American Eel
One of the most unusual fish in North American freshwater, the American Eel spends most of its life in rivers, streams, and estuaries before making a once-in-a-lifetime migration to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die.
Snake-like, nocturnal, and covered in slick mucus, it's caught deliberately by anglers who value it as table fare and live bait, and accidentally by nearly everyone else fishing the bottom after dark.
Scientific Name: Anguilla rostrata
Also known as Glass Eel, Elver, Yellow Eel, Silver Eel
- Snake-like body with a continuous fin running from mid-back around the tail and along the belly — no pelvic fins, just small pectorals tucked behind the head.
- Coloration runs olive green to brown to dark gray on top, with a yellowish or white belly; the exact shade shifts with age and habitat.
- Lower jaw slightly longer than the upper, giving a subtle underbite; large, fleshy lips. The whole body is coated in mucus — slick enough to make handling a real challenge.
- Females reach 4–5 feet and can exceed 10 lbs; males top out around 1.5 feet. Most fish an angler handles will be 12–24 inches.
What to know
Habitat Distribution
- A catadromous species — born at sea in the Sargasso Sea, then spends 10–20 years growing in freshwater rivers, streams, lakes, and estuaries before returning to the ocean to spawn.
- Native range spans Atlantic and Gulf drainages from Greenland and Labrador south to Venezuela, including major river systems and inland lakes connected to the coast.
- Tolerates a wide temperature range (roughly 39–77°F) and moves freely between fresh, brackish, and saltwater during different life stages.
Specific Spots
- During daylight hours, eels tuck into snags, root wads, undercut banks, and dense vegetation — anywhere that puts solid cover between them and open water.
- Soft-bottomed areas — mud, sand, fine gravel — draw eels that burrow in to rest; a slow, silty pool below a riffle is worth a nighttime drop.
- After dark, eels move out of cover and cruise the bottom of deeper runs and pools, so a bait fished at 5–6 feet on a slow current seam will intercept feeding fish.
American Eel FAQ
Answers from onWater's species guide.
What are the best lures and bait for American Eel?
Nightcrawlers are the go-to bait across the range, fish them whole on a slip-sinker rig or Carolina rig that keeps the bait just off the bottom. The same bottom rigs used for catfish work perfectly for eels.
What do American Eel eat?
Adults eat at night: worms, crayfish, aquatic insect larvae, small fish, mollusks, and carrion. Anything with scent that sits on or near the bottom is fair game, which is exactly why nightcrawlers and oily cutbait work so well.
Where do American Eel live?
A catadromous species, born at sea in the Sargasso Sea, then spends 10–20 years growing in freshwater rivers, streams, lakes, and estuaries before returning to the ocean to spawn.
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