 On a recent fishing trip to Lake Champlain, I was introduced to my first experience with sea lampreys. We were targeting lake trout and so were the sea lampreys. Among the most primitive of all vertebrae species, the sea lamprey is a parasitic fish native to the northern and western Atlantic Ocean. Due to their small body shapes, lampreys are sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels. Lampreys lack scales, fins, and gill covers. And like a shark, their skeletons are made out of cartilage. They breathe through a distinctive row of seven pairs of tiny gill openings located behind their mouths and eyes. What makes them so efficient at killing lake trout and other fish is its disc-shaped suction cup mouth ringed with sharp teeth. Once it latches on to an unfortunate fish, it uses its rough tongue to rasp away the fish's flesh so it can feed on the host's blood and body fluids. One lamprey can kill about 40 pounds of fish per year. The sea lamprey is also known as the vampire fish. Sea lampreys have remained largely unchanged for more than 340 million years and have survived through at least four major extinction events. A single female lamprey typically has up to 100,000 eggs, 10% of those hatch which makes up to 10,000 baby lampreys from a single male female pair. The geobiologists set up barriers and traps in streams that feed the lakes to prevent the lamprey's upstream movements and they apply lamprecides, which is a special chemical that target lamprey larvae but are harmless to other aquatic creatures. There are new techniques to control lampreys under development since lampreys use odors or pheromones to communicate, scientists have replicated those odors to increase the efficacy of current control models. I noticed a lot of these fish have scars on them. Yeah, they're all lamprey. Is it? Yeah, sea lamprey. Wow. That's why fishing game stocks let you out. They're almost fished to extinction and now the lamprey took over the lake so now they call the lamprey. What a beauty. I like the color of the title on that guy. Greens. That's a beauty. Oh yeah. That's the one that's been clipped. So they stock thousands and thousands of these in the lake and this is a stalker. Oh, I think I got one. You were sent over. Yeah, I got one. I stole one. He looks like a shark. Oh, it's got a lamprey on him. Oh, it is. Sick. You gotta take video that way. Yeah, I gotta land this guy. The video lamprey. That's sick. These people hate the damn things. They usually they fall off. Oh, really? Are you looking yet? Bring him over. Sick. Bring him in. Bring him in. Bring him in. We'll give you $5 if you put that on your neck. Absolutely not. Oh, he fell off. Yeah, they're nasty creatures. Look at that thing. What? Those are all teeth. Ew. Stunned a little bit more. So they have a little wrath tongue. So that's the grippers. Those aren't teeth. And then they use the wrath tongue to like literally lick a hole through the fish. Ew. That's disgusting. Yeah. What a terrible parasite. Exactly. Oh, it's nothing. You want to get your liquor? Yeah. I forgot about the fish because I was keyed in on that freaking lamprey. I'll show you what I mean. I'm just trying to count. Oh, yeah. Look at that. He was just got on there. Yep. He shamed his way around. Yep. That's a nice healthy trout. That's the only one he had on him. But it was your lucky day, bud. All right. We'll get him back. He never thought being caught would be his lucky day. And I tried to put him on the hook for bait and they won't eat it. Ew, really? Yeah. That's a weird, weird animal. Parasite. Yeah. So these are sea lampreys. There are native lamprey to this lake. This one is not. This one came out. How do you know that's a sea lamprey? Because it gets to this size. It like feeds like this. The other ones don't feed like that. What do you do with it? Eat it. Well, I'm sure there's cultures. I'm sure there's cultures that eat it. I ain't gonna eat it. I'm just gonna make sure that it's dead. And then it had a baby lamprey on itself. I'll give you $20 to put that on. I've seen people do it out here though. No. Yeah, they put them on their tongue. What? Like smaller ones. Yeah. This is a medium. I've seen ones that are like two feet long. Yeah, he's dead. He did. Got some of them. Got them? Yes. Finally. There he is. And you got another one, huh? Oh, he's got a huge lamprey. Geez. You got them? Yeah. That's the biggest lamprey yet. Whoa. Get it? Those things are nasty. Oh, so nasty. Finally, guys. It is not all leg trout down there. It can't be because they're just not fired up. But another one right there. And I'll show you the big lamprey that was on them. Look at the size of that freaking Paris. Yeah, that's touching me. That was disgusting. Yeah, got him. All right, I got the bite now. Six of them bore that. That's a long one. That's a nice one. There's one with them. Oh, look. What is he got? A goiter. Oh, the fungus just fell off. Poor guy just so beat up with lamprey. It's appropriate. That's a big fish. That's 28, 29. Oh, man. I'm not going to die for him yet. That is an awesome fish. He is like a zombie. Not ready yet. I'll turn his head for you. He's pegged pretty good, I think. All right, I got him now. Nope. Boy, they're fighting hard. There you go. Yeah. Nice. I can't get over the marks on these guys. So that's all from lamprey. They're not like a little baby lamprey on them. Do you pick those off? Yeah, I pick them off. Some of these lampreys are, because I want to stop recording like 10, 25. These lampreys get up to like two feet long. They're nasty. Oh, that's gross. Under the teeth. Did it come off? Yeah. Yep. Oh, there's one down, I think, by his fin. So he bumps at... Oh, is he going to make 30? Oh, no, he's 30. He's 30. He touches. He touches. It's a Vermont master angler. It is. Sweet. Look at the holes in them. There we go. There's nothing better than those mountains in the background, too. It's so sick. Get him? Good. All right. Nice one, guys. Going back. Big old Laker. All right. Another good one, guys. That's the old slime dart for you. Beauty. Biggins. It's like flesh hanging out there. That's crazy. Is it really? Yeah. You can see bone in there. That's a bad one. That might be the worst one, yeah. Some... I'm going to say there's some if you turn up this way a little bit. There should be like three or four there. Got him. Got another one. Yeah. There we go. All right. There's my biggest one of the day, guys. The best fight of the day for me. There's still four or five back there, but... Is there? Yeah. I'll deal with him. Oh, he was lampreyed. It was just in the guts. Oh, yeah. That's why I couldn't see it. Got him stacked? Yeah. Nice. That's a good one, guys. Yeah, that is a nice one. He's probably in that 30 range, wouldn't you say? Yeah. Master Angler Vermont. Oh, come on, doubles. Come on. We get a doubler? No. I'm going to get a measurement on him. Yeah. I think he's 30. Freaking crackers. What happened? No, he's not 30. He's 29 and a quarter. 29 and a quarter. Nice one. Oh, that is pretty fish. Isn't it pretty? Yeah. Yeah. Going back.