Caught one out of the cahaba near 280 about 25 years ago. Nasty thing. So slippery you couldn't hardly hold it unless you wrapped it in a towel.

We would carry bread bags with us, drop them in the bag, cut the line and tie the bag shut. Take them home and freeze them. When you wanted to use them for bait, take one out, get your hook back, and while still frozen cut it cross ways with a hack saw into 3/8” thick rings. Made great trot line bait.

Caught several out of Buttahtchee lake my grandfather actually had a glove for taking them off the hook were about elbow length and had these weird looking aluminum grippers on the fingers was bright orange.

He was a highly educated, smarter than his on good, weird fellow. LOL!!! But was fun to hang around with as a kid.

Funny you say this. I was told that if you don’t eat them hot they go back to raw. Is this what you heard too? I’m not testing it though.

We caught and ate them regularly on the Warrior as I was growing up. Not much different than a catfish.
Their blood is poisonous? Yeah, and if you pick at a splinter with a pin, not a needle, you'll get blood poisoning, because pins are brass, and brass is poisonous.
Tell me another one.

Caught several in Chewacla Creek in th' early 70's.....just above Lake Ogletree.....Lee County, Ala.

Grew up on Warrior river and caught so many of those things
We ate them or we threw them back
I do remember they tasted much better when hot out of the grease and not so much when cold

A cobia or a big snapper will slurp one of those down when rigged on a hook alive. use a dry paper towel as a disposable gripper.

When I would catfish with my grandfather around lock 5 we caught a bunch of them. He had a piece of 2x6 with a hole drilled in the center and a slot cut out to slide the line through. Would pull the head through and "separate" them as he called it. He hated them. Also took a .22 revolver with rat shot when he didn't want to fool with the board.

Million dollar lake had some in the 60's and 70's before it got drained -mean any ugly

Yes, indeed they will. Get a bucket of sand and a shop rag. Drop eel in sand, sand will coat him and make him easy to hold, grab him behind the head with shop rag and insert 6/0 owner mutu light circle hook under his chin and out through the snout. Throw him in front of a cruising cobia or send him down on a piece of hard bottom or structure and hang on.

A friend caught one years ago around guntersville or tenn river. Maybe a foot long. I have never seen one since.

what about the Asian carps ☠

I see them on the New Hope side below Guntersville dam certain times of the year. I figure they are mating or spawning because ill see alot

A guy posted a pic on FB of one caught at the dam just a day or two ago. The page is Guntersville Dam Wall Fishing. I’ve never seen one.

Use to catch them fairly regular running trot lines years ago on the tombigbee. Those slimy things will throw a hook in you quick

same on the Choctawhatchee River too.

I catch them on Bankhead where valley creek flows into the main river all the time. They fight like no other.