River Severn 'Monster'

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Gary Knowles

Guest
Me and my brother fished the lower severn of Friday night. Just before dusk Dave spotted something rather peculiar in the margins, he described it as:

"at least 4ft long, eel like in shape and at least 4 inches in diameter". He also said it was "swmimming upstream in a serpentine motion" basically it looked like a bloody great eel, but looked just too big.

My guess was that it was a sea lamprey. I have read about them and think that they do get pretty big. Could anyone confirm that this was indeed what he probably saw ?

How common are they and has anyone else seen similar.
 
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Warren 'Hatrick' (Wol) Gaunt

Guest
On them funny fags eh?

They captured the Loch Ness Monster at the weekend too, did you read about it!!!
 
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Warren 'Hatrick' (Wol) Gaunt

Guest
Na, seriously, it probably was mate, they come in to spawn on the gravel.
 
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Eric Hayes

Guest
My Brother saw something similar on the Ribble last week, he described it as green and snake like swimming with it's head out of the water. He said it got out on the far bank and disappeared into the grass.
 
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Gary Knowles

Guest
Graham - it was swimming underwater.

Eric - that sounds like a grass snake

Wol - your first answer was exactly what I expected from you ;o)
 
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Stuart Johnson

Guest
Visions of grandeur again Barney eh.

Were you taking a leak at the time.
 
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Simon Asbury

Guest
Hi Gary,

Sounds very much like a sea lamprey, there have been quite a few in the area this season. I have seen plenty on the teme fitting your description, they have a mottled colouration and swim quite near to the surface.

Horrible looking things
 
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goff dyer

Guest
There have been a few big Lampreys on the USK these last couple of weeks, both these rivers run into the Bristol Channel.
 
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ron lander

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Could have been a lamprey, I saw one on the teme last week. It was big but not 4ft, might have been 3.
 
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Chris Bishop

Guest
Never seen one that big but we got some monsters for bait last season that must have been a couple of feet long. Think I gave 'em to Dave Marrs in the end.
 
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Ian Whittaker

Guest
Found a dead lamprey last week on the ribble that was around 3 feet long. Never seen any on the ribble before.
 
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alan strickland

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Seen one on opening day dawn on the lune fishing with john conway,it was swimming with its head a couple of inches under the surface and the tip of its tail maybe 2ft under swam by us in a slow snake like motion heading down river.
I thought it was some king of eel/catfish cross as colour was like a greenish catfish.must of been well over 4lb.
 
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daren heslop

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I was told last week a tale of a monitor lizard being caught on the severn about two years ago.Can u imagine landing that in the middle of the night!!!
 
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Ron Clay

Guest
In my opinion that was a very big eel. There is no doubt that eels much bigger than have ever been caught exist.

A double figure eel would be about the same proportions as the one Barney mentions.

I caught an eel once that weighed 5 kg. It was Anguilla mossambiqua. Now very rare. It was about the length mentioned, perhaps longer.

Many years sgo **** walker saw on eel of 16lbs dragged out of the Hanpshire Avon with weed cutters!
 
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john conway

Guest
Alan, just been talking to a lad at work who lives in Lancaster and he’s fished the river for years, he said as kids they used to catch Lampreys regularly just above the weir at Skirton. I’ve caught flounder where we were fishing on opening day, I’m convinced what we saw was a large Lamprey and no an eel.
 
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john conway

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Don’t eels go back to the Sargasso sea to breed and then die? I only thought that it was the land locked eels that grew very big? I know they can travel over land but may be some genetic fault in one or two of them means they stay put and just pile on the weight.
 
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Dave Slater

Guest
Gary/John,
A few years ago a friend, Simon Cooper, and I found a dead eel by a weirpool on the Dorset Stour. It was absolutely huge and must have weighed 15lb or more. It just shows that there are things that we don't know of. So Gary was your fish a huge eel, a big lamprey or something else?
 
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