Tom Lounsbury: Michigan family keeps spring sucker-fishing tradition alive
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Drivers are equipped with fish spears in the effort to move suckers to the waiting nets near a bridge.
Tom Lounsbury/Hearst Michigan
Springtime sucker fishing can certainly offer challenges when it comes to weather, which will determine when the fish venture inland from one of Michigan’s Great Lakes to perform their annual spawning run up rivers and streams.
Water temperatures play a key role which can be affected by rainstorms, not to mention the intensity of such storms. This can become a tossup as to whether suckers will be running or not and often requires calculated guesswork or simply giving it a whirl fishing for them. It is often a case of, you will never know unless you try.
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I grew up going spring “sucker spearing” in local drainages and streams in my Thumb area, which generally occurred at night requiring lights and usually wearing waders, and was often a spot-and-stalk atmosphere that I still much enjoy.
Going sucker fishing with hook and line is yet another popular method to employ, and I can attest that suckers offer a bit of a tussle to reel in, especially if you have more than one hooked onto a perch rig at the same time!
I had heard about using large drop-nets for sucker fishing, but wasn’t familiar with such until I met the late Tom Talaski Sr. of Bad Axe a couple decades ago and he invited me to join him and his family for their annual “sucker-fest” gathering, which I soon discovered was quite a festive affair.
The base of family operations is the Talaski farmstead near Rapson in the “Tip of the Thumb,” an area featuring rivers, creeks and drainages all leading to Lake Huron and offering a multitude of spring sucker fishing opportunities. With a large family featuring a dozen children – five girls and seven boys – who knew how to work together on the farm, Tom decided to create an annual activity they would all enjoy sharing together.
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Sucker spearing was already a close-to-home pastime whenever there was any free time from never-ending farmwork and other chores. Harvested suckers also were something the entire family enjoyed eating freshly cooked, canned, or smoked in the notable Talaski smokehouse.
This is why Tom Talaski Sr came up with the idea of using large drop nets and he and his sons began researching matters, figuring out where to order and purchase the necessary materials and doing some trial-and-error testing of what would perform the best to meet their needs.
They soon came up with the perfect system, which truly worked for them and of course required family-related teamwork at several bridges, with their long line of vehicles parked along the roadside on either side of the bridge.
Using the large nets is done by dropping a pair of them side by side to the bottom of the water using long ropes, and at a synchronized moment, the nets are suddenly and quickly pulled up through the surface.
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Sometimes the nets come up empty, sometimes with only a few suckers, but there are times when it is “all-hands-on-deck” to pull the sucker-filled nets up out of the water and long-poled dipnets are needed to lighten the load!
No matter how the nets come up, whether with suckers or not, the festivities continue with plenty to eat, including snacks, venison jerky, hot soup and cocoa, accompanied by a lot of warm and friendly socializing.
When I was welcomed just like family to join in on the annual Talaski sucker-fest way back when, I first saw Tom’s children attending the event with their own children, who would grow up to become adults and in turn attend the event with spouses and children of their own, with everyone taking part in one form or another.
Yep, folks, I’ve seen this family-oriented event steadily expand and grow. Even though some family members now reside elsewhere in the state, they make a point of attending the sucker-fest, which is always on a weekend so kids can readily attend without missing school.
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Of course, this means setting a specific date in the hopes it coincides with a decent spring sucker run. Whether it is feast or famine in the catch, exciting anticipation is always present whenever the nets are briskly drawn up out of the water in an atmosphere filled with camaraderie.
Saturday, April 11 was this year’s set date, and due to the up and down daily temperatures and a recent heavy rainstorm, not to mention some previous flooding, I knew we were in for some murky and fast flowing water conditions. But as they say, the show must go on!
To assist in driving suckers toward the waiting nets, some volunteers donned chest waders and equipped themselves with fish spears to form an organized line across the river. The drivers do get occasions to spear suckers along the way and are able to use their spears to probe likely fish-hiding places. On this day, they were hard pressed to wade upstream against the strong rushing current and found doing so downstream worked more to their advantage.
However, there were moments when there wasn’t much “freeboard” left above the top of their chest waders, and care had to be taken to avoid stepping in a hole and having bone-chilling water seep in.
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They did right fine without mishaps, and even had fish bumping into their legs, but none could be seen in the murky depths, and the suckers were able to slip around and through the driveline. No suckers made it into the waiting nets at any of the bridge stops, but the anticipation always remained high with everyone involved.
Just the same, folks, that sunny day featured 50+ degree temps and mercifully lacked the strong winds which have become all too common lately. It was a fine day to share a family spring sucker-fest with great folks of all ages.
Email Thumb-based freelance outdoors writer Tom Lounsbury at [email protected]
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