Ever Caught An Eel While FF?

[salmonoid]

PhilC wrote:
I was fishing the Saucon about 5 yrs ago. I'm nymphing, the line stops, and I raise up. Snag. As I start to pull it in I thought a felt a few wiggles. Then I realize I've caught someone's old line. I figured I'd do the next guy a favor and get this trash out of the stream. I'd say there was about 50 ft out. As I'm pulling it in, I feel the wiggles again and now I know there's something there. Sure enough its an eel. Apparently its "leash" was long enough for it to move around the hole and still eat/live.

Its a shame that someone was 1) using bait in the ALO area and 2) they decided to cut this off so far from the hook

Consider, since eels swim, your snag may have initially been caught in another section of the stream, and just became tethered in the ALO area..

I have never caught an eel, although I have observed a handful in streams already. I believe they were a staple food of the early colonists as well.

 

[MattBoyer]

Boyer

 

[beeber2]

I used to catch them on worms in the evening back in the days when I bait fished. I have never caught one while fly fishing. Another plus for the sport.

The last one I remember catching was on Martins creek. When I tried to get the hook out of the eels mouth with pliers, and the darn thing coiled up around my forearm. I screamed like a little girl and dropped the pliers in the creek. I should have cut the line, it wasn't worth it.

 

[gaeronf]

wsender wrote:
My dad often told me there were eels in Duck Harbor and Upper Woods pond in Wayne County.

Found this neat article/book about it too. I'd be interested in checking out the stream b/w Upper Woods and Lower Woods pond.

At the parking area for Upper Woods a couple weeks ago, there was a very colorful and large rainbow trout. But, I doubt it's there anymore. I saw someone trying to "fish" it out...

 

[Fredrick]

Those things give me the creeps Boyer . were was that catch at ?

 

[MattBoyer]

Salmon River. It was attached to a coho that threw the fly, which snagged the lamprey, pulling it off the fish. You may not be able to tell from the pic, but that guy wanted a piece of me. :-x

Boyer

 

[Fredrick]

I think I would of stopped it to be honest

 

[STREAMWISE]

I caught a huge eel about 2+ft and fat in the tully just below the papermill hole .It was the weirdest I ever caught. Rod was bouncing up and down like crazy. It took a san juan worm.Very strange and very slimy. lol

 

[MattBoyer]

Fredrick wrote:
I think I would of stopped it to be honest

Oh, he got Da Boot alright. ;-)

Boyer

 

[brookiesRfun]

I have seen a couple of small ones while ffing for smb on french creek. I watched a smb eat one that was about 5 or 6 inches long.

 

[pcray1231]

BrookiesRFun, those are stream lampreys on French Creek, the same that are in Oil Creek and other tribs to the Allegheny in the region. They are a different species of lamprey than the ones in the great lakes like Boyer posted. They don't get nearly as big, your 5-6 inchers may have been adults, though in my experience, they're a little longer than that (but easy to underestimate length as they're so skinny).

Eels in the Delaware/Susquehanna/Schuylkill drainages- American Eel, which is a true eel. Lamprey's are technically fishes, not eels.
Boyer's pic - sea lamprey - in PA, they are in Lake Erie and tribs but thats it.

In the Ohio/Allegheny drainage, there are 5 types of lampreys. I'm not sure which I see most often, you see them laying around on the bottom with bellies up, very white, and at first you think it's garbage or something stuck on the bottom. 4 of the 5 species are nonparasitic. Because of the belly up posture, I assumed these are the parasitic species waiting for a host, but it could be breeding activity of one of the nonparasitic species, I dunno. And yes, I've caught trout with lamprey's attached, which is obviously the parasitic species.

Ohio Lamprey is the parasitic species, found in the Ohio and Allegheny watersheds in PA, mostly in Venango, Crawford, and Warren Counties.

The non-parasitic species:

Northern Brook - endangered, only in a small portion of NW PA
Mountain Brook - threatened species, Ohio River watershed only
Least Brook - Ohio River and lower Susquehanna River, fairly common
American Brook - candidate species. Upper Allegheny watershed, Genessee watershed, and Lake Erie watershed.

 

[FarmerDave]

I never caught an eel on a fly, but I did have one one try to attach to the top of my foot once while I was wet wading in Oil Creek.

I saw it, so I deliberately stepped on it and the darn thing had no sense of humor about that.

 

[afishinado]

Back in the day I used to fish for eels with bait, and catch them by the bucketfuls in the Upper Delaware River, but I have never caught one on a fly. Eels are good eating (believe it or not)....

 

[DaveS]

I'm immagining what a bucket of eels must looks like. I think I might have to BARF!

 

[bikerfish]

never cought one flyfishing, but years ago I caught some type of morey eel off of key west, brought it up to the boat and the thing was trying to bite everyone! it wasn't small, maybe 3 feet long if I remember right.
another friend caught a pelican on the same trip!

 

[afishinado]

DaveS wrote:
I'm immagining what a bucket of eels must looks like. I think I might have to BARF!

lol.....when you catch one you try to grab it by the gills with pliers before it gets all wrapped up in your line (what a mess once it gets wrapped up). You then remove the hook and throw in into a bucket. The bigger ones would sometimes crawl out of the bucket into the boat.

This all took place on a boat, in the middle of the Delaware River, in the middle of the night, by the light of a Coleman lantern. Handling the eels was nothing!....on certain nights, the dobson flies swarmed around the light and landed on your arms, neck and face. Great fun as a kid!

 

[DaveS]

Seems like after you get all slimed up by an eel it would be hard to hang onto one's beer. But since I have young nephews I may have to expand thier horizions. lol!