Tillamook woman catches potentially record-breaking eel-like fish

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Tillamook angler hoping to catch her dinner came upon an unexpected – and potentially world record-breaking – find near Garibaldi early Monday morning.

When Rebecca Jones headed to Barview Jetty to check her haul, she found an eel-like fish she’d never seen before: The monkeyface prickleback.

According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, these fish are often called monkeyface eels because of their body shape and they live on Oregon’s rocky shores within a small home range of around 15 feet.

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Although they are more common along southern Oregon shores, ODFW says anglers have reported catching them along the central and north coasts over the last 20 years. Additionally, the prickleback can survive out of the water for at least 35 hours, ODFW says.

Jones, who is mostly self-taught and only began fishing a few years ago, said wrangling the fish posed a bit of a challenge.

“I’m relatively new to fishing and was losing bait off my line, but I kept at it,” she said. “Within an hour of fishing, I felt another hit. It wasn’t a hard fight, the fish came right up. But it was a very strong fish though, I had to sit on it to get the hook out.”

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Jones added that once she realized what she caught, she weighed and measured the fish, finding a potential world record for its size, weighing in at 4.8 pounds and measuring 28 inches. She is applying to the International Game Fish Association to see if her catch could be the new record.

The current world record for the monkeyface prickleback is three pounds four ounces and was caught in Yaquina Bay in 2008.

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