American eels - NOT Lampreys

[dremarquis]

Hi all,

I have read that the American Eel is present in the upper reaches of the Genesee river. Why would they not be throughout the entire Genesee river? Does anyone fish for these? I have heard they are very good eating.

Are there certain bodies of water in the fingerlakes region or western NY where they can be caught?

I'm guessing you fish for them with bait, but what kind?

thanks for any info,

Andre

[greenboatluke]

You'll find adult American eels in rivers because they're catadromous fish. The opposite of salmon, steelhead, and trout, they live most of their lives in rivers and streams, then the adults head out to the ocean/lake to spawn in deep water. The larvae float on currents and enter rivers as glass eels (clear) an inch or 2 long and make their upstream.  I'm a teacher and take students to help with a DEC study on the Hudson to look for population numbers. Made a video with my own kids a few years back, I'll add a link. You can catch the adults on bait as if you were fishing for catfish. I've caught some juveniles on the Hudson with chunk herring, but they should eat most bait I would think.

 

[dremarquis]

I only now looked in the fishing regs and there is no open season for american eels in any Lake Ontario Tribs, so I won't be fishing for them.

 

[fisherman21]

I have caught a few off Summerville and Charlotte piers

[JOE ESOX]

Cool video.  Yep i caught one in the lower genny a few years ago

[Traveling Circus]

I'd got some in lower Sandy years ago.......  at night in the fall.

[greenboatluke]

A little background for those interested… the DEC is studying the American Eel is because the Pacific Eel is basically extinct due to overfishing, habitat loss, etc. and the American Eel was trending the same way. The American Eel is the only species left to be studied and protected.

I teach a Marine Science elective at my school and it’s cool to show some of my students real field work. I’ve been participating for about a decade, the DEC has been researching since the early 2000s. The returns are up and down yearly, like any wild species, but the general trend over a decade is slowly rising.
Get this, if you have eaten Eel, usually in sushi, it was most likely caught as a Glass Eel in the state of Maine, then shipped to Japan where it was raised in aquaculture and then shipped back to here eat! Maine is the only place Glass Eels can be legally fished. Last numbers I saw were $2000 per lbs.

Edited March 23 by greenboatluke

[dremarquis]

i don't see the video

[rolmops]

1 hour ago, greenboatluke said:

A little background for those interested… the DEC is studying the American Eel is because the Pacific Eel is basically extinct due to overfishing, habitat loss, etc. and the American Eel was trending the same way. The American Eel is the only species left to be studied and protected.

I teach a Marine Science elective at my school and it’s cool to show some of my students real field work. I’ve been participating for about a decade, the DEC has been researching since the early 2000s. The returns are up and down yearly, like any wild species, but the general trend over a decade is slowly rising.
Get this, if you have eaten Eel, usually in sushi, it was most likely caught as a Glass Eel in the state of Maine, then shipped to Japan where it was raised in aquaculture and then shipped back to here eat! Maine is the only place Glass Eels can be legally fished. Last numbers I saw were $2000 per lbs.

When I grew up in the Netherlands the eel was an important part of the economy and local diet. (smoked eel). They were important enough to be part of social studies in 4th and 5th grade. they were the first fish I ever caught-on a worm-. The funny thing was that 30 years later when doing a course in evolutionary development in the veterinarian school of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, my professor's thesis was on the eel. He loved talking about eel and I felt like I was back in fifth grade. Needless to say, I scored 100% on his pet subject during a test. So thanks to the eel I got an A+ and extra credit on his course.

Edited March 23 by rolmops

[greenboatluke]

4 hours ago, dremarquis said:

i don't see the video

I posted it with my original response. 

[bulletbob]

 I doubt there are  "fishable " numbers of eels anywhere upstate west of the Hudson river drainage.. They would have to  through the St Lawrence to get into the FL region,, and there isn't  much reason for them to come this far.. They are present in Cayuga, probably seneca as well, but you don't really hear of them being caught in any numbers this far from the salt line,, for every one caught in upstate waters, there are probably 500 caught in the tidal section of the hudson river.., Even in coastal areas, the eels typically  have no need to venture far upriver.. Ask the guys that fish the Delaware  watershed  for trout how many eels they catch,,  not many at all, although the delaware is loaded with them, they tend to stay  in transition zones and seem to prefer brackish water to all fresh water.. They can and will go far from the ocean, just not in big numbers. In NJ, the rivers were full of them, you could catch 100's in a day in salt and brackish areas.. As the water became fresher,, shallower and rockier  as you moved further up away from the  salt water line, eel numbers got much and much less, and it was always that way.. So if there is a place upstate with a lot of eels, i would be interested in hearing about it, especially because to get here, they would have to swim    hundreds of more miles inland than they really need to.   A big one was caught about 10 years back in the susquehanna  in Owego by a guy fishing at night for catfish.. it was such a rare occurrence   that it made the local paper.. If you want to catch eels,  I would say the best place in upstate NY is the Hudson river, and the closer you get to the  salt line, the more you'll catch,, Eel populations in the US have been decimated by overfishing,, mostly because people like to eat them thinly sliced as sushi/sashimi, and will pay insane prices for the  right to do so. I used to catch them by the hundreds in the salt rivers back in NJ

[rolmops]

1 hour ago, bulletbob said:

 I doubt there are  "fishable " numbers of eels anywhere upstate west of the Hudson river drainage.. They would have to  through the St Lawrence to get into the FL region,, and there isn't  much reason for them to come this far.. They are present in Cayuga, probably seneca as well, but you don't really hear of them being caught in any numbers this far from the salt line,, for every one caught in upstate waters, there are probably 500 caught in the tidal section of the hudson river.., Even in coastal areas, the eels typically  have no need to venture far upriver.. Ask the guys that fish the Delaware  watershed  for trout how many eels they catch,,  not many at all, although the delaware is loaded with them, they tend to stay  in transition zones and seem to prefer brackish water to all fresh water.. They can and will go far from the ocean, just not in big numbers. In NJ, the rivers were full of them, you could catch 100's in a day in salt and brackish areas.. As the water became fresher,, shallower and rockier  as you moved further up away from the  salt water line, eel numbers got much and much less, and it was always that way.. So if there is a place upstate with a lot of eels, i would be interested in hearing about it, especially because to get here, they would have to swim    hundreds of more miles inland than they really need to.   A big one was caught about 10 years back in the susquehanna  in Owego by a guy fishing at night for catfish.. it was such a rare occurrence   that it made the local paper.. If you want to catch eels,  I would say the best place in upstate NY is the Hudson river, and the closer you get to the  salt line, the more you'll catch,, Eel populations in the US have been decimated by overfishing,, mostly because people like to eat them thinly sliced as sushi/sashimi, and will pay insane prices for the  right to do so. I used to catch them by the hundreds in the salt rivers back in NJ

As far as "fishable" goes you are right. As for eel traveling not far beyond salt water, you are wrong.

When eel enter the rivers and streams as tiny glass eel they will try to go as far upstream as they can. They will travel the St.Laurens but also get up the Hudson, from there to the Mohawk and with the help of the Eerie Canal they make it into the Finger Lakes, but on their inland travels they are too small and not fishable. They love ending up in small streams and head waters where they will stay for several years, sometimes even traveling over dry land to reach their goal. (An eel has no problem surviving outside water for up to 24 hours) Eel will spend time upstream until they feel like reproducing. That urge is not dependent on age as much as physical size. When they travel back to the ocean , they come in different sizes and at that point they usually are large enough to feed on larger bait although they prefer to scavenge. once back in the ocean, they travel to the gulf stream and from there on to south bound currents that take them to the Sargosso Sea In the Caribbean where to breed and die

Edited March 23 by rolmops

[Hobo]

I remember as a kid going to the Delaware River at night and “Bob”for them and fill a large tub.

[bulletbob]

1 hour ago, rolmops said:

As far as "fishable" goes you are right. As for eel traveling not far beyond salt water, you are wrong.

When eel enter the rivers and streams as tiny glass eel they will try to go as far upstream as they can. They will travel the St.Laurens but also get up the Hudson, from there to the Mohawk and with the help of the Eerie Canal they make it into the Finger Lakes, but on their inland travels they are too small and not fishable. They love ending up in small streams and head waters where they will stay for several years, sometimes even traveling over dry land to reach their goal. (An eel has no problem surviving outside water for up to 24 hours) Eel will spend time upstream until they feel like reproducing. That urge is not dependent on age as much as physical size. When they travel back to the ocean , they come in different sizes and at that point they usually are large enough to feed on larger bait although they prefer to scavenge. once back in the ocean, they travel to the gulf stream and from there on to south bound currents that take them to the Sargosso Sea In the Caribbean where to breed and die

 If you reread my post, you will see I plainly state that some eels WILL indeed travel far inland.. however, I lived with eels in my backyard all my life.. You  can say all you want that eels go as far upriver as they can, but i don't believe that to be true at all..  If they are in rocky, clear freestone areas in fresh water rivers, they don't eat much because you  just don't catch many..  NJ, NY, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas all have long rivers that go from freestone rocky streams  that slowly transition to  salt water, the eels are caught  almost exclusively in the lower tidal sections, not in the upper reaches... The have a LOT more to  eat in salt and brackish water than they could ever get in a small trout stream.. They are good travelers, but I  know what I know having lived many decades  in waters that were loaded with eels.. They are 100 times more common in coastal /tidal sections of any waterway they inhabit than they are in the free flowing fresh water sections.... Try fishing for them  in the SLR, see how you make out, then try the Hudson around  Manhattan up to around Bear Mountain....

[rolmops]

When I said upstream and headwaters I did not make myself clear enough . Sorry for that. I should have said :The swamps far upstream. For example the top end of Cayuga lake. You should also take in consideration all the man made obstacles on the way there.

[Tyrrell]

Saw this one in the Oswego river in 2020 down stream of the Phoenix launch.

[rolmops]

2 hours ago, Tyrrell said:

Saw this one in the Oswego river in 2020 down stream of the Phoenix launch.

looks like somebody mistook it for a lamprey

[Tyrrell]

I assumed it was picked at by a bird.

I wish a had a better reference for size in the photo. It was somewhere around 36 inches though.

[bulletbob]

 I'll say this.. they are REAL good to eat!!!.... They also fight like crazy..  Tie themselves in slimy sticky knots while tyring to unhook them, super strong, hard to handle, and I recall my father used to cut them into chunks and flour and fry them, and those chunks would move around in the damn frying pan, and freak me out!... sadly, the tidal/estuarine waters that were absolutely loaded with eels from Maine to Florida have been wiped clean of the hundreds of millions of them [maybe even billions] that once lived there.. All because people  in Asia [mostly] like to eat them  in various sushi preparations... Believe me, I wish I could relate how many of those things there used to be...  It would be no big deal to catch 1000 in a week if i wanted to... Now they are endangered in the US,,, all in the name of sushi... bob

Edited March 25 by bulletbob

[jperch]

I live in Oswego and have snorkeled and SCUBA dived near shore often.  I can tell you that American eels were very abundant up until a decade or two ago.  When snorkeling, we played a game called "eel tickling".  Basically you swam along the surface until you spotted an eel in the cracks of the rocks and would try to dive down and touch it before it bolted, you got a point if successful.  Now the water is much clearer (mussels) and we rarely see eels.  When I was a kid in the sixties we fished in the lake during the spring for bullheads, it was common to catch eels.  I recall we tried to eat one.  Once.

[Sean Youngblood]

   While Striper fishing in Raritan Bay at least 10 years ago. It was at night fishing with chunk bait. My buddy caught one that had to be pushing 5 ft. long (never knew that got anywhere that big) My buddy wrestled that thing in the back of the boat for about 20 min. trying to get his gear back. I was just happy it was on his line and not mine. 

[bulletbob]

9 hours ago, Sean Youngblood said:

   While Striper fishing in Raritan Bay at least 10 years ago. It was at night fishing with chunk bait. My buddy caught one that had to be pushing 5 ft. long (never knew that got anywhere that big) My buddy wrestled that thing in the back of the boat for about 20 min. trying to get his gear back. I was just happy it was on his line and not mine. 

  a 3 foot  american eel is a really big one.. 4 foot is an absolute giant, and rare at that size... Your friend  possibly caught an American Conger... They look identical to their smaller cousins, but get a lot bigger,  like 5 feet +, and as big around as a  grapefruit. and they pull extremely hard... Congers don't go into fresh water like  american eels.. In NJ, no one  including charter/party boat captains calls a Conger by its name.. they are exclusively called "silver eels", and they are a pain sometimes on certain bottom structure.. In NJ/NY/LI the term "Conger eel" is used for a REALLY nasty ugly demon looking fish called an Ocean Pout.

[bulletbob]

11 hours ago, jperch said:

I live in Oswego and have snorkeled and SCUBA dived near shore often.  I can tell you that American eels were very abundant up until a decade or two ago.  When snorkeling, we played a game called "eel tickling".  Basically you swam along the surface until you spotted an eel in the cracks of the rocks and would try to dive down and touch it before it bolted, you got a point if successful.  Now the water is much clearer (mussels) and we rarely see eels.  When I was a kid in the sixties we fished in the lake during the spring for bullheads, it was common to catch eels.  I recall we tried to eat one.  Once.

 Might be the diet they eat in fresh water... They are extremely good to eat from salt water.. Very firm, not fishy at all, NO dark meat, very white.. I have noticed bottom feeders in FW are  more likely to taste nasty and muddy, but salt water bottom feeders are typically sweet, mild  and firm. The reason they are gone from Lake O, is because they  got caught and eaten by the millions  starting in the 90's when  people in US cities and  overseas started paying crazy money for them for sushi/sashimi... The worldwide  eel eating craze started in the 90's and it did not take long to wipe them out, just a few years.. They were caught and eaten by the 10's of millions.... such a shame...

Edited March 25 by bulletbob

[jperch]

17 hours ago, bulletbob said:

 Might be the diet they eat in fresh water... They are extremely good to eat from salt water.. Very firm, not fishy at all, NO dark meat, very white.. I have noticed bottom feeders in FW are  more likely to taste nasty and muddy, but salt water bottom feeders are typically sweet, mild  and firm. The reason they are gone from Lake O, is because they  got caught and eaten by the millions  starting in the 90's when  people in US cities and  overseas started paying crazy money for them for sushi/sashimi... The worldwide  eel eating craze started in the 90's and it did not take long to wipe them out, just a few years.. They were caught and eaten by the 10's of millions.... such a shame...

I think, but am not sure, that they are still fished for commercially on the Canadian side.  We probably didn't know the proper way to cook an eel.  I remember I nailed it to a telephone pole, skinned it, chunked it up and fried it.  I recall that the pieces jumped when I put them in the frying pan!  It was just too rich tasting for me.  We were kids, used to eating panfish like perch and sunfish.  As you apparently know, the life cycle of the American eel is truly amazing!  And believe me, the size of the eels we encountered in Lake O while snorkeling was quite impressive.

[jeb1340]

We used to catch them bass fishing in the Niagara River. You’d think you hooked a massive fish and end up being an eel. I don’t think I caught one after maybe 2005? When we were younger we’d catch a few a year.