The modoc sucker is a smaller member of the sucker family. It lives in montane streams in a veriety of habitat–from silty meadering marshes to steep canyon streams. These are two habitats that are very interesting to navigate at 2:00 in the morning–when we were doing our surveys. Jane Fonda’s workouts have nothing on walking up a  pine-needle-covered canyon wall in felt bottom boots and waders. If anybody out there is looking for a weight loss plan I’ve found it!

The good news, other than a great cardio session, is that we saw lots of suckers!  From now on I am going to do my fishing at midnight. You could almost pick up the fish, they were so still. We also saw many large tasty looking trout. To all the fishermen out there–do your stream recon at night and you will be sure to find some great fishing holes. As far as suckers go, this is kind of a Cinderella story. This is a species that may potentially be downlisted, so it is great to see their populations stabilize, occupying in many cases full reach of their available habitat…however inaccessible that habitat may be. 🙂