Long story short, I want to make a 6x6x1.5 foot stainless mesh cage and keep 20-40 12-16" white suckers alive from June till October underwater at the dock.

Yes it's legal.

We use them for musky in late fall and they are impossible to find, and if so are super expensive.


Going to net or catch them in the rivers when they spawn in a month.

Thinking of freezing trout pellets and dog food in a block, and dropping a frozen block in the cage once a week or so. They can eat the pellets and dogfood as it thaws off the block.. Cage will be about 12 feet underwater.


Any thoughts on if this idea will work?

Tight lid/door to keep varmints out. Chain link fence will be a LOT cheaper than SS.

I have a big ol roll of SS. It's rigid 3/4" or 1" (don't recall) welded mesh.


We use it for excluding beavers from Styrofoam float boat docks

As for a lid, I may use a section of plate aluminum for a door.

They’ll swim right through chain link. I suspect they won’t live as long as you need, especially with that many suckers in that size of cage. I imagine most will eventually stress and die. Even with less, thats an awfully long time to keep such a fragile fish alive, but I suppose theres a chance some could survive.

My understanding was that suckers are incredible resilient and tolerant of a wide variety of conditions.


I'm curious if it will work

They must be kept cool. I would prefer a trout stream with cool oxygenated water. You are so far north maybe that is not an issue. The other thing is constant vigilance. One dead one can quickly lead to a large die off.

Water can get warm fast mid summer, but that's surface temperature. It will be much cooler 12 feet down

I would say thats the opposite of my experience with them. Not as delicate as shad, but not very hardy. Maybe bigger ones are tougher? Most of the ones I used were only 6”-10”.

They have a tendency to constantly bump their face against the fencing, eventually leading to open wounds and fungal infections.

a friends dad use to do this, he put them in a cage in a small creek, and they kept all summer

A buddy here locally said they'd do this, but it was more their fins and tail leading to fin rot



Might not work

This is what I would be concerned about . I have handled a fair amount of them in the past and fungal infections from bumping up against the mesh would be a concern.
It may not be a issue where you are but oxygen depletion can be a problem over the course of a summer too.
It's probably worth trying but might want to try on a small scale first before investing to much.

A friend that has an eel weir has a big spring box that is shaded, and he keeps sucker in there after the eel run.

Make the cage round so they don't bunch up in the corners, and infections will happen as they get abraded by the wire. If you sink the cage make sure there is adequate O2, some waters lose O2 due to rotting vegetation near the bottom.
The Tenax plastic mesh is easier on the fish but use what you have and see how it works out for you. I wouldn't over feed them either, we keep eels for weeks with no supplementary feed.

Mink will find a way to eat em.

Ask Joe Biden........ I have kept creek chubs which I assume are some type of sucker in a fish trap iwith good moving water with no issues.

When we were tagging fish the disease fisheries guys said , just release the suckers because of all the bumping they had in the hoop nets = fin rot etc down the line
but that was 50 years ago
Quill back carp suckers would make a great muskey bait, and in the right spots they are suckers for worms and move in cold water of the fall feeding frenzy they have

This - all good info

I raised white sucker for many many years. I never had them in an enclosure for more than a day or two meaning hoop nets or wire mesh commercial sized traps. Even in stainless steel tanks they would rub their slime layer off in a week or two. Fresh is best by far and although you may find the perfect set up it’s nearly impossible to have them calm and not get spooked. Otters will break into the cage if they find it. It’s possible you could get post spawn suckers and put them in a smaller pond and trap them back out when you need them. I would put about 5-10 times the amount you would use just to put the odds in your favor. If you attempt to cage them all summer keep us posted and good luck!

pond rearing some eggs is the way to go Hutchey
somehow they got into a trout pond and the 6 inch 2 year old suckers sure like pieces of worm on small hooks, let them swim around and you have 20 followers and be prepared with some extra cane poles and it is a 5 minute job done and gone with 19 friends