Round Valley Surprise

[TSouth]

Hit the boat ramp at about 10:45 with a buddy for some night fishin. Working two rods, one of mine starts peeling drag out like crazy. Hook up with the fish...HUGE... Finally...I'm thinkin this has to be a trophy bass or catfish. Maybe even a trout. I've been patient this season.

http://i43.tinypic.com/9u9nxy.jpg

But nope. It was an eel. This thing fought hard as hell on my heavy rod with 20 pound test. Caught it on three( yes three) large nightcrawlers balled up on my hook. My phone was dead so this photo was taken with my buddys Dinosaur flip phone.

A few guys had just landed their boat and ran over interested so I offered it out to them and they took it. I would eat it, but I'd be damned if I were to cut that thing up! Scary looking just in the water. After googling it I saw another guy caught a huge one here not too long ago which seemed to be a state record beater....this one was pretty close. This thing had a GUT! Thick fish. I'm not sure if it was quite 6 lbs 11 oz but who knows. I'm 5'10 and in the photo it goes from my shoulder down to my knee.

After being disappointed with my after work pond hopping around Union County this seals the deal for me. It's worth it to make the extra drive to BIG WATER cause you never know what you'll catch. Cheers!

[Jenger]

Yikes! That thing is huge..

I usually catch them right at dusk on the musconetcong. Always hitting on night crawlers. I dont think I would eat one tho :o

[bigfishy]

That thing is prob loaded with little stockies or smaller lakers:D What a gut !!! nice catch....Sushie places pay big bucks for freshwater eel.....They are a delicassy....Its one of the few things on the menu that is actually cooked:o

[flatcreek]

Wow, they are suppose to be good eaten. But I'm with you when it comes to cleaning them up, catfish to ,them suckers just won't die.

[Eskimo]

I've heard about these. They are female eels that were unable to migrate back down river to spawn in the ocean, so they just remained in freshwater and grew huge.

The odd thing is, Round Valley isn't fed by a river. All the water is pumped into it from somewhere else. So where do you suppose it came from?

[Fish n Jeep]

So where do you suppose it came from?

A bait bucket?

[TSouth]

Oddly enough I went back the next day to fish Spruce Run and my buddy caught a small eel on his first cast...on a hotdog! I didn't even know they were in Spruce.

[ATH1089]

I've heard about these. They are female eels that were unable to migrate back down river to spawn in the ocean, so they just remained in freshwater and grew huge.

The odd thing is, Round Valley isn't fed by a river. All the water is pumped into it from somewhere else. So where do you suppose it came from?

My brother caught a couple of these things on a private lake when we were kids. Completely landlocked, miles from any current rivers. They fight like devils, and they are so slimy it is a challenge to keep them still enough to remove the hook.

[lunkertaker]

EELS...OOOHHH! Guess they are everywhere. Have caught lots in the ocean and have been blessed not to catch on in FW...never use bait in FW and there ya go. Have seen them caught (catfish night out last year rings a bell).

Edible....maybe....on our table...NEVER~:eek:

[Mark B.]

The current State Record (6 lbs. 13 oz.) caught @ RVR in 2005, is on the wall here @ the Fisheries Lab.

Could’ve come from a bait bucket, or from the S. Branch @ Hamden,…….where the water to fill RVR is pumped from.

I have visions of a Godzilla-sized eel, swimming there,………making its way up & over the north dam to the Rockaway Creek, then the Raritan R. on its way to spawn in the Sargasso Sea.

“The Eel That Ate Lebanon”,……..& Raritan, Manville, Bound Brook,………..