I use a singe hook on a spoon or large pimple, which is crimped onto a flourocarbon leader. Then I have another leader with a red treble hook that is attached to the main leader line, secured by either a split ring or closed ring. The single hook is secured under the dorsal fin or just in front of it and on of the treble hooks throught the mouth and upper lip. The secondary leader should be long enough for your big suckers, but since it slides up it easily attaches to smaller suckers or shiners as well.
Last Sunday I caught 4 northerns on the same sucker, I just kept finding new meat to secure the hooks. This was about a 12" sucker, caught a 27", 25", 30" and another 27". I released the 30" and second 27" in hopes for another smallish northern for eating, plus I had another hour and a half of fishing. I still had the sucker on after the fourth one, but I replaced him with another fresh one when a friend came out to meet me who had the larger suckers. I only had medium sized shiners and pike suckers, and they weren't biting on the shiners. I was alone and didn't have anyone else around me, which I think made a difference. Sometimes when you get a group of guys with tipups, there always seems to be a couple that are the most popular, either by location or presentation. I ended up catching a 18" - 19" at last light that was too small for me to keep.