Eels!

[Quillback]

Tonight at 7 PM Central, Nature (PBS) will air a documentary on eels, from the trailers it looks like an interesting show.

[snap]

use to catch my share of them in the mississippi when I was a kid.....always afraid I would get electrecuted!!!!!

[Quillback]

Used to accidentally catch them in Massachusetts when fishing for other fish when I was a kid, "slippery as an eel" is a true statement.

[Wayne SW/MO]

There are lampreys in Bull Shoals and I would assume possibly the whole system.

[Greasy B]

Eels need access to the sea. It's their amazing migration that makes them so interesting.

[bfishn]

I've caught them while catfishing the Arkansas River as far up as Fort Smith.

Of interest is their particular relationship to DO levels and general water quality. Their vulnerability in that regard makes their presence a fair indicator of overall water quality, kind of like a canary in a coal mine.

Fair numbers of American eel make it up the Quachita River to the dams at Catherine & DeGray. AGFC bio Jeff Quinn is heading an ongoing study of them;

http://www.wildlifearkansas.com/proposals/2012PreProposals/Identification%20of%20dams%20that%20block%20migration.pdf

Gotta go, the show's starting. Thanks for the heads up Quillback!

[fishinwrench]

I saw a big one (2.5' and thick) caught in a minnow seine from a chain of ponds near Richland, Mo.. When you think about how it got there it is beyond amazing. Mean basturd too!

[Al Agnew]

Back when I fished Big River for catfish at night, I caught a number of eels in the area between St. Francois Park and Washington Park. My best friend back then almost killed me one night when I woke him up from a sound sleep by holding an eel on the end of my line over his head and letting its tail swipe across his face

They have one of the most interesting life histories of any fish, and it's difficult to imagine that those eels I caught on Big River were born in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and had to swim halfway across the Atlantic into the Gulf of Mexico, across the Gulf to the mouth of the Mississippi, up the Mississippi almost to St. Louis, into the Meramec, and then all those miles up Big River to get to where I caught them.

I missed the show...did it talk about the role plate tectonics plays in eel migration?

[RSBreth]

I didn't see anything about that as far as migration goes - but I did get an urge for some unagi watching it. Pretty good show overall. There are some big eels in New Zealand!

[Quillback]

I thought it was a pretty darn good show myself. What surprised me was that gal in Maine running that baby eel gathering operation and getting $2500/ lb. for those things. And that guy building that weir in the Delaware river, there was a lot of rock in that thing!

I've had unagi (eel) sushi style in Japanese restaurants, it's one of my favorites. And for those of you squeamish about raw fish, when you order unagi, it's cooked.