lampreys in small creeks???

[Mike_Top]

I fly-fished crooked creek, near hinckley, on saturday the 13th. It is a small creek that flows into the st. croix, and has a few trout in it...but I also saw a few small creatures swimming in the creek that looked like eels. they were about 6" long, and I saw one attached to a decent sized trout. It reminded me of pictures i've seen of lampreys attached to lake trout in lake superior.

Anyways I'm just wondering if anyone else has seen this, because I wouldn't have expected lampreys to be invading small streams.

[fishface]

They are natural to the streams according to the DNR.

They are listed on the rare fish web page. With their status level as, "special concern". They have Northern and Southern Brook Lamprey listed there.

[vern]

A friend of mine caught one out of the Sunrise River a few years ago.

[MuntzAngling]

They breed in streams near bigger water and venture out after. The DNR dumps lampreycide in creeks to kill about 90 percent of fry to keep the numbers down. I have caught fish with those attached in Lake Superior and in the St Croix near Stillwater. I will admit how strange it is to look eye to eye with a parasite. Yuck.

[Mike_Top]

i guess i wasn't aware that lampreys lived in waterways other than the great lakes. i have to agree that parasites are a little gross...I thought about reaching down and grabbing one of them but chickened out!

It is good to hear that the DNR is making attempts at reducing their population. Does anyone know what effects they have on fish when attached?

[fishface]

I think they are trying to save the ones in the St Croix and eliminate the ones in Superior. Two differant species.

[Finlander]

They look like something you would see in a science fiction movie like an alien with a bunch of teeth that are in a circular shape that want to eat you!

[Brooky]

They look like something you would see in a science fiction movie like an alien with a bunch of teeth that are in a circular shape that want to eat you!

Like this??

[Lunker]

They are brook lamprey. They are non-parasitic. I found the following from a DNR paper.

"The northern brook lamprey (I. Fossor) occurs in the Blackhoof Creek in the Lake Superior drainage. The southern brook lamprey (I.gagei) has been found in five streams in the St. Croix River drainage."

I have shocked streams in northern wisconsin (far from any major rivers or great lakes) that were chock full of them.

Here is a link to the DNR paper. http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/eco/nongame/projects/consgrant_reports/1987/1987_cochran.pdf

[roughfish29]

that is one nasty fish

[terminal tackle]

A freind of mine got this big guy last week in a river.

[Here-Kitty-Kitty]

what was the girth

[fishface]

AHHCH!!!!!!!!!

You touched it!?!?!!

Looks like it fell of a horse!

I'd've shot it and cut the line.

That is UGLY!

[Here-Kitty-Kitty]

Looks like it fell of a horse!

ya more like out of the horses a$$