Longnose Sucker

Look at the nose. BC Hydro’s Peace River identification key describes the longnose as having a long, pointed snout that hangs noticeably over the mouth, a deep cleft between the lower lips, and small scales, barely visible on juveniles. FishBase adds thick lips covered in small bumps, a back that can run from reddish brown to dark brassy green, and a maximum length of about 64 cm. In spawning colours, FishBase says, males carry a bright reddish stripe along each side.

The longnose is the only one of the four with a pointed snout and fine scales. If the snout reaches well past the lips, you have one.

Province-wide in suitable cold water; the BC Conservation Data Centre ranks it S5 and Yellow listed, meaning secure. StreamNet’s list of Pacific Northwest fishes also notes a dwarf form in western Washington and southwestern BC.

In the Kootenays, Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality lists the longnose sucker among the resident fish of Lake Koocanusa, where Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks sampled it for selenium in 2008, 2013 and 2018. The app’s water lists name suckers only generically, so a sucker on another Kootenay water may be any of the species on these pages.

A study of Okanagan Lake filed in the BC government’s Ecological Reports Catalogue describes longnose and largescale suckers as cool-water bottom fish of sandy, cobble and boulder shorelines, with the longnose tending to use deeper, cooler water than the largescale. Both feed on insects, crustaceans such as scuds, and small snails. Montana’s selenium modelling for Koocanusa treats the longnose as feeding entirely on aquatic insects. That puts it on the same bottom, eating the same nymphs, as the trout and mountain whitefish you are fishing for.

The same Okanagan summary says longnose suckers spawn in early spring, usually between March and May, once inlet or outlet streams reach about 5 °C, in runs 0.1 to 0.6 m deep over gravel and cobble, and that spawning tails off as water nears 15 °C. Writing about eastern white suckers in Hatch Magazine, the guide George Daniel describes trout moving off their lies to feed on drifting sucker eggs, pale yellow to light gold, and fishing a small egg pattern through the spawn. That is angling advice from another river system; whether a Kootenay creek’s trout do the same depends on the creek.

You will catch one on a weighted nymph, a Hare’s Ear or similar, dragged along the stones. That tells you your flies are on the bottom; raise them a little if you want trout.

Unhook it in the water. The BC synopsis’s release advice applies to every fish: keep it wet, cover its eyes in shallow water if it struggles, back the hook out with pliers, and cut the leader near the eye if the hook is deep. A fish hooked anywhere but the mouth has been snagged, and the synopsis says any snagged fish must be released immediately.

The 2025–2027 BC Freshwater Fishing Regulations Synopsis does not list the longnose sucker as protected and does not name suckers in the Region 4 Kootenay tables. The province-wide rules do apply: no live fish in your possession in the wild, no moving or releasing live fish into other waters, no fin fish as bait except where the synopsis allows it, and no spear fishing in Region 4. Check the current synopsis before you go.

Probably not. FishBase describes breeding male longnose suckers with a brilliant red stripe along each side. Check the snout: if it is long and pointed, it is a longnose in spawning colours.

In cold, deep, clear water in lakes and their tributary streams, says the BC Conservation Data Centre. In spring, the Okanagan summary says, they move into inlet or outlet streams to spawn.