What in the world is this?!?!?!?!

[Guest bigtex]

It worked

[Muddpuppy]

Looks kinda like a baby salamander to me, also

[bassnleo]

Yep, I'd say salamander.

[KenDammit28]

looks kind of like a mud puppy or waterdog.  my vote would be a mudpuppy

[KenDammit28]

eels don't have legs though, do they?

[Guest bigtex]

It looks like some kind of freshwater eel. Really hard to tell with the small pictures.

Carpfisher: Your the winner, it is a freshwater eel. There are a lot of them that are in private ponds around the area where I live. Bass love them. If you grab one it will bite you.

Read the above post.   It is a freshwater eel.  I just wanted to see if anybody could guess what it was or what people thought it could be.

[Guest bigtex]

eels don't have legs though, do they?

Thats not a leg your looking at.  Its the inside of the freshwater eel.

[KenDammit28]

in the top picture there, that little curled thing is not a leg?

[Guest bigtex]

in the top picture there, that little curled thing is not a leg?

Nope, its part of his intestine. The freshwater eel get about 2 to 2 1/2 feet long and weights about 2 to 6 lbs depending on food supply and size of water.

[cgs2004]

Nasty, I'm sure glad we don't have them in Kansas!

[Guest bigtex]

Another bit of information is that about 2 years ago I caught one that weighted about 3 lbs in Pruitt Lake.  The water was darker than coffee and I was using a black spinner bait with a  single colorado blade.  He nailed it right off the bat and put up one heck of a fight.  Once you catch one it will start to spin horizontally and stinks to high haven.  They will bite you if given the chance.  They have very fine, small, sharp teeth that will shread your fingers before you know it.

[cgs2004]

Can you go swimming in water that holds them?  Sounds like their pirahana's!

[Guest bigtex]

You know I don't really have a clue. I don't think that they will come after you. I just wouldn't lip it like you would a bass. That would be a very costly mistake. Their mouth aren't that big. I don't think they can latch onto your leg or arm but maybe your toes and fingers.  Besides, the water that holds these is a place you wouldn't want to be in swimming.  Trust me.

If it was left up to me I will stick to my swimming pool.

[Muddpuppy]

You sure you didn't encounter that thing in one of the pools out at Dominoe?    I have seen a couple of larger eels that were supposed to have been caught around here, but I haven't landed one yet, but that little guy sure is one ugly critter.  

[kid with a rapala]

if u look really close at the top of the eel in the large picture it looks like a died guy with its mouth open and has sun glasses on 8-)

[FL_fisher]

That was a easy one for me iv caught many eels but I never had one try to bite me. :-?

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

We have lots of freshwater eels around here , I've never seen a baby one though.  They bite but have no teeth.  They do not hurt at all, don't be afraid.  The slime involved with handling them is far more of an ordeal to deal with than a bite.

P.s. Live bait users, these can be bought at most saltwater tackle shops (around here anyway)  They are reffered to as "American eels".  Born in freshwater, they tend to migrate to brackish and then salwater given the opportunity.  The shops carry them down to like 10 inches or so.

[Hookhead]

Cut it open and see what's in its stomache! Perhaps it was one of these:

[magic]

American/common eels are not born in fresh water, they are a catadromous species.  The adults migrate to the Sargasso sea to spawn, then the young migrate back to brackish and to fresh water to mature for a few years before the cycle is repeated.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

Thanks magic.  I've never seen big eels in freshwater, just the small guys so I assumed they were born there and then made their way to the salt where they would get bigger cause they can get huge!  I've seen them to 3ft or so.  Quite a slimy handful.

[Guest bigtex]

You sure you didn't encounter that thing in one of the pools out at Dominoe? I have seen a couple of larger eels that were supposed to have been caught around here, but I haven't landed one yet, but that little guy sure is one ugly critter.

It wouldn't suprise me that Domino has these around there area.  I caught one that weighed around 3 to 5 lbs at a branch off of Pruitt Lake.

[AM]

could be a poo fish. fry it up.  

[Madhouse27]

The head/face of the creature reminds me a little bit of James Carville. Speaking of freshwater eels, when we were kids we hooked one that was over 6 feet long. We had seen it and got it to bite a huge live frog. It was bigger around than a softball bat. Absolutely terrifying to us at age twelve. This beast put up an epic struggle and was virtually unmovable. Ended up breaking off. We talked to a game warden and he said that it must have grown too large to fit back down through to fishway to make its spawning run to the ocean. Something that many don't know is that eels are lightning fast swimmers. We were standing on a dock watching this foot long pickerel that was just kind of sitting there treading water. All of a sudden this eel came out from under the dock like it was shot out of a cannon. That pickerel (another quick fish) turned on a dime and sped off with the eel hot on his heels....the cool stuff you see as a kid growing up on a lake.

[Muddpuppy]

There used to be a big one at Tyler's Caldwell Zoo in the East Texas fish and snake exhibit that I think was about 6" in diameter if memory serves me right- it was a rather large one anyway and was always neat to watch. I used to go out there a lot after I had surgery and that made a great place to walk. It was before they started chargeing, so it's been a while since I've been there. I'm assumeing that it's still there. They had some bass and catfish in the same tank that could lead to a heart condition, too.

[Master_Hunter_1977]

I would have to look at the head closer to be sure but from what it looks like with out a close up of the mouth.  I looks like a lamp ray eel.  They are come to lots of bodies of water.  they actually migrate down rivers and bodies of water then back up to where they were born and spawn.  Similar to salmon or steelhead.

Scott

if you look at the mouth the mouth sould be round and have some really small teeth in there. if you feel it they may only fell like rough sand paper at that size