where do they come from salt or fresh water I got the taunton river out back can I catch eels out there I figure if guys go crazy about herring I might as well get crazy about my favorite Lively.

I read a great artilce a few months back in OTW. They spawn in the Sargasso Sea (sp?) and spend their young lives getting to the coast where they swim up-river to fresh water. When they reach maturity, they head back to the sea to spawn. Its a really cool story. All american eels spawn in the Sargasso sea, all are from the same source. Pretty wild. No wonder they are so tough.

So yes , you should be able to get some in the river. An old fishhead or a chicken neck are good bait.

The life history of the American eel is complex and not fully understood. It is a catadromous species, which spends most of its life in rivers, lakes and estuaries, but migrates to the ocean to spawn.

The eel begins and ends its life in the waters of the Sargasso Sea, an area north of the Bahamas.
The leptocephalus, a pelagic larvae of less than two inches in length, drifts with the ocean currents for 9 to12 months before entering coastal waters.
When it reaches approximately 2.4 inches in length, the leptocephalus metamorphoses into a transparent, "glass" eel.
In autumn the glass eels migrate into estuaries along the Atlantic coast, including Chesapeake Bay, where they become pigmented. These eels are known as elvers.
Some elvers remain in the estuaries, but others migrate varying distances upstream, often for several hundred kilometers, overcoming seemingly impassible obstacles such as spillways, dams, falls and rapids.
Now in their yellow eel phase, the American eels will remain in the brackish and fresh waters of these rivers for the majority of their lives–for at least five and possibly as many as twenty years.
The yellow eels are uniformly greenish-brown to yellowish-brown dorsally, and whitish-gray ventrally. Females reach a maximum length of five feet, and males grow as long as two feet.
These residents of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries are nocturnally active omnivores, feeding on insects, mollusks, crustaceans, worms and other fish.
Before beginning its life-ending migration back to the waters of the Sargasso Sea to spawn, the eel must undergo further profound physical changes. Just prior to the reproductive migration, the eel stops feeding, the eyes and pectoral fins enlarge, the visual pigments change and the body color pattern transforms. The sexually mature eel has a gray back, pure white belly, and a silvery bronze sheen on its flanks. The migration occurs throughout autumn nights with adults descending streams and rivers, swimming through deep grass and shallow ditches, for a January spawning in the warm Caribbean waters.

Please help! Some seious person has killed Chris L and is typing in smart stuff under his handle!!!!!

But seriously folks. Little is known about the eels mating/spawning rituals since it is believed to be done at depths so great in the Sea, the eels are impossible to monitor.

I caught some pretty big eels in Whitman pond and the Nemasket using worms and small shiners, a couple were 3 feet long . I was fishing for largemouths. Also on the causeway at West Island fishing for scup using seaworms.
Those big ones are hard to unhook,they wrap around your hand and arm and are slippery as an eel, well ya, as slippery as an eel.

I may look and act dumb but remember Im a Yalie ! no class of 78 ! and who the hell taught you how to spell serious ? Mr I catch fish without a smile ! you sure we aint relatives ? oh wait no we arent , my family has hair .


hey rick how is the palm ............................................... beach thing going ?

Ctrl C - Ctrl V :-)

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/info/american_eel.cfm

One more thing, it's just the females that take up residence in freshwater lakes and rivers, and they have the capability of traversing short distances over land.

chris l.....good post, I really enjoy the biology behind fishing.

Originally posted by striprman
I caught some pretty big eels in Whitman pond ..... a couple were 3 feet long .

My son caught a couple there about that size, as fat around as my wrist. Nasty!

Palm is good, Palm Springs is bunk.
Waitin to see you on the beach, Mr. Addition.
Wow, that whole thing sounded quite erudite. They told me you were a member of the cloak and dagger there...or is it known by some other name???
Later,
Rick

The American Eel may be nasty looking, BUT, are very very taste.
Clean them, and chunk them in about 1-1/2 - 2 inch pieces, then
fry them with a little Olive oil, until lite golden brown, then summer them in a tomato sauce until tender and start to flake. I would like to catch one about this size. It would take me about a month to eat it:

catch them in the charles in dedham all the time. huge.