The eels that you are familiar from local freshwater ponds are the same species that are sold as bait for striped bass. The american eel (Anguilla rostrata) spawns in the equatorial Sargasso Sea and each spring finds coastal estuaries and rivers along the Atlantic seaboard as 2" elvers or "glass eels" once they reach about 3-4" they begin to feed and take on opaque colorations.