what the heck is this thing?
 

i pulled it in the other day.. i asked around to local guys.. and they said monk fish.. which it isn't. and i got baby conger eel. but i don't see any resemblance at all. to me it looks like a wolffish. except not grey-blue and had no teeth. not too mention was caught in about 7ft of water..
so anybody know? i cant find anything that looks even close except the the wolf.

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/4089/monklm1.jpg

sea robin without feet? Pretty darn ugly.

that was the second thing that came to my mind. what ever it is, it definitely is the ugliest thing i have pulled in. and despite it's tough appearance was very fragile. as you can see by it bleeding from just the hook. it ended up not making it. i gave it the hook and threw it back and it went no where :\

ocean pout
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/sos/spsyn/og/pout/

Looks like an ocean pout.Damn fine eaten' the tail meat is.

agree ocean pout, pouty aint he? What did you catch him on?

clam around about an hour after low tide. he put up a decent fight at first. thought i got a small schooly. except he stayed way down. which quickly turned into wonder when i saw him. the wonder mostly consisted of "what the heck is that?" and "i wonder how i'm getting that hook out?".

weird lil fish though. he had what appeared to be actual lips with a human like gums inside. i could go with out catching another one.

Let me take a guess you caught it in Hull

i caught one on a frances boat way back. they told me it was good eating, so I took it home, but I didn't really like it.

Looks like something I flushed today, blood and all :bshake:

That's an Oyster Cracker or toadfish. Short fat head. Ocean Pout is more conger eel-like. Longer and more slender that t

sorry ags8th, i work at a marine bio lab and we have one those in the show tank and its def an eel/ocean pout. nice catch!

Ocean Pout.

yea kinda looks like a toadfish.... but definitly an ocean pout

how did it taste?

lol probably as bad as it looks

eeeeeeeeeeeek:spidey: :shocked: :err: :skulz: :rocketem:

This was over 10 years ago joe!
I know that I took one bite, and I said to my dad, "I think that mate that told me that Ocean Pout is good eating was busting my balls."

luckily we had plenty of cod to make up for it.

haha.

u kno wat though, even though ocean pout looks nasty and prolly tastes nasty, goosefish, which also looks nasty, actually tastes very good and is even considered a delicacy some places.

That thing is gross, Reminds me of some ling cod I caught in California

Is that a small angler fish? Looks like his "fishing rod" on his head or is that weed?
I have only caught one of them on a party boat out of maine. Toad fish are normally kind of small and live in the mud, I use to catch them in my clam rake now and again. I never saw a pout but from the photo it does not seem to have the same head.

I would say a small angler. But it is a guess.
It is ugly, I will give you that.


Then again, after looking at the photo again it could be a pout.

pout
http://www.striped-bass.com/gallery/...6/1/5/pout.jpg

goose/angler
http://www.striped-bass.com/gallery/...seamonster.jpg

what you caught is an ocean pout (a "ding-ding")

If you know how to make a tasty fish chowder, fillet of "ding-ding" tail is a delicious meat to put in the pot

Looks more like a toadfish/oyster cracker to me, but it could be the picture.

Looks like Mick Jager!

Definitely not an oyster toadfish. They are fat, missing the long tail like the one on the pic. Ocean pout.

hahaha.. i like that nick name for these things.

glad you guys knew what it was. it was driving me nuts.

pout

ive caught some pretty big ones in my lobster pots. i consider them the inshore cusk.

eelfish
 

that is a adult conger eel . i know because i was marry to one for 22yrs.:btu:

gonna revive this thread. as i caught one today or something that looks similar and did a bit of research to find out exactly what it is. can you believe it actually hit a RM Smith big eye peanut


Sea Raven
(Hemitripterus americanus)
Here is a picture of a Sea Raven (Hemitripterus americanus). They live in the cold waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. This species can be found on rocky bottoms with sand or mud, or among seaweeds. The Sea Raven has the ability to pump itself up with air when removed from the water. Coloration is variable from spectacular reds to yellows and oranges.

the picture below is not one that i took, but from an identification page