MSU Extension Michigan Sea Grant

Ah, springtime. Birds are singing and flowers are blooming. Love is in the air, and in the water, too.

Fish are stirring from their winter haunts and beginning to move toward spawning grounds to find a mate, or several mates as the case may be. Some species, like pike and steelhead, start spawning soon after the ice is gone. Others start feeding heavily as the water warms, building up energy reserves before the spawn.

For many fish, spawning involves considerable risk. Salmon, which are one of our few fall spawners, are well-known for their long-distance migrations upstream. Coho and chinook salmon always die after spawning, leaving their carcasses to fertilize rivers and feed the next generation. Other species don’t die after spawning, but they face some of the same obstacles as they swim upstream to find suitable shallow-water habitat for depositing eggs.

The spring sucker run

Suckers are native fish that make a springtime migration similar to that of salmon. Some sucker species migrate from the depths of the Great Lakes into tiny creeks where their young can thrive. Longnose suckers have been recorded living as deep as 600 feet in Lake Superior, but they often spawn in creeks so shallow that their backs stick out of the water.

Shallow, rocky or gravel-bottomed areas in streams are called riffles, and riffles are the preferred spawning habitat for many species of sucker along with steelhead, walleye, and many other types of fish. Spaces between rocks provide an ideal incubator for eggs and larval fish. Eggs that fall between the rocks are protected from predators, while a gentle flow of fresh water around the eggs provides oxygen.

Most suckers are bottom feeders, and they sometimes take unfair blame for eating the eggs of other fish. While suckers do spawn in fast riffles where other fish also spawn, they tend to feed in slower areas of the river where dead and dying eggs wash in.

Suckers are hardly alone in eating fish eggs. Steelhead, stream trout, and many other types of fish will gladly snack on their own eggs and the eggs of other species. This is one reason why a female fish produces thousands of eggs. Out of all those eggs, only two need to survive to spawning age in order to replace the parent fish and maintain the size of the population. Most fish eggs don’t make it, and they don’t need to.

In fact, sucker eggs provide a huge boost of energy for other fish like trout. Stream-dwelling brown, brook, and rainbow trout gorge on sucker eggs — sometimes aggressively biting at the backside of female suckers in their enthusiasm (see video online). Sucker eggs also provide food for minnows that are in turn food for larger fish, and suckers are themselves a favored meal for large predators like pike, musky, and catfish.

New insights on the life cycle of native suckers

As with other native fish species, suckers coevolved to function as part of the natural food web in the Great Lakes and connected streams. Ecologically, they play a role similar the role that native salmon play in their native waters of the Pacific Northwest.

Like salmon, suckers re-distribute nutrients and energy in aquatic environments. By moving upstream into small streams to spawn, they bring nutrients and energy from a large body of water (the Great Lakes or a large river) and convert it to food (eggs) in a small stream where food resources may be more limited. Unlike salmon, suckers typically don’t die after spawning.

Suckers are more important than many people realize. Researchers are just starting to understand the life cycle of some sucker species and the role that they play in Great Lakes streams. Shedd Aquarium has been studying longnose sucker and white sucker in Wisconsin and Illinois streams since 2017 (see details online). Volunteers have been monitoring creeks on a daily basis during the spring to document when the spawn begins and ends.

Dr. Karen Murchie with Shedd Aquarium has also been helping groups in West Michigan to begin similar monitoring programs. In 2024, John Ball Zoo and Grand Valley State University began coordination of volunteer monitoring of sucker runs in two local creeks.

The difference between the two creeks highlights just how much we have to learn about these fish. Only one species, the white sucker, was found in Rio Grande Creek. These white suckers likely migrated in from Lake Michigan and spawned in early spring. Plaster Creek was a very different story, with at least seven different species of suckers using the creek for spawning. Different species arrived at different times, with some species still in the creek trough late May.

Some of the suckers that showed up in Plaster Creek southwest of Grand Rapids were longnose sucker and white sucker that had migrated at least 40 miles upstream from Lake Michigan. Others, like the silver redhorse and shorthead redhorse may have migrated upstream from either Lake Michigan or the Grand River. Quillback, golden redhorse and spotted sucker likely moved into Plaster Creek from the Grand River, but researchers are just beginning to take a serious look at the life history, habitat, and ecological role of these species.

Papers published in 2024 found that several sucker species live much longer than previously thought. By using otoliths (ear stones) instead of scales to determine the age of fish, scientists greatly improved the accuracy of aging methods. Dr. Alec Lackmann and others working with him have documented silver redhorse as old as 41 years and quillbacks as old as 44.

Get involved

If you are interested in contributing to our understanding of sucker migrations, contact John Ball Zoo to volunteer on a local creek. Daily monitoring of Plaster Creek, Buck Creek has already begun and will likely continue through May. All it takes is a pair of polarized sunglasses for spotting fish and ten minutes to walk the riverbank counting and recording fish. The zoo has an online calendar for scheduling, with different volunteers filling in different days depending on availability. It is a fun and easy way to get outside and observe the natural world while giving something back in the process.

If collecting data isn’t your thing, sucker festivals provide another great way to celebrate the sucker run. Suckers provide fast fishing for new anglers of any age, and these community events provide a family atmosphere with some friendly competition and plenty of prizes. Upcoming events in Michigan include Suckerfest in Omer on April 4-6, the Kids Spring Sucker Tournament in Chesaning on April 12, and the Annual Steve Millis Memorial Sucker Derby in Hesperia on April 19 (contact Hesperia Sport Shop for details).

Michigan Sea Grant helps to foster economic growth and protect Michigan’s coastal, Great Lakes resources through education, research and outreach. A collaborative effort of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University and its MSU Extension, Michigan Sea Grant is part of the NOAA-National Sea Grant network of 34 university-based programs.

This article was prepared by Michigan Sea Grant under award NA24OARX417C0157-T1-01 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce through the Regents of the University of Michigan. The statement, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Commerce, or the Regents of the University of Michigan.