Northwest Fishing Reports

I need some help IDing a fish I accidentally snagged in the sound. Sorry for no picture since it popped off while I was trying to walk back to shore, so ill give my best description.

It was about 5 inches long, and very eel-like. It was the exact color of seaweed, bright green (thought it was seaweed at first). I caught it fairly close to shore at low tide if that helps.

Probably a Lamprey. Do a google search and see if the pics match what you saw.

There is some type of eel that I see during the nighttime off the "A" dock at Shilshole. I see it when squidding. It rides along the top of the water, and its a good 10" long.

Sounds like a blenny.

I was fishing on dashpoint beach and snagged probably the same type of eel also. I tried taking the hook out but it tried to bite lol.

Puget sound eels are a favorite of the native Americans. There was an article in the Seattle Times on the Natives catching eels under the falls in Wa State. They supposedly have a very high oil content.

Those were lamprey, not eels.

Describe the mouth. Was it round and sucker like or more like the mouth on a typical fish?

there are several eel like fish in puget sound but I'm thinking a blenny by the color and size. could be wrong.

The eel I had was not a lamprey. It looked exactly like an eel's face.

It does sound like a blenny - the ones I have seen all ran about 5-10 inches long - several colors, but mostly bright green (seaweed green) maybe 3/4 - 1 1/2 inches tall at the dorsal fin. some of the blennys are "amphibious"- (probably not the right word here) and can survive in wet seaweed above the water line during tide changes. If you find piles of seaweed (green seaweed) on the beaches and poke through them you can often find these guys. Most of the ones I have seen came from gut disections of larger fish (always look to see what your keeper catch has been eating!) - there are several varieties of these that are somewhat common in washington waters. the only other eel like fish I have seen around here (other than lampreys) are wolf eels - there is no mistaking these guys, they are a facefull of teeth and bad attitude - up to 5+ feet long - don't hear of too many being caught these days.

SkyRiverMan wrote:It does sound like a blenny - the ones I have seen all ran about 5-10 inches long - several colors, but mostly bright green (seaweed green) maybe 3/4 - 1 1/2 inches tall at the dorsal fin. some of the blennys are "amphibious"- (probably not the right word here) and can survive in wet seaweed above the water line during tide changes. If you find piles of seaweed (green seaweed) on the beaches and poke through them you can often find these guys. Most of the ones I have seen came from gut disections of larger fish (always look to see what your keeper catch has been eating!) - there are several varieties of these that are somewhat common in washington waters. the only other eel like fish I have seen around here (other than lampreys) are wolf eels - there is no mistaking these guys, they are a facefull of teeth and bad attitude - up to 5+ feet long - don't hear of too many being caught these days.

Agree. The area I went is mostly all seaweed ground and snagged him in some seaweed. It had a long fin running from the neck to the tail which was shark kind of like a perch fin. About 5-6 in and was brown-yellow with yellow lines through the whole body. It also had very sharp teeth. It was snagged on the tail, while I was trying to pull the hook out it brought his head up and tried to bite me just like a snake if you hold them from the tail.