Need locations and dates for American Eels

We're working on a project to document where eels have been collected or seen in Texas and neighbor states. If you know of an eel occurrence please post details here. If you have a photo all the better. All of these will eventually go up on the Fishes of Texas Project website. To learn more about this eel project you can visit (https://sites.cns.utexas.edu/hendricksonlab/american-eel).

Does 1983 count? I caught a few while fishing below the Dennison Dam while on a trip. Kept getting my line snagged when I got a bite on some minnows while bottom fishing. Finally got one to the bank and realized what it was that was causing my line to get hung up so much. It was about 12-14" long best I remember. The water was not being released from the dam at the time. They did have a short release later in the evening near dark. But it didn't have any affect on the eels after they shut the water off that night. Or the next morning. Finally figured out we couldn't fish minnows on the bottom due to this.

Two years ago TPWD caught one in Brushy Creek while conducting a fish population survey.

https://twitter.com/tpwdfish/status/1058112948617576448

Thanks for these. Yes we need any and all observations of Americal Eels in Texas and our neighbor states. The old records (1983 and earlier) are particularly useful. Thanks.

Not sure how far back you want to go..

But in the middle sixties to the middle seventies we used to catch them quite regularly out of the Medina River just north of LaCoste , Texas..

Half mile stretch from FM 471 bridge to the east.. But I am sure that area had em in both directions..

Usually caught them on small live perch (Brem) on limblines.

I would bet there are still some in there.. But have not fished that area in decades..

Thanks. I'm getting resonses privately too. Any and all records of eels are useful to us. To learn about our project you can go here: https://sites.cns.utexas.edu/hendricksonlab/american-eel

Caught one back in the early 1980's in Big Lake (28° 7.292'N 97° 22.104'W)
It's an oxbow of the Aransas River.

Thanks for this one. Any others out there? We're soon to have to start compiling these into a database and could use all we can get.

I used to catch eels frequently in Lake Fork Creek on my bank hooks. This was in the 50’s

Pretty sure I saw one 3-4 years ago at the top end of Zuberbueler Bend on the Mexican side of Lake Amistad.....