Merk Oliver holding one of the eeling hooks he carved. Photo by Heidi Walters

Eelers at the mouth of the Klamath River. Photo by Heidi Walters

Cliff Moorehead has snagged another lamprey and races ashore to add it to his catch. Photo by Matt Mais/Yurok Tribe

Even eeling can’t get in the way of an important phone call. The lamprey that Cliff Moorehead’s just hooked lies on the beach in front of him. Photo by Heidi Walters

Carl Wilson, a Yurok, enjoys a brew while lamprey fishing. He says he’s been eeling for about 40 years. He and his kids also used to go eeling on the Eel River where “the eels would suck their way up the walls” at the Benbow Dam. Photo by Heidi Walters

Yurok elder Merk Oliver and a cluster of lampreys, mouth of the Klamath River. Photo by Heidi Walters

After an afternoon of eeling, Jimmy Donahue and Merk Oliver play domino cribbage in Oliver’s house on the north bank of the Klamath River at Requa, near the river’s mouth. Photo by Heidi Walters

Fish biologist Damon Goodman collects lampreys in an Oregon creek for a genetics study . Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Pacific lamprey making a nest by moving rocks with her mouth on the Mattole River. Photo by Thomas B. Dunklin, www.thomasbdunklin.com

On the cover: A Pacific lamprey eel caught by traditional eel-hook fishing at the mouth of the Klamath River. Photo by Thomas B. Dunklin, www.thomasbdunklin.com