Hellbenders and Mud puppies,water dogs..whatever...

[northeast cryptid]

   Been reading up on hellbenders and want to get out to find some.....anybody ever run across these? If so,what was the biggest anybody actually caught/found??  The record is 29 inches and they can go up to 5 lbs.  I ran into a big mud puppy once while flipping rocks in a dich looking for bait. It was big and jumped right up out of the water towards me......i was only about 7-8 at the time..needless to say,not knowing what it was..it really scared me.....LOL.....heard the big hellbenders,while not really agressive, can bite hard enough to break fingers and can live over 30 + years.....ugly as all heck,too..Let me know if anybody knows anything about these.....Thanks,Mike.

[ChadF]

We have hellbenders here in the alleghany river.  They became protected a few years back but we see them by the dozens when we bowfish carp at night.  Some of them are huge.  They are a really neat animal.  There are only a few spots in the world that they are found and we have them here by the crap load.  Somenights we see tons, others none.  it is a weird thing.

[Pascal]

We catch them while crappie fishing with shinners here. It's a smaller lake, Bundicks Lake in Louisiana. The sell them for bait at Lake Fork in Texas. The big bass love them.

[northeast cryptid]

   ChadF..where are you located...?  That must be cool to see..!

[John C]

Hell Benders have been protected for awhile now.

Mud puppies however are not.

[northeast cryptid]

  Saw something online where you can take 2 with a fishing license in PA.    Have to check with the fish commision......I just want to get some pics for reference...saw a replica in one of the catalogs.....would be a cool piece to paint up....

[Bonnie ( Allistair )]

Ahh.. I always wanted one.  I love amphibians.  Mudpuppies are great, Ive never seen one alive though, only dead.. and that was in a bio class.  I remember schools can order them from laboratories that breed them for science (and the more popular... axotyl... or axoytl..??  I can't remember what its called).  I have not yet figured out a way to do this though... I used to know a guy who worked at a University in the bio department, and he said he'd let me buy whatever I wanted out of one of those catalogs and have it sent to the university for me, but I never followed up.  Dang.

[Bonnie ( Allistair )]

I think I might be able to come up with the supplier's name... I hope I kept the catalog.  I can't remember if they send them dead or alive though.  If alive, I think you might end up with eggs... which might be a b*tch to get going.

[PA]

Technically you cannot have "in possession" a hellbender in Pennsylvania, which means even capturing one for photography purposes would be illegal. There are a number of researchers in PA that do field work in many areas of the state and do handle them, even pit tag them, but they are properly permitted.

A summary of the PA rules are found at http://www.fish.state.pa.us/fishpub/summary/repamp.html
Also, the "possession" limit of unprotected herps without a season is now only one, not two as it had been for decades.

[ChadF]

I am located in Western ny

[Bonnie ( Allistair )]

I thought people sometimes used them for bait?

[northeast cryptid]

you beat me to it...i read the fish commision laws before.....LOL......i guess that little party just got rained out..... ....i just want to see one....i saw pics of the giant salamanders in china and japan......wow...5 footers!!!....i'd definitely think twice about skinny-dipping there....Bonnie...I love reptiles and amphibians also......i'm the local snake guy......all summer- any neighbors that have a problem with snakes...i'm the one they call.....  my neighbor's daughter called 2 summers ago to tell me that they had 3 giant snakes in the yard.......well, knowing her dad,i figured they were probably all of 12 inches...LOL.......joke was on me.......caught 1- 6 ft. ,1- 6.5 ft. and another that was every bit of 8 ft. made up into a pine tree about 30-40 ft. up....and it was getting dark so he got away.....LOL....the 6.5 ft. snake nailed me good......i wasn't expecting him to be quite so long so when i pinned him with my boot........(thinking i was close to his head)imagine my suprise when he still had a good 2 ft. of neck....got me right in the forearm......ouch.....