Mudpuppy stinger/poison??

<font color="000000">Heres the thing, I have been addicted to this site for the last week now, and reading past forum posts has given way to my curiosity...I was reading about mudpuppies...I live on the detroit river and have been catching what we call "mud puppies". My grampa was a marina owner/tugboat operator for 53 years, has a ton of experience with local wildlife in the marshes and rivers. He always told us when we caught a mudpuppy to never touch it's gills and the area behind its gills because it will sting you and is poisonous. Is this true? Also, is this the correct term for the animal? What were we catching? It seemed that even adults had gills..and were very large, about 3 feet long. They were a muddy brown colour with blackish speckles, and were SLIMY!! I havnt seen one in a very long time...the Detroit river is a NASTY one! Does anyone know what I am talking about?</font>

i forgot to mention in the above,the gills of this species were red and looked fuzzy, I was scared to touch them, so I wore those big yellow dish-washing gloves to be on the safe side.

Also, I never caught them with a net, they would mistake my fishing lures and I would catch them...once when it was dark, i remember pulling my line in and hearing a sound comparable to a dying seal...it was dark and not knowing what the hell was on my line, I dragged it to the light post, and saw it was a mudpuppy...I was horrified! The noise was so loud! I know it was probably due to stress but has anyone had any similar encounters?
F.Y.I Of the mudpuppies we caught, My mom brought one to show and tell for my class to see (I was in the third grade) and they were all released...never kept the as pets. No mudpuppies were killed, although they may have been terrified.

False. That is an interesting myth though!

Kara, That's interesting. I was out this winter looking for mudpuppies with the Detroit Zoo at Belle Isle. We didn't find any. It would be interesting to know where you found them and when.

I have caught some mudpuppies last year, when I was fishing for catfish with small goldfish and worms, infact I had to move down river(Ohio River) cause all I was caching were mudpuppies, I think I caught about 14 that were about a foot long.

has anyone heard that wierd sound that I heard??? It was almost haunting!!!!

Yes, it's reminds me of the sound that a small channel cat makes.

whats a channel cat? any links to photos?

A channel cat is a type of catfish, if you google it, you can see photos.

those are some big fish!! we have some around where i live....nothing like a channel cat though!!