Lampreys?

[PerchJrkr]

So where do these things come from? how often do you guys get fish with them on there? why dont we see these things in say, lake minnewaska?

theres pictures of one on my highlights thread from last night. vicious lookin things, i know i didnt wanna get my finger in there!

[Chad Halvorson]

Yeah that thing was nasty, I hope you cut it in half!

I have fished up there 4 days this year I never saw one...

[Silver Scale]

The lampreys you saw are native to Rainy River / LOW. They are either silver or chesnut lamprays. Alot of the bigger sturgeon have old lampray scars on them, usually on top of the head or top of the back. Some suckers do to. I caught a sucker by Birchdale two years ago that have five large ones attached. I've never seen them up by the Big or Little Fork rivers. There some other native lamprays, Norhtern Brook, in some of the headwater streams of the Rainy drainage. Don't worry they aren't hurting the fishery. Now sea lamprays that's a different story.

[PerchJrkr]

ya i thought about killing or keeping it, but i didnt know if there was any regulations on those things

[Bemidjifisher]

Should have used it for bait.. On the Columbia they do..

[PerchJrkr]

bait for what? hook it by the tail and wait for it to suckle onto something? lol i guess we did discuss that tactic

[Bemidjifisher]

Thread it onto a large hook for the Sturgeon to eat..

[jadkins]

Maybe you could smoke it.... lol

[Scott M]

They don't pose much of a risk. I caught a sturgeon last year with a rider, as well as one with a nice mark near the gill plate. Pretty common little bastards.

[PerchJrkr]

i bet i coulda smoked it.... now im wishing i woulda kept it

[jadkins]

Maybe you have something going, a hot lamprey bite on the Rainy, best smoked meat you'll ever taste. Tell everyone they bite in July, I can see it now 2 hour wait at the landing, boat to boat looking for some big lamprey

[Silver Scale]

We cut one up a couple of years ago and tried it for bait. No sturgeon but did catch a couple of suckers on it. It was an off day as we only had a few sturgeon bites and non boated. They were pretty tough and stayed on the hook well though.

[Tim_Anderson]

Creepy little buggers. We caught a couple of sturgies with lampreys hanging on last week. Cut the lampreys into lots of little pieces and threw them back. Sure did see lots of sturgeon with lamprey wounds on them...actually, the majority of the fish we caught had them.

I always thought/assumed the lampreys were an "accident" like milfoil or zebra mussels. Didn't know they were native. Can anyone expound on that?

[89Bronco]

According to a report by J. T. Hatch and K. Schmidt in 2004, the 2 native species of lamprey in the Rainy River Drainage Basin are the Northern Brook Lamprey and the more common Silver Lamprey.

The Sea Lamprey is the invasive one in the Lake Superior Basin.

[Scott M]

Sea lampreys are exotic. Minnesota has chestnut lamprey, silver lamprey, and northern, southern, and American brook lamprey. Five natives. Of those five, all three of the brook lamprey are non-parasitic lamprey. So all of your catches on the Rainy that have attached lamprey are silver.

[fisherslanding]

Thought I'd jump in here. I caught a 27" wealleye on LOW 2nd weekend in March and it had a 12" rider on it. My question is how did it "get on" the top of the gill plate? Or on the walter for that matter? Do they just lay upside down in the mud waiting for one to swim by? Heard from Zipple owners that they have worked for bait to catch muskies and northerns.

[Scott M]

They are capable of swimming. After a juvenile stage (called an ammocoete - there's a word of the week for ya!) of filter feeding, parasitic lampreys find hosts. I don't know if its particularly well known how they go about doing it, but they aren't just sitting on the bottom waiting for the odd chance a fish swims with their mouth turned up. They will swim around looking for a host.

I'm hoping to catch a silver on a fish this weekend.

[Northlander]

Lampreys dang near put a end to the Lake Trout in Lake Superior back in the 70's. Nasty buggers. Anyone ever caught a Great American Eel? Man are they a goofy thing.

[JBMasterAngler]

I caught an eel nightfishing on the croix years back. I refused to lift it out of the water because as I would try to get close it would try to attack me. Cut the line and hope to this day I'll never catch one again.

[PerchJrkr]

jeeze. a guy is gonna have to start bringin a nightstick and a big knife fishing!!