dumped into the Susquehanna. We would go down there in early spring, build a fire on the bank and fish for them in the evening and early night.  We gave them to some guy who lived up the street from him and carp also. This guy made fish cakes out of everything  Don't laugh we tried them and they were good. 

[uncle buck]

Haven't fished for them for years  My friend lived right where Fishing Creek dumped into the Susquehanna. We would go down there in early spring, build a fire on the bank and fish for them in the evening and early night.  We gave them to some guy who lived up the street from him and carp also. This guy made fish cakes out of everything  Don't laugh we tried them and they were good. 

Now wouldn't this be nice get together for ppha members to do one eve...

[uncle buck]

Not a sucker eater.. I do know that in the Spring their flesh is sweet... I used them for the Mrs Rose bushes...OF course my neighbor who took me to this feeder stream just off RT 34 in Carlisle. He ate them and gave me a taste, He'd havea big burlap bag filled with our harvest!  It was a road that ran along the Conodoguinet Creek  that crosses right at RT 34.. I know God didn't change things in all those years and the small feeder stream is still there.. Just waiting for some serious gigging with a Coleman lantern with a aluminum reflector to shoot out into the water in front of you.. Um maybe like I said before one of those cheap white head lights would be just right too... Maybe?


My mom use to say I acted up like a little indian !!!  This is the one thing that made me feel like a Native American!  Just the power in that gig handle once you make contact with a sucker. People who have done this know what I'm talking about!

[Pa Goosehntr]

  GIG that Sucker!! 

[Lookn4Fur]

Use to gig suckers all the time when I was a kid.  Also used the coleman lantern.  We would put tinfoil on the back half of the globe so all the light would shine forward.  No lie, we would sometimes gig 100 an evening.  We would slice through the air bladder and throw them on the bank.  When we were done we would collect them on stringers and take them to my dads friends house in perry county.  His name was "Pork" and he would feed them to his hogs.  Well that seems to be a thing of the past.  There are no longer any big sucker runs up the streams to spawn.  I always wondered what happened to them.

[uncle buck]

Suckers are good bait for Musky... Probably could troll with a harpooned sucker behind a Musky rig. Maybe?  Probably would be good cut bait to for Channel Cats and Flatheads?  Maybe?