red horse

[davetclown]

any one seeing tell tail signs of any red horse?
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[lonehunter]

WE ARE EXPERIANCING FLODDING UP HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MIT , REPORTS FROM THE WEST SIDE SHOW THE SAME THING . TREES ARE BEING WASHED DOWNRIVER ON A DAILEY BASIS . RIVERS ARE THREE TIMES THERE NORM , AND THE FLOODGATES AT LOCAL DAMS HAVE BEEN PARTIALLY OPENED TO AVOID DAM FAILURES . RIVER AND ICEFISHING IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AT THIS TIME .

LAST YEAR YOU POSTED THAT THIS WOULD HAPPEN , IN A REPLY ON THE SILT BUILD UP IN THE CEDAR RIVER DUE TO THE MASSIVE CLEAR CUTTING THAT THE D.N.R. WAS HAVING DONE .YES , MOTHER NATURE GAVE THE RIVERS A LONG OVERDUE CLEANING .

IF THERE'S SILT LEFT IN THAT STREAM NOW IT'S SOMEWHERE WAY DOWNRIVER .

NO FISHING TO REPORT ON , JUST A LOT OF WATER .
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[davetclown]

good luck,

dont forget to bering us back a pic....
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[lonehunter]

sucker fest should be starting in a week or two , it usually runs two weeks later than the start of the big fish season on the west side .

i'tll be a blast reeling those big fish in for the kids too !
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[davetclown]

yep, I am looking for a dozen good smokers....

got a buddy who is going to smoke them... why he even said he would clean them to boot...

I think he is smokin them on the grill, eather way I suspost it aint to bad. I like regular smokers for the best results, goona build me one when I get south of the mason dixon.

I will have a full time job trackin and smokin razor backs [][][]

do you have a favorite brine for suckers?
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[lonehunter]

i have a lil' chief smoker , and an unlimited supply of wood from a friend in auburn ,( east of midland , west of baycity ) .

apple , cherry , hickory , maple , you name it , he has it . he owns a tree cutting service .

i clean them and they go right to the smoker . we share them at work the next day . they usually don't make it to second break .

everyone brings stuff to share all the time at work ,venison jerkey or stew , fried gills , smoked suckers , baked steelhead , smoked salmon , rabbit or squirrl stew . the best is the morrells , man those are good ! should be comming up pretty soon .

i know stormey is a shroomer, i bet hes ready for some too ! betcha cally has a few spots as well .
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[stormy26]

caught three yesterday down at the Grand.
Sure sign that the steelhead are gone.
between the five of us four sucker. one walleye and one steel.
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[davetclown]

well the ice left my lake today, gone compleatly.

I guess the worm rain finaly has taken its toll on winters grip.

I saw to guys on hawk today when I went by and was wondering if that was you our there.
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[stormy26]

It wasn't me. I have been to busy chasing down steelhead.
The grand is doing pretty good on the suckers. there was a boat out there last sunday with a dipping net.
The ice is out and the crappies are ready. I got a call from a buddy of mine and he got 14 nice crappies on bass lake last night. I think sunday I going out to lake Neva with my boy to give it a try.
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[davetclown]

I was out this afternoon, I did manage to suceed in drowning a worm...

the ice has been off my lake now for two days. the werms are coming up now with the worm rains.

maybe I will go over to a deaper hole tomarow to see what happens.

I will post any results I get here...
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[lonehunter]

suckers are arriving at the rifle already . i guess i'll be doing a few after work trips to omer this comming week [].
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[davetclown]

Well I drownded me another werm today, maybe I will have to move over to another hole....

hope I did not miss them already, I remember missing them last year. I saw them in the river one day and the next they were gone. I will just have to keep going out every afternoon and hope they turn up.

if they are in the rifle they should be here in my area now or at lease any day now.

You got a good brine recipie?
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[lonehunter]

i'll ask farmer tim to get his mom's recipe , that lady can make them taste like a fresh salmon , yummy yummy !
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[davetclown]

I thought this would be a good time to post this info about the sucker species, it is that time of year,

Thanks for the recipie [] I am sure his secreat is home made "maple surip" smoked with apple or cherie...

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Identifying characteristics: Single dorsal fin, sucking mouth with no barbels, long cylindrical body. The white sucker has coarser scales, the longnose has fine scales, but visually, with only one in hand, they are difficult to distinguish.

The Catostomidae, or sucker family, is closely allied with the minnow family. Suckers are soft-rayed fishes that possess a toothless, protractile mouth with distinctive thick lips. The longnose and white suckers are two of the most common representatives of this family in Michigan's Great Lakes.

Both the white and the longnose sucker are bottom feeding fish and spend most of their time in shallow, warm waters. In bays, estuaries and tributary rivers, both species make their homes in holes and areas around windfalls or other underwater obstructions. However, longnose suckers have been found as deep as 600 feet in Lake Superior.

Although white and longnose suckers both lay their eggs among pebble and gravel beds in lake and river shallows during the spring, longnose suckers spawn several days before white suckers. Sexual maturity arrives at five to nine years of age for the longnose while the white species matures at three to eight years. In addition, white sucker females grow faster, get larger and live longer than males. Maximum life expectancy for white suckers appears to be 17 years; it can be as long as 22-24 years for the longnose. Whites usually grow to be 12-20 inches long, while the longnoses grow to 15-25 inches.

As youngsters under 12 inches in length, suckers are eaten by northern pike, muskellunge, bass, walleyes and burbot. Sucker fry are preyed on by Atlantic Salmon and fish-eating birds. Sea lampreys damage sucker populations in areas where lake trout are scarce. As bottom feeders, both species dine exclusively on aquatic plants, algae, and small invertebrate animals - especially worms and crustaceans. White suckers have been accused of consuming large quantities of eggs from more desirable fish species, but there is no conclusive evidence to support this contention. The longnose sucker is not a serious predator of fish eggs.

Economically, suckers are at present a potentially valuable by underused sport fish. Their bony flesh has a fine, sweet flavor and is often fried in butter, smoked or used in soups and chowders. Commercially, it is often marketed under the name "freshwater mullet." Commercial "deboning" machines have been developed, so minced mullet products may one day be available in your local store. Also, suckers have great value as bait (usually for pike or muskie), and are often fed to sport fish in hatcheries. Theses versatile fish are commanding increasing respect from commercial and sport fishermen alike.

The white sucker goes by a number of other names, like common sucker, coarse-scaled sucker, brook sucker, gray sucker, mud sucker, sucker, mullet, black mullet, slender sucker, June sucker and white horse.
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[lonehunter]

i'm almost positive the homemade suryp is part of the recipe .

tim said that this years collection of sap was very low , the tempratures needed to make the sap run just wern't constant enough . 20's at night and mid40's during the day are the best . we've had 20's with low to mid 30's .the sap didn't run like it should .

only 4 gallons of finished suryp were harvested this year from 60 trees .

i can't wait for sucker fest to begin , it's almost like steelhead fishing . a single or treble hook baited with a yellow piece of sponge , corn kernel , or any wet fly will do . tie it on the end of your line with a couple splitshot about a foot up . cast it into the river and let it go with the current untill a sucker hits it . a zebco rod and reel combo is all it takes to get the young kids catching some of the big fish and a outing they will remember the rest of thier lives .
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[davetclown]

that's a bomb shell in the loop of things, no surip no brine, no brine no ham for the end of the year holidays, no ham for the holidays no family get together, no faminly get to gether no new holiday gifts to spur the economy.

all this just from the lack of a few gallons of surip. its a brutal chane that when one link breaks the whole thing comes apart.

maybe you will get another two weeks of sap season up your way.. I think our season starts a couple weeks early. I herd our sap has been running good this past week. we had the below freezing temps nights here as well up till this past 5 days.

we got the worm rains tht brought up the werms.
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[lonehunter]

not to mebtion the maple sweet buffalo jerkey , bacon and ice cream topping .

that suryp is as good as gold .

no worms here yet , but i did have a moth splat my windshield and my littlest got a skeeter bite yesterday .

i bet those fish are waiting at the rivers mouth for some of those worms washed outta there homes , have you droped them a line yet ?
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[davetclown]

I slipped up here a couple days ago, I grabbed my canister that I keep my wax worms in during my winter fishing trips wich doubles as my earth werm canister for trout while wading.

I opened up the canister in the house and shook it up a little expecting to find dead wax werms hopfuly a couple live wax werms only to have a moth fly up in my face. I closed the canister but the dammage has been done.

I have been chasing it around the house now for the last 3 days.

Looks like I can expect more moth holes in my clothing this year.[]
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[lonehunter]

the guys at work said the suckers finally made it to omer yesterday , guess it's suckerfest for the next coupla weeks [] .

my waxeys , half went black , the other ones are getting a green food coloring bath to imitate the greenworm that attacks steelie eggs . steelhead see the green worm as a mortal enemy and will gobbel the up on sight !

the black ones will be used on the gills and crappies soon to arive .
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[davetclown]

sounds like I may have missed them again. but then again every lake has its own time table.
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