Nyle and I went out to the raritan river around Piscataway today. While fishing, I spot a thin fish. I assume it was a lamprey. Odd looking since I never saw one on the top of the water column rather than just hugging the bottom.
Later I see the same thing again, there I noticed it wasnt a lamprey. Three key features I noticed:
Long and needle nose.
Silvery color but couldnt notice much of a pattern- maybe a dab of black around the backside.
When swimming, the tail was just sort of paddling side to side but the body was pretty still.
Around the same spot later, Nyle now sees it for himself and confirms what my eyes saw. It actually went for his floating rapala as he told me. The 2nd time I saw it I tried the same but that's when I spooked it. It was about 8 inches.
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/chkfish.htm
"Longnose Gar Lepisosteus osseus EX (Extirpated)"