HUGE eel in black river?!

[acabtp]

so i was fishing the black river today around chester, standing in the water on the side of a deeper pool working some rainbows, when i notice something big swim between my legs. bent over for a closer look and found the biggest american eel that i have ever seen hanging out between my right leg and a boulder. went an easy 3'.

i popped my phone underwater real quick to try and get a video of it, but it moved off before i could.

i've never seen one that far from a river with easy ocean access, which makes sense, because they are spawned in the ocean. so when it was a tiny little eel it must have come up raritan bay, used the fish ladder, swam up the north branch, up the black river to where i found it? pretty crazy, i thought there were still dams in the way preventing this... i guess it's just like jurassic park taught us... "life finds a way".

the pool had about a 2' waterfall both up and downstream, so this eel may have been living there for quite a while. i guess maybe someday it will head downstream and try to repeat the process.

i really wish that i had been able to get a recording of it. oh well. everybody prefers threads with pictures though, so here's one of the rainbows from today

[UglyStick]

This actually doesn't surprise me - when I was in grade school, my friend and I would fish the Black River in the Pottersville area all the time including a lot of nite fishing. We used to catch huge american eels all the time there.

[kmaty]

First off nice trout second on the eel thing my little brother caught one way up above saxton falls. Few outa lamington and i believe one outa the pequest However he is the eel kid! No matter where i take him he catches those things his biggest witch with no doubt be close to a state record hada be 6-7ft long and about a ten inch head caught outa 3ft o. W and put up the biggest fight ive seen lb for lb

[Kamil88]

Thanks for the black river update that's a nice rainbow you got there.

[acabtp]

thanks guys, i guess it was just surprising more than anything

now that i think of it, i know there are real big ones in round valley too and nothing's going in or out of there (unless they get pumped in/out during filling or drawdown of the res), so how the heck are they reproducing? where's our fisheries biologist mark b?

[Dave B.]

Ya gotta remember those jokers will travel overland on damp or rainy nights with no problem. That aside they can live for 25 years or more before heading back out to the Sargasso Sea to spawn, plenty of time to grow to impressive size!

A number of years ago I had one about 3 feet try to steal a trout off my stringer in the Paulinskill just below Hainesville. It ended up portioned, fried and smothered in tomato sauce and garlic.

[Mark B.]

From the Sargasso Sea, “glass eels”, migrate to the US east coast in the spring. They ascend freshwater streams, grow to become “elvers”, then eels, where they remain for many years. When sexually mature they (”silver eels”) migrate in the fall back to the Sargasso Sea.

We have the current State Record A. eel on the wall here @ The Fish Lab. Caught in RVR, it probably got pumped in from the S. Branch as a glass eel or elver. Sexually frustrated, with no way out, & it grew & grew.

Fortunately, it was caught & killed before it became “The A. eel that ate Lebanon, NJ”.

[420*NightCrawler]

Just earlier this week, I spotted a 36"+ catfish up a small river/creek (Wanaque) in a large trout pool. There's no way it swam up the large rocks in the river from Monksville, or a way it could get down to it now. I'm not a catfish fisherman, but for size fish, I'm considering another trip with bait. Maybe, release it into the lake below.

Just another outta place fish.