The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

JAA by sea baits I meant deadbait like sardines, but even really fresh ones will catch but not as many as fresh coarse fish. And of course, there are many exceptional catches using baits that eels don't normally take.

During tench fishing trips over the past few weeks we have now caught numerous eels, upto just under 2 pounds, all caught on maggot and after dark, we are at the point were we have started switching to corn at dusk to avoid catching them because all except one have been deep hooked.
(fortunately we were only using size 14 hooks)
The one exception being an eel hooked on a small circle hook that was hooked in the lip.

Santiago wrote:JAA by sea baits I meant deadbait like sardines, but even really fresh ones will catch but not as many as fresh coarse fish. And of course, there are many exceptional catches using baits that eels don't normally take.

Ah, misunderstood, my apologies.

I should have been more clear!

Lets take this in another direction- here is a joyful specimen caught in a two day session in which I was continuously awoken by 'boots' at night. This one really lifted my spirits and deserved to be celebrated as it is almost as old as me I guess!

Aquaerial wrote:Lets take this in another direction- here is a joyful specimen caught in a two day session in which I was continuously awoken by 'boots' at night. This one really lifted my spirits and deserved to be celebrated as it is almost as old as me I guess!

Well done, a 21 year old eel eh

Northern Eel wrote:

Aquaerial wrote:Lets take this in another direction- here is a joyful specimen caught in a two day session in which I was continuously awoken by 'boots' at night. This one really lifted my spirits and deserved to be celebrated as it is almost as old as me I guess!

Well done, a 21 year old eel eh

Been a hard life!

Great fish! Reminds me that some of the bigger eels don't return to sea, they just get bigger and bigger, and some even claim that Nessy was an overly large eel!

And I'm regminded of the first eel that I ever saw when I was a boy back in the seventies . This old chap was maggot fishing for tench in this really small pond in York called Chappies that was council owned and was rather neglected. Anyways, there was a commotion around him so me and my mates ran over and there was this old chap trying to net an enormous eel, possibly a 5lber, but sadly his landing net was far too small, for one really needs to net big eels tail first so they swim backwards into the net. So after an epic battle watched by a dozen or so kids, the small hook hold came free, and the leviathan swam free. However, the sight of that eel made an impression on me, it was so huge and from such a tiny pond!

I used to think they were mostly trapped females which might still be true but nowadays one has to consider with such a continuous source of food they probably just like where they are...and why not?