Sucker for Sucker

[CoyoteSpinner]

If anyone out there is old enough to recall the adverts - "Coocoo for CocoPuffs", well . . .

So I caught my first sucker out of the Logan river - clear hard flowing water. Fish in full-lambada dance gear. This sucker was miling all over the place.
I know there's browns in there, just thought I was after a different kind of brown!

[inline Sucker.jpg]

So filleted it up for catfish bait. Fish like suckers even more than carp, right? So after filleting these nice slimy white meat fillets, I got to thinnin . . . sprinkle of creole, soak in milk.
Got a Turkey Fryer, so figgered I finally had the heat and capacity to properly flash fry, and . . . . I was right.
Some beer batter (yes, REAL beer alrighty) with a bit more creole spice added for good measure, and fzzzzzzz - into the fryer.

Now I know there's extra Y-bones, but just didn't seem worth more trimming and chopping, and really - most just melted a way. Did run into a few worth picking.

[inline "Sucker for Sucker.jpg"]

But I'll tell you some-fin, that was some good flaky white meat, crispy batter - real fish-n-chips style. I was not under-impressed! Yeah - I'll share some trimmings with the cats, but - I'm thinking maybe a river carp might be next to find it's way to my table. The river flows way clearer and fresher than the Bear, or the marsh.

[gmwahl]

I know that in most circles that it is social suicide to admit to eating suckers and carp, but I catch them out of bear lake and their white meat is delicious!
I don't eat them often fried, but when I do we score the fillets about every 1/4-3/8 of an inch about half as deep as the fillet and the bones just disappear when we fry them. The most common thing I do with them besides using them for laker bait is to bottle the skinless fillets with no added water and one half teaspoon of salt per pint. My daughter calls it "Bear Lake tuna"
I have only tried the carp once and those were from 12" carp last spring and it was after my 18 year old son wanted to try it. We scored the fillets just like suckers and fried them and he told me that they were awesome. I decided to try a fillet and it was honestly the mildest and sweetest fish I've had out of fresh water! the meat was white and firm off of the 12" carp, but when I fillet larger ones they are darker and reddish colored so I can't bring myself to try those.
Well, the suckers are spawning all over the shoreline right now so maybe I'll take my bow and rod and spend the rest of the morning slaying them.
[signature]

[RockyRaab]

Social suicide follows:

I've eaten both sucker and carp. When I was a tyke some three score years ago, I caught a several-pound sucker from the brook behind my grandparents New Jersey farmhouse. I insisted my Gram cook it up. She wasn't thrilled, but since they already ate pickerel and other less-common fare, she did. To the best of my memory, it was great, just as described above.

A couple decades later my parents were into carp fishing in Illinois, and being the Depression-era folks they were, we ate what we caught. Mom usually baked or broiled them, and the ones under ten pounds were definitely better, but I have no "yuck" memories of those, either. Chunky and off-white.
[signature]