Frugal fishing ideas

[Kaleva]

A couple of days ago, I was talking with my father-in-law about fishing and we discussed fishing for suckers. A fish many people overlook. In Michigan where I live, suckers can be taken year round on many rivers and from the end of April to Sept. 30th on certain designated trout streams. There is no size or quantity limit for the fish.

Last year, some friends who had gone fishing gave me the suckers they had caught but didn't want. I made Kalamojakka, a Finnish fish stew, with it and it was very good. One can also use suckers to pan fry, can, pickle, smoke or grind up into fish patties. Being bottom feeders, suckers are easy to catch using the most basic of fishing gear with worms as bait.

Now you may be like me and not have any fishing gear at all. A basic fishing rod adequate to take suckers is pretty inexpensive or one may make their own "Hobo" fishing kit out of 1" pvc pipe and fittings or use a protein drink tube as shown in this youtube video:

.

A resident fishing license in Michigan costs $26.00 and maybe it would cost another $10 or so dollars to make my own fishing kit but there's still plenty of time to recoup that this year in money saved.

[Curmudgeoness]

1. That's an interesting place to be frugal

and I never would have thought of it. With the price of fish these days, it would take no time at all to recoup the license fee and price of equipment. Dig your own worms, or raise them if you intend to do a lot of fishing.

Or, like you did, find fishermen who will give you their catches that they don't want.

[Kaleva]

2. I was thinking more about the price of meat.

And possibly replacing meat with fish and then expanding on that train of thought by researching how frugal one can be in acquiring fish.

Only two people I know of who fish keep the suckers they catch. Everyone else considers them to be a junk fish not worth keeping. I could ask them to save a few for me.

I'd also like to go back to fishing myself as I enjoyed it when I was younger.

[laundry_queen]

3. Yep, suckers can be good eating

When I worked at a fishing store, we used to sponsor local fishing derbies. I remember one ice fishing derby where my boss and I went around finding live suckers that people had discarded on the ice to die and put them back in the water. He kept a couple of dead ones for himself. Unreal how people just left them on the ice to die. There is a misconception that suckers somehow displace more 'desirable' fish and so that is why so many people throw them away.

And not just suckers but all kinds of fish can be caught with a minimum of equipment. My bosses used to laugh at how many people would spend thousands on equipment when they would stick to a hook and a worm. Or maggots - maggots work really good for ice fishing. Ice fishing is even better for not needing fancy equipment, except for an auger. A stick and some fishing line w/a hook and anything on the end (cheese is a popular non-bug option). Even my dad can catch fish this way (you have to know my dad's fishing record to understand why that is funny - let's just say he's cursed and no one ever wants to fish near him, LOLOL.)

[Kaleva]

4. Finally got everything together except the worms

Cost me about $53 so far and that includes the license. I had bought a pole but had I waited a bit I wouldn't have had to do so as I've been given 2 poles by my ex's family. Have also been given and loaned ice fishing gear so I'm set for that come winter and the license is valid till 3/30/15.