AUSTIN, Texas --You never can tell what you're going to find in Lady Bird Lake -- how about a 38-inch freshwater eel?
That was a quite a surprise for researchers doing a fish survey at the constant-level lake.
American eels like this one spawn during the winter in the Atlantic Ocean.
By the time the baby eels make it to the U.S. coast, they are about six inches long.
They used to be quite native to Texas, but the construction of all the dams along the Colorado River have mostly erased the species from the Lone Star State.
The state record for the longest eel caught is 42 inches long. It weighed about 6.5 pounds.