Blue suckers

[Quillback]

From the folks from OK:

📷 Ryan Hagerty/USFWS

Meet the Blue Sucker

Oklahoma’s fish come in all shapes and sizes, built for their respective lives in streams and rivers. The blue sucker typically lives at the bottom of deep, fast-moving rivers and has a long, streamlined body to match. The mouth is positioned on the underside of the head and is used to feed on caddisflies and other aquatic insects that also live on the bottom of the rivers.   In Oklahoma, blue suckers appear to be most abundant in the Red River below Lake Texoma, but may also be found in the Kiamichi, Arkansas, and Grand Rivers. This fish is considered a species of greatest conservation need in Oklahoma. It is also listed as a species of special concern in the Wildlife Department's Administrative Code, which sets a daily harvest limit of one blue sucker and requires successful anglers report the harvest to the Wildlife Department.    Fun Fact: When adult and juvenile fish of the same species have different habitat or food needs, the adult fish tend to migrate upstream and spawn where conditions are more favorable for their young before returning to their preferred habitats. The blue sucker has been found to make impressive migrations, but the species isn’t consistent in the distance of its migration. Some individuals may migrate more than 180 miles within a year while others may stay within the same 1.8-mile reach of the river. Cool temperatures and high flows trigger the migration.

[tjm]

"Some individuals may migrate more than 180 miles within a year while others may stay within the same 1.8-mile reach of the river. Cool temperatures and high flows trigger the migration. "

It doesn't say it but those huge annual migrations up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers used to be a major part of pioneer food gathering. A harvest that people relied on.  

I suspect that much of that migration is limited by dams and locks. probably also why they aren't doing as well as they did a hundred years or so ago. Apparently they need 53F rocky fast flowing water about two feet deep as a spawning place; so all those fish that used to range from the Gulf to the headwaters of the Miss., Mo., Arkansas rivers can't make those migrations any longer. 

In Mo. the MDC doesn't even list them in the list of Suckers  on their web page  yet they maintain records since the  "The new “alternative method” record fish snagged by Rackers on April 21 weighed 9 pounds, 1 ounce with a length of 30 inches."  from the Osage. I think that in general fish and game authorities across the USA ignore the management of non-game wildlife in favor of the money species. Suckers as a group are the most "American" of all fish, perhaps, since of 80 species worldwide all but two live only in N.America. 

 

[dblades]

So you're saying the US is full of suckers?

[tjm]

I thought that was obvious by our politics. But there are a lot of sucker-fish also. 

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, dblades said:

So you're saying the US is full of suckers?

One born every minute😉😂