Eels!

It's been a long winter. 6 months have passed since the last time I put a line in the water.  But finally the weather is warming up, the trees are green again, and fishing season is back in action.  It's still too early to go out for bass (season opens on June 14th here), but walleye and pike are now open, as well as a number of other species.

This week Ryan and I went fishing for catfish, or at least that was the intention.  Using a simple slip sinker rig and worms as bait we casted out on the shores of Nun's Island hoping to land some channel catfish.  After a few hours of fishing we didn't catch a single catfish, but what we did catch was quite interesting nonetheless. Big, slimy, snakey-looking eels!  American Eels (anguilla rostrata) to be precise.

I've never caught an eel before. Actually, I've never even thought about catching eels before.  I was aware that they were in the river and from what I've read they're quite common actually. But frankly I've never seen the appeal in fishing for them.  I was surprised that they put up a pretty good fight, so reeling them in was a good bit of fun.  Landing them and trying to unhook them and take a picture on the other hand wasn't quite so fun.   First, they are coated in a thick slippery layer of slime, and secondly they writhe and wriggle like a snake making it impossible to grab a hold of.  We used a small net to land them and just took the pictures with the eels in the net. I tried grabbing one to take it out and take a picture, but it was literally impossible.  Although they are edible, we weren't really interested in bringing these odd creatures home, so all of them were released back into the river.  Ryan caught the biggest eel which weighed 4 lbs.

Quite a different style of fishing than what I'm used to.

Ryan battling it out with an American Eel (anguilla rostrata)

Ryan attempting to grab the eel for a picture

Ok so grabbing it didn't work, but here it is in the net. 

Although it looks like a snake, it's really just a fish. 

Here's the big catch of the day, 4 lbs. American Eel (anguilla rostrata)

Let's see if I can grab this one. 

Couldn't take it out of the net either, so here's my catch in net. 

I wanted to get a good shot of it without the net obstructing the view. Easier said than done. 

You're free little eel, go home!