Cranking Roughies…What are they?

Well, we headed over to the Peshtigo area today in chase of a walleye bite and were quite surprised. Crankbaits were our bait of choice, and after trying a couple different spots with little success, the fish started snapping our cranks, and if you went two casts without a fish on, it was unbelievably unfortunate. However, the walleyes we were targeting were not the cooperative fish. I have NEVER had fish attack baits like these were. The problem is, I am not even positive what they are. If you have any input, please help me out. I asked a couple of the locals, and they weren’t even sure. I know we caught some white suckers, but we caught a bunch that looked like the picture. We also caught another kind that I couldn’t find a picture of anywhere. It was a darker black sucker with a bright red stripe down the middle from head to tail. It was crazy how they bit. Between 3 of us, we landed well over 100 fish in about 4 hours. I know you are thinking that is crazy, but if anything, I am guessing on the low side. Although it wasn’t the intention of the trip, it was a BLAST!

Oh and by the way, we did manage to catch four walleyes in the 20-25 inch range.

Thanks for any help on identifying these suckers.

Longnose Suckers

The colors change a little during spawn. They are a really cool fish!

Congrats. I plan to target them soon on the North Shore in MN. Normally caught while fishing for steelhead.

I do believe they are just White Suckers in their full spawning colors. They don’t look like Longnose Suckers, but they could be. Was the mouth similar to a Sturgeon? Also, is this body of water connected to one of the great lakes? I dont know where Peshtigo is. We should be able to identify with these two bits of info…

Yes, the Peshtigo River runs into Green Bay, and the mouth was small compared to typical redhorse. Not nearly the full lips that I have seen on suckers that I have caught in the past. Thanks for the help.

Those look like Longnose Suckers to me. In the spawn, they do get a red stripe. As far as hitting cranks, I wonder if they are just protecting their spawning beds from small fish swimming through them.

I am not sure if they were protecting their beds, because I do not know where they spawn. These fish were in fairly heavy current, within a quarter mile of the dam. I am as surprised as you sound. Like I said, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t done it. Keep the opinions coming if any of you think they are something other than long nose suckers. All of my research after getting a name points to that. Thanks again for the feedback guys.

Hey guys, finally found a picture of the red stripers. I guess I should have taken a picture or two. Didn’t know we were catching such a rarely photographed species. They were really cool looking fish in person. Red Stripe Long-Nosers

Couple more pics here. Was this the species you were catching? See how the mouth is much different from the more common White Sucker. This is what a typical Longnose Sucker would look like in your area in full spawning colors…

These are spawning White Suckers. As you can see, the colors are very similar to the underwater pics you took. I still think they are Whites, just my opinion…

I have caught spawning White Suckers before but I do not remember that much definition on their sides before. But you are right WF about the pic you put up that they are definitely Whites. You can see the mouth on that one very easily. I think we still need a better pic of the mouth of that original pic to be for sure. Hey Todd, all this talk makes me want to chase Longnose Suckers with you again.

Yeah man, we’ll be chasing them in no time eh? Me and Aaron might give them a shot in a week or two. For the mean time, just keep catching all them cool species over there, and we’ll keep trying to unlock the code of the Blue Sucker. This might be the year???

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and we’ll keep trying to unlock the code of the Blue Sucker. This might be the year???

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Wanna hint?

Always looking for tips. I dont know anyone who has caught one on live bait…

I may have caught one on a crawler a couple seasons back. I didn’t know what I’d caught at the time, just that it was bluish around the tope, and I had never seen the species before. Sadly, no picture was taken.

I only know that those preserved shrimp have caught them before. I’ll PM you the spot though.