Free suckers- Big Star Lake, Lake County

[M. Tonello]

Hey everyone,
I want to let you know that we are doing a manual sucker removal on Big Star Lake in Lake County next week. It has been scientifically documented that adult white suckers compete with and can inhibit other species like yellow perch and juvenile walleye. So, we will be setting trap nets to remove as many adult white suckers as we can. They will be available at the public access for the general public to take home (as long as you have a valid fishing license). We will bring them back to the public access each day starting on Tuesday, April 24th. If all goes well, we will have fish available around 11am or so each day.

We'll have to see how it goes, we may be a little early, but I'd rather be too early than too late. So, if anyone would like to come and get some suckers to take home, we'll see you at the Big Star Lake public access site. If anyone has any firther questions, email me at tonellom@michigan.gov.

Thanks!

[fishonbb]

I've never ate suckers before, how would you cook them and how do they taste?

[MSUICEMAN]

from cold water time of the year (spring) i used to spear them as a kid and my dad smoked em... they were real good actually!

you could also bury them in the garden if you are so inclined, great fertilizer.

[COHO]

actually, there good just like you would cook a walleye or perch. you can grill em or deep fry em it's all good. just gotta get the mud vien out down the middle of the fillet. most guys smoke them but i like them grilled.

[Westlakedrive]

When you guys are done why dont you bring the nets to Fremont?

[M. Tonello]

We did well today, catching over 500 suckers. We gave away about half of them before we left, but there are still some in a net pen at the boat launch if anyone is interested this evening. We'll be back at it in the morning. Again, we'll likely have nets in there all week so feel free to come on out and get some white suckers.