Redhorse for bait

I was fishing wing dams yesterday and caught a bunch of redhorse sucker. If I cut them up and froze them would that make good catfish/sturgeon bait?

Cut bait is always best fresh and bloody. In spring I like to use the shiners that didn’t get used for tip ups. They like those for winter killed spring thaw bite. You might do the same with the redhorse. I don’t know much about sturgeon fishing.

Redhorse is a good cutbait for channels but not really for sturgeon. I get a few but not many.

Just please remember that certain redhorse are threatened and should not be kept. River redhorse and the Great redhorse.

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Redhorse is a good cutbait for channels but not really for sturgeon. I get a few but not many.

Just please remember that certain redhorse are threatened and should not be kept. River redhorse and the Great redhorse.

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How do you ID the different types?

THis is the best I can do for now.

The ones that typically have yellowish or orangish fins is Golden, and Silver both are common depending on the water. Goldens are rarely over 3 pounds Silvers are often over 3 pounds and can be close to 10 pounds.

Golden

Silver

THe ones that have the brite red fin are shortheads, Rivers and Greaters. The shortheads are the best tasting of all the redhorse but rarely are over 21 inches and our state record is a misidentified river redhorse.

Shorthead

Greater

River Redhorse

The last two photos are the ones you should not keep. In WI it is illegal and in MN it should be

I will try to setup a better ID chart sometime but I am off to go fishing!

Good to know, I was catching shortheads then.

So it is true! The world is full of all kinds suckers.

What a cool thread!

The internet is awesome…nice photo collection of the various species.

Years back, we had a great uncle (i think, or maybe he was a distant cousin) who would fish the Kaskaskia river in central IL with us, always with a coffee can of worms. While we preferred channel cats, we were essentially fishing for action. I was probably around 12 at the time…

Anytime he got a hit or fish on, he would holler out REDTAIL! In front of where we stayed was a shallow sandflat, and you would frequently get suckers, carp, yellow bass, bullheads, and drum. It was also a great swimming area on a hot day…

In higher water, you’d take channel cats just below the flat due to a nice current break between the flat and a gravel bar downstream.

While redhorse aren’t everyone’s favorite, they are very fun to catch as are carp. And, in IL some of the redhorse species are also protected.

Shawn

They are my favorite!

Notice my Tat? That shorthead is the first fish I caught after getting my tat of a shorthead redhorse.

The shorts are what I keep catching up here too.

HA! that tat is cool!