Had a first happen yesterday

[Lord of the Fly , Rods]

My buddy and I were fishing on an oxbow lake yesterday having pretty good luck, caught 200 but only kept 75 , had lots of fun but caught a free range gill between 10 and 11 inches and when I got him to the boat he looked like he was wearing a beard. On closer examination this beard was a lamprey about 9 inches long about as thick as a hot dog had attached to the breams lower jaw. Trophy fish with a nasty ugly looking lamprey on it. This was the first fish I ever caught with a lamprey on it.Any one else caught a bream with a ugly hotdog looking thing on it?

[Bruce Condello]

I've never seen this personally, but I'll admit that it's fascinating. No pictures? I'd love to see a photo of this! Thanks for the report. There's a lot of cool things to be learned on bigbluegill.com!

[10.5" RES Sharon]

You removed and disposed of the lamprey, right?

[Lord of the Fly , Rods]

When I lifted the fish out of the water and the lamprey was still attached I pulled it close and the lamprey dropped off when it saw it was headed toward the boat, it left a nasty looking circular wound on the lower jaw of the bluegill, but we dont eat that part anyway. It was brown looking and it's gill holes were in a straight line, it was nasty , ugly looking and needed killin. Game and Fish said they are native to the water systems in Arkansas , but this was the first timeI had ever heard of them in Arkansas , let alone seen one.