Eels!

[Brian Jones]

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?

We caught two one night almost 20 years ago from Big River at Thornton Bluff. We had some limb lines set and were tight lining with our rods and reels with minnows when we caught them. Most people we've told that story to think we are full of bologna.

[Al Agnew]

Plate tectonics...

It is believed that nearly all the Atlantic Ocean eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea, which is right out in the middle of the Atlantic. No matter whether they are European eels or American eels, they all spawn in the same place, and then separate to go east or west to land. The reason for this is believed to be that eels evolved as the continents of Europe/Asia and North America were first beginning to separate after eons of them being a single continent, opening up the mid-Atlantic rift zone. At that time, of course, eels would have had a very short migration to the "middle" of what was then a narrow strip of ocean between the two separating continents. As the continents continued to get farther and farther apart and the Atlantic got wider and wider, the eels, imprinted to spawn out in the middle, just kept doing so, until we have the situation today where they have to go a LONG way to get to their spawning grounds.

[Wayne SW/MO]

And for those of you squeamish about raw fish, when you order unagi, it's cooked.

Oh great, raw fish or eel.

[Terrierman]

Careful or you'll get your net slimed. Man do they produce it!. (caught a few over the years on the Osage)

Write me down as a fan of eating bait. Love that sashimi.

[ness]

The guy slicing the dead, dry eels and hanging them nails to cure was sure appetizing.

[Quillback]

Nothin better than nail cured eel!

[UnCivE]

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!

Hmmm, there's quite a few ponds here, was it a commercial operation perhaps?

[Mark]

Fascinating post, Al. How in the heck do you remember such off the wall facts?

[Nighthawk]

I found a 6" dead lamprey eel on the North Fork of the White years ago. I could just picture it attached to a trout.

[Mitch f]

I've never even seen one. My friend told me his grandfather used to fish for them on the Mississippi with a dead horse. According to him, you would have to tie a rope around the horses neck to keep the eels from escaping when the horse was pulled to shore. I guess they entered the horse through the "nether" regions. Sounds like an old wives tale to me!!!, or maybe a horsesTAIL