4Wheelr
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Last Login:July 08, 2010, 10:45:50 PM
Posts: 15
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I caught one of those gold-colored suckers (Squaw Fish?) the other day and some other fishermen told me to just toss it up on the bank and let it die, rather than throw it back in the water. Killing and wasting a fish this way really goes against my grain, but everyone seems to be saying it's preferred for these fish. Don't these fish have any redeeming qualities?
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SteelyDrew
Smolt
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Last Login:February 05, 2012, 11:07:58 PM
Posts: 94
What a Wild Gorge
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« Reply #1: January 10, 2010, 07:34:42 PM » |
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They dont even work for crab bait
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Stand in one place and wait for em' with many others? No, begin the trek and be rewarded
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Big Buck
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« Reply #2: January 10, 2010, 07:44:51 PM » |
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suckers-- qualities-- no-no-no-no......
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If we fought as hard in all our endeavors as salmon & steelhead do to spawn, how often would we fail....
(from the Arctic Roadrunner)
Tom
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4Wheelr
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Last Login:July 08, 2010, 10:45:50 PM
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« Reply #3: January 10, 2010, 08:06:43 PM » |
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But...kill them???
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dardevle
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Ike
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Last Login:February 11, 2012, 10:47:55 PM
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« Reply #4: January 10, 2010, 08:15:06 PM » |
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The common "old school" wisdom is that these suckers scavenge the riverbeds and suck up salmon and steelhead eggs from the redds. I don't know whether that is true or not but I have witnessed many an old timer kicking them up into the brush after catching them. My biggest goal with these specimens is to remove the hook without touching them.(one handed plier fling)  |
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~Mike~ There are a few kinds of steelhead fishing; fly, float, drift, spoon, spinner, plugs, boondoggin, bobberdoggin,.... and then there is float fishing in 18\" of water. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!  |
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Skagit Walker
Fry
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Last Login:November 26, 2011, 09:41:52 PM
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« Reply #5: January 10, 2010, 08:36:21 PM » |
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Ya you guys these fish are just like thos dang dolly vardens. eaten all the eggs and baby steelhead and salmon. kill em all i say !!!!
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Chum Man
Team Uff Da
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Ike
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Last Login:February 11, 2012, 06:59:30 PM
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lead slingin' heathen
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« Reply #6: January 10, 2010, 08:54:36 PM » |
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won't hurt to let them go...
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side drifting is a social disease!
-kyle
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cuttstosteelies
Guest
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« Reply #7: January 10, 2010, 10:25:17 PM » |
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I won't kill anything that doesn't end up on my plate. Not my place to do so. Back in the drink they go.
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NWRetics
2 salt Steelhead
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Last Login:February 10, 2012, 08:20:29 PM
Posts: 465
30# ABUH-DEEN
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« Reply #8: January 10, 2010, 11:39:28 PM » |
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Ya you guys these fish are just like thos dang dolly vardens. eaten all the eggs and baby steelhead and salmon. kill em all i say !!!!
so you think steelhead dont eat salmon/steelhead eggs and fry and smolts? i say throw them suckers back...they would be the least of my worries on salmon/steelhead populations gillnets and commercial fishing #1 |
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They got it right when they said dog is man's best friend.
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Bunker
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Last Login:February 11, 2012, 10:02:57 PM
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« Reply #9: January 11, 2010, 01:13:05 AM » |
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Ya you guys these fish are just like thos dang dolly vardens. eaten all the eggs and baby steelhead and salmon. kill em all i say !!!!
so you think steelhead dont eat salmon/steelhead eggs and fry and smolts? i say throw them suckers back...they would be the least of my worries on salmon/steelhead populations gillnets and commercial fishing #1 Suckers suck! Up eggs and my corkies and beads. They suck in the rivers alll the time! Year round! One less sucker is one more steelhead. Hopefully! Bunker |
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The bigger the sandshrimp! The bigger the summer run!
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Steelie Maniac
Egg, the prodigy.
3 salt Steelhead
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Last Login:January 14, 2012, 07:22:39 PM
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No head like steelhead!
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Suckers and squaw fish are two totally different fish!!! Suckers are suckers! Squawfish are Northern Pikeminnow! Every hear of PIKEMINNOW SPORT-REWARD PROGRAM??? Check it out.. Pikeminnow are voracious predators, and in the Columbia River and Snake River salmon smolts comprise a large part of their diet.
Suckers are released. Northern Pikeminnow aka squaw fish are fed to the heron and ospreys
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"If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." Martin Luther King Jr.
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hooknose
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3 salt Steelhead
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Last Login:February 11, 2012, 07:19:34 PM
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Not positive on the science, but I seem to remember hearing that suckers were actually an asset to the river environment - in that they clean gravel (spawning gravel). And that is of more value than any negative impact they pose. Hopefully a fisheries biologist will stop by to comment on this one. I let em swim away, and I don't think you should feel bad about not killing anything  |
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wannafish
Half pounder
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Last Login:February 09, 2012, 11:36:09 AM
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If I'm not online, check the river...
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They'll make a great sport fishery after the rest of those pesky salmonids finally die off (note to self, reserve domain name "suckernotebook.net) |
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~Mike~
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Barbless
10%er
2 salt Steelhead
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Last Login:January 10, 2012, 08:37:40 AM
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They'll make a great sport fishery after the rest of those pesky salmonids finally die off (note to self, reserve domain name "suckernotebook.net) WARNING: Do NOT go to http://www.suckernotebook.net (You will not like what you see there!) |
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"All the romance of trout fishing exists in the mind of the angler and is in no way shared by the fish."
~H.F. Blaisdell, The Philosophical Fisherman, 1969
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4Wheelr
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Last Login:July 08, 2010, 10:45:50 PM
Posts: 15
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Thanks for all the info. Opinion seems to be divided but I plan to keep tossing them back in. There seem to be dozens of types of fish commonly called "suckers" - does anyone know what type of fish these gold suckers really are? The one we got was not the pikeminnow for sure.
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