Strange Critter

[Ham]

I would dearly love to see a Hellbender in the wild. I have given up smallie fishing time to search for them in the past and will likely do so again.

PLEASE keep information about Hellbenders in streams quiet. Illegal collectors could wipe out a population in a creek.

Interesting to hear MDC is raising them.

I really expect the Ozark Hellbender to slowly become extinct.

The Hellbenders along the East Coast should hang on longer.

[Sam]

I saw one Hellbender (or a critter very much like one) about 4 years ago while wade-fishing a stream in Taney County. They're so rare, it's probably best if I don't say which creek.

Don't mean to change the thread, but talking about strange things in upper Bull Shoals made me think of the 4-lb. grinnel (bowfin) I caught there a few years back. I had to research it at the time to figure out what it was. They're a weird fish, kind of half-reptile in appearance. That ugly thing tried to bite me on purpose, several times, while I was getting it unhooked. Before that, I didn't know they existed or that they were in Bull Shoals, but they are.