Sucker Fishing
Sucker fishing in Beaches of 59!! Every spring one of the first things my family and I look forward to harvesting are Suckers. It so much fun chasing them through the culverts and trying to outsmart them with our nets! Its been a rough couple of years and we were pretty unsuccessful due to water levels being too low in 2021 and then way too high in 2022. When the water is too low or non existent in the ditches leading out from the lakes are rivers, they cant make it to their regular spawning areas which can be several miles. As was the case last year however, the fields were flooded and the ditches were extremely deep with water forcefully sucking through the culverts in rapids and whirl pools. It was too dangerous to stand in the culverts and too deep to spot the fish and successfully net them.
Finding the fish is the first challenge. They are very particular when it comes to water temperature for spawning. Personally I have found that they like to spawn when the water in the ditch reaches 11 degrees Celsius. This happens much faster than larger bodies of water! Sometimes there is still cnow around the edges of the ditch (and the lake is still usually frozen!). Starting the last week in April or first week in May we begin checking our spots daily and sometimes more than once a day. The sunny warm days are your best bet. They may be there one day and gone the next, a little luck is needed. There is no limit on sucker fish, but you must have a valid fishing license to harvest. Even if you don’t plan to keep and use the fish, it is fun to watch them spawn or let the kids try their luck at dip netting one!
Many people ask me what i do with the fish and if they’re edible. Yes they are! And personally I make “Manitoba canned Salmon” from them. It tastes exactly like store bought Salmon from the can, but I’ve been told, slightly better. I will share our recipe here. (It is an old Ukrainian family recipe!). Sucker fish must be cooked for an extended period of time to soften and dissolve the hundreds of tiny pin bones they contain. (They’re a nice mild white meat, but the pin bones make them difficult to eat!). I have been told some people will also use Sucker fish to make fish patties or fish soup. Commercially they are harvested and sent up north by the truckload to be made into food for dog sled teams!
