SUCKERS
White sucker:
Catostomus commersonii - scientific name
IDENTIFICATION:
Single soft-rayed dorsal fin, sucking mouth with no barbels, long cylindrical body. The white sucker has coarser scales that become smaller near the head. White Suckers may occasionally develop a dark stripe along their sides during the spawning run.
DIET:
White suckers are bottom feeding fish.
LIFE HISTORY:
White suckers ascend rivers to spawn over gravelly bottoms or in the absence of rivers they will spawn on gravelly shoals in lakes. White sucker runs may begin in mid-March in southern Michigan, or as late as early May in the north. Maximum life expectancy for white suckers appears to be 17 years. Whites usually grow to be 12-20 inches long.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
They are also found statewide in warm-water rivers and inland lakes. The white sucker goes by a number of other names, including common sucker, coarse-scaled sucker, brook sucker, gray sucker, mud sucker, sucker, mullet, black mullet, slender sucker, june sucker, and white horse.
Puzzle: White Suckers are often feared because of their poisonous barbels.
True: N 42° 34.780' W 083° 34.212'
False: N 42° 34.212' W 083° 34.780'
Please wear hunters orange during hunting season.