The slippery customer may have come from as far as Bermuda before being found living in the canal near West Bromwich
The eel weighs 2.5kg and is thought to be more than 20 years old. It was caught during an operation to rescue fish from the waterway, following a pollution incident along the Ridgeacre Branch.
John Ellis, national fisheries and angling manager of the Canal & River Trust, said: “Finding an eel this size is pretty amazing as it’s not something you see every day.
“Eels are such a fascinating animal. They start life as a little egg in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda and make an epic 4,000-mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean to end up in canals and rivers across Europe and North Africa.
“Once they enter in the canal, they will spend their life growing and maturing before returning to the Sargasso Sea to breed.”
The rare eel has been safely put in a nearby canal.
See what else has been caught in the UK’s canals recently.
