Species Profile: Lake Chubsucker

As most of you hopefully already know, I am a life-list angler. I target, document, and count the number of species, hybrids, and subspecies I catch, specifically on fly tackle. Because of that I spend a lot of time learning about and fishing for many different species of fish. This means I'm more adept at identifying and fishing for an extremely broad range of species than the average fly angler. This series will attempt to outline species identification, some life history, and methods for targeting with fly tackle. Maybe I'll get to every fish on my life list, but considering it is ever growing... it would take a while. Mostly, I hope this will get a few of you interested in going out and learning about or catching something new. 

I'm in a rather unique position for writing this "Species Profile" installment. Erimyzon sucetta is an interesting little fish. It rarely ever gets caught. There are two life listers that I know of that have caught a lake chubsucker: Jessel Sanchez (instagram) and a friend of his who I only know as Species Spotlight (instagram). They both caught theirs on bait in the same location. Then there's me. On the 29th of December, just after sunrise, in a little ditch outside of Jupiter, Florida, I became the first person on record to catch a lake chubsucker on the fly. I didn't even know what a lake chubsucker was before that trip, though creek chubsuckers are on my radar. But I've learned quite a bit about the species since. Certainly enough to write an accurate profile. So, lets examine one of North America's most notoriously evasive sucker species, shall we?

Lake chubsuckers belong to the genus Erimyzon with four other species. They are generally small in size, maybe reaching 10 inches, deep bodied, have a small protrusible mouth, an olive colored back, silvery to golden colored sides, and yellow to white belly. Adult males get tubercles on the head and anal fin during spawning.

Lake chubsuckers can be found in watershed from New York to Wisconsin, and down to the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida. Though their range covers a large part of the U.S. and a bit of Canada, it has lots of gaps. Basically the entirety of the Appalachian mountain range, for example. Their preferred habitat is clean, weedy lowland swamps, lakes, and creeks. Their range reflects this: they aren't found in especially hilly places. Habitat degradation is a significant threat to the species. Mining, development, and diverting waterways put lake chubsuckers at risk. Simply changing the turbidity of a water body is enough to push this species out. They have been extirpated in a number of portions of its historical range.

Warm, clear, clean, still water with an exceptional amount of weed coverage will harbor the greatest abundance of chubsuckers. They also prefer a bottom of sand mixed with organic debris. Spawning occurs from March through July. males will clean an area of gravel or vegetation, females will disperse their eggs, and the males will then fertilize them. Individuals generally have a life span of five years. Algae, copepods, and chironomid larvae are all important food sources for lake chubsuckers, and vegetation may make up as much as 70% of their diet. 

Lake chubsuckers can be exceedingly difficult to find. So much so that the state of New York isn't even entirely certain that the species still exists there and are actively trying to locate extant populations to determine whether they have been extirpated or not. This evasiveness is one of the things that makes catching the species on hook and line very difficult. The other is that diet... vegetation eaters can be extremely picky.

A marsh in Florida inhabited by lake chubsuckers

So, do you want to catch a lake chubsucker? It may well be one of the most extraordinary challenges in angling. On, fly, on bait... any method of hook and line angling... trying to catch this species will be one of the most difficult things you ever try to do. But I do have a few pointers.

Since they are very hard to find, you need to narrow your search extensively. First, make sure you are actually looking withing their range. Then, try to get in touch with local fisheries biologists. Look for electro-fishing data. Find the places that have the highest abundance of the species. Then, look for places that have big swings in water level seasonally. You want to find scenarios that will concentrate the fish. This is probably the only reason why I caught my own lake chubsucker: we were fishing a small, deep culvert ditch in the middle of a very expansive marsh during Florida's dry season. Fish that would otherwise have been spread out through weedy water where they wouldn't have been seen were concentrated in one clear pool. This is especially necessary because you are going to need to sight fish to this species. There is no other alternative. If you can't see them, you won't catch them. 

If you've actually succeeded in finding a place with visible and very concentrated numbers of lake chubsuckers, start fishing it regularly, at different times of day, during different conditions. Dap small nymphs in front of as many fish as possible. Eventually, one might eat. Noah and I visited our little Florida ditch a bunch of times and on all but one visit the chubsuckers just weren't willing to move to anything. On that one outlying visit, I got a number of them to move to a Walt's Worm, and eventually did hook one. I wish I knew why they were willing on that visit, but there weren't any standout variables. Basically, catching a lake chubsucker is going to have to be the result of either a ton of luck or a ton of hard work. But I'd say it is worth the effort.  These are a fascinating little fish, and, like I said, probably one of the greatest challenges in the sport of angling. 

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