A small flow that has had a big influence on the author’s angling and fishing memories is Sucker Creek on the south shore of Big Detroit Lake. The lessons learned from the tiny stream have helped make for better angling, and with so many hidden gems like it, all anglers have the opportunity to find waters just like it near them. Simonson Photo.
By Nick Simonson
Just down the road from the family cabin lies Sucker Creek where this weekend in the whipsaw of spring (or winter) weather congregated a mix of mallard ducks, Canada geese and trumpeter swans at the point where the stream met the ice of Big Detroit Lake with a delta of open water. If there’s ever an example of how small flows make big impacts on our lives, this ribbon of water is it. It’s likely that if you’ve angled for any amount of time, you’ve found a stream, or creek or small river that has made an impact on the way you fish, influenced your perception of the natural world and helped you learn more about the species you pursue and the species that influence their habits and survival.
I have spent countless May evenings standing in the waters on that same creek delta, casting out to the first break where the post-spawn walleyes begin their feeding binge on the spottailed shiners moving up into the shallows. Some nights, the mayfly hatch accompanying the walleye bite has been so thick it was as if a pre-summer blizzard of the insects was occurring and warranted a special weather warning akin to what we experienced this past weekend. Other nights, especially in those wetter springs, swarms of mosquitoes tested our mettle to hang with the walleyes into the darkness of the night. When the bite would shut off, it wouldn’t be long before we’d find the reason why in the form of a log-shaped muskie idling through the area.
On its banks, and those of the small trickles which feed it, countless species of insects build the food web that sustains those baitfish, bluegills, bass, walleyes and muskies in the water at its terminus. From gray sedges and black caddisflies and their aquatic larvae to the alien-appearing nymphs of damselflies and dragonflies, which leave their husks attached to the overhanging grasses and brush in midsummer, the virtually untouched areas surrounding the clean water harbor the building blocks that build trophy caliber fish along with rare fauna such as stands of showy ladyslippers. Add in a buffet of scuds, small crayfish, leopard frogs, wood frogs, tiger salamanders and other creatures, along with the white suckers for which the water was named, and it’s easy to see that the sampling of life from this gem truly makes it a crown jewel in the lake’s ecosystem.
Stocked in its headwaters are brown trout, which with the rush of the first spring rain find their way out into the lake, and occasionally, I’ll spot one looking a bit bewildered in the shallows, as I sprint back to the boathouse down the shore to grab the dusty fly rod to fling whatever might be tied to its end at the introduced visitor. I consider them a man-made bonus in a unique creek that has always been a go-to destination simply for what one might see there whether wading with rod in hand or walking along its edges.
The creek has also provided a blueprint of sorts for many other angling adventures. On my home water of the Sheyenne River, I’ve found similar inflows and mapped their deltas to find smallmouth bass, pike and walleyes. In Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, South Dakota’s Black Hills, Lyon County’s Redwood River and on Lake Superior’s north shore, I’ve taken what I’ve learned from the confines of the creek and applied it to my casts for rainbow, brook and brown trout; executing roll casts and with a whip and a prayer offering up my flies to whatever might be waiting below. Even on the Missouri River, I’ve found those inflowing waters – be they seasonal rills or small, spring fed creeks – to locate game fish of all stripes and some of the fastest spring fishing in my memory. Wherever I have gone to find fish, the lessons learned from Sucker Creek stay with me.
This spring, you too can find a little flow that impacts your fishing in a big way, or perhaps you can recall the large lessons these small waters have taught you throughout your angling efforts in the past. From the trickle of crisp, clear water over roots and stones carrying oxygen and a buffet of food to the gamefish downstream, to the abundant flora harboring a variety of insects, frogs and other life, these small waters provide the stuff that makes for big memories…in our outdoors.