Contrary to what your ill-informed uncle told you years ago, suckers are remarkable fish and among BY TOM DICKSON Montana’s most ecologically important species.
ROCK CLEANERS A school of largescale suckers vacuums up algae from river boulders. When Milltown Dam east of Missoula was still intact, hundreds of thousands of these fish stacked up below the structure each spring as they tried to move upstream to spawn. PHOTO BY TODD PEARSONS/ENGBRETSON UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY
22 | MONTANA OUTDOORS | MAY–JUNE 2023
MONTANA OUTDOORS | MAY–JUNE 2023 | 23