Day Five
Up and at'em early, took a good while of hard fishing before I got my first bite and it was a decent Bow.
A short while later I got another upstream from the first set of rapids.
Both were nailed on Joes Flies, I love these, the JF's Super Strikers are the best for easy casting with UL/L spinning gear and you can drift'em like a wet fly or work'em like a spinner.
Those and small Rapala Minnows in both sinking and floating have been fantastic lures.
Then while fishing in about a foot of water I thought I saw an Eel, but it's a little too early for them.
I noticed it sucked onto a rock, a Lamprey! Hot damn! Never seen one before, very cool.
I tried to grab it, grabbed it but it was too slimy and got away, it wasn't afraid it hung out in the same area. So I grabbed my net and just scooped it up, about 2.5 feet of parasitic Sea Lamprey.
Guy who has lived on and fished this creek for forty years said he'd never seen one in the creek.
Researched it thoroughly after remembering hearing they are a delicacy, and we're eating this guy for lunch.
Day Five
Yay!
Nate finally gets his almost two day skunk off him around 2pm with a smallish Smallmouth.
Then around an hour later at another spot he hung into a beautiful Brookie.
Incredible colors on it, love the blue dots with red centers.
And I landed yet another Rainbow and a Brown.
One more and its a limit for me, bet I get it after dinner.
Day Five
The ladies, two women and a girl, got up at the crack of dawn and went off sightseeing and shopping down in Lancaster, PA... Amish Country.
My wife better not return with a rental truck full of furniture... It happened in central IL one time
So the gents, after sleeping in till almost 8am, enjoyed a leisurely home cooked breakfast and then followed the ladies lead.
We hit up the largest sporting goods store in the area, Dunkelbergers in Stroudsburg, and did a little shopping too.
Then we decided to go sightseeing and drove out to Resica Falls, which involves some nice backwoods roads and mountain views.
Then back to the cabin where I finally processed and cooked that Sea Lamprey.
It was actually pretty good, and not intimidating at all with that horror movie head chopped off, much like handling eels... Mmmm, I love eel.
It was like a cross between squid and clam, but not chewy, a nice bite through consistency.
Nate and I really liked it.
I started by cleaning and chunking it into four inch pieces.
Then I parboiled it order to be able to wipe off the slime coat.
After cooling and drying I removed the cartilage and left the skin on, cut down the center and cut the chunks into one inch pieces.
EVOO, onion, garlic and bell pepper into a sauce pan and lightly saute.
Add lamprey and saute for about 10 minutes, add white wine and deglaze pan.
Add in tomato sauce, I used an upscale bottled sauce that was tasty.
Simmer covered for about an half hour or until lamprey is al dente.
Serve over pasta or buttered toast.
Finale
