Is a change coming?

[Penninelad]

As a former member and Chairman of the National Anguilla Club that is indeed good news.I caught an eel in the South Yorkshire Navigation last season for the first time ever.

[Hovis]

As a former member and Chairman of the National Anguilla Club that is indeed good news.I caught an eel in the South Yorkshire Navigation last season for the first time ever.

Mark, you me and Andy really should have a dedicated eel session when all this is over. A fresh dead minnow was my former killer bait. I think the issue might be finding a suitable venue!

[Mole-Patrol]

Here in France they are also taking it seriously. As well as restrictions on fishing for eels by conventional rod and line methods I know of people who own old water mills who have had spot checks by the Fisheries Department checking for eel traps in the mill races.

For my part it is mixed reactions. I loved the fight of a big eel and enjoyed catching them from the rivers of the Broads and in Huntingdonshire on holidays, but I still have nightmares about the bootlaces that were an absolute nuisance when match fishing the Yorkshire rivers back in the 1960's and 70's. So many days were spoiled by the relentless procession of small eels.

Last eel I caught was in the Dearne at Harlington around 2009. There is a swim there where a ghost carp used to visit and one day I was after it. An old chap came by and got chatting about the species that he had caught in that one swim which amounted to almost everything from dace to pike and included tench and bream. I asked him if he had caught an eel there and he admitted that he hadn't. Literally five minutes later, while he was still there I caught a small one. Talk about fluky.

[Kev D]

I'm sure l read that Alfred the Great passed Laws regarding the protection of young fish and spawn but elvers have been specifically protected since Tudor times. Their capture for local consumption seems to have been generally accepted though there were occasional efforts to curtail the practice.
Water authorities took the official route of licencing local elvermen which seems a fair compromise but
it is appalling to think of the EA ever condoning an export trade even before eels became officially endangered.
After all ,think of the outcry if they licenced the capture on a commercial scale of baby ,salmon or roach ; or even gudgeon, for sale to Dutch or Japanese fish farms .

[Penninelad]

That a good idea Hovis,although I have not been night fishing for many years.My days in the National Anguilla Club were pre Bivi's so we used PVC VW Beetle car covers draped over umbrellas.They were very smelly and uncomfortable in hot weather and when it was colder we used a candle in a jam jar to keep warm.There were no proper bed chairs in those days so we slept on cheap sun loungers.How things have changed! I still use the same Trangia stove that I used for all my cooking on on my eeling trips.I had some great times with the NAC and fished and learnt from some superb anglers.

[Jeremy Croxall]

As a former member and Chairman of the National Anguilla Club that is indeed good news.I caught an eel in the South Yorkshire Navigation last season for the first time ever.

Mark, you me and Andy really should have a dedicated eel session when all this is over. A fresh dead minnow was my former killer bait. I think the issue might be finding a suitable venue!

I've caught eels recently when barbel fishing with meat.
The first on the Royalty under the railway bridge, a reel scrapper, thought it was a good barbel!
The second as a guest during the NPS cane and pin day on the Trent. I didn't weigh it but estimate its weight to be around 2 lbs?
So the Trent may be as good a venue as any to target eels Darren?

[Hovis]

As a former member and Chairman of the National Anguilla Club that is indeed good news.I caught an eel in the South Yorkshire Navigation last season for the first time ever.

Mark, you me and Andy really should have a dedicated eel session when all this is over. A fresh dead minnow was my former killer bait. I think the issue might be finding a suitable venue!

I've caught eels recently when barbel fishing with meat.
The first on the Royalty under the railway bridge, a reel scrapper, thought it was a good barbel!
The second as a guest during the NPS cane and pin day on the Trent. I didn't weigh it but estimate its weight to be around 2 lbs?
So the Trent may be as good a venue as any to target eels Darren?

JC eel are catadromous meaning they spawn at start life in the ocean before returning to freshwater (a bit like a backwards salmon). All we'll connected rivers hold eels and the Trent is a pretty good option. But given the eels can live for a staggering 90 years (the only way to tell is through ring counts on the otolith, but you have to kill the eel first) anyway, this means that eel that are likely to obtain a really impressive size of 4lb+ are those that are effectively trapped in stillwaters. These ones can't migrate to sea and grow old and big as a result. Water company reservoirs are a good option buy most I know have been netted and had lots of eels removed - such a shame. The best eel venue I ever fished was a pond directly next to the canal but not connected. There must have been some method for the eels to move between the 2 as there was plently in the lake. Here it was obvious to see those eels that had moved away from a diet of invertebrate and turn more predatory, they had bigger flatter heads with a significantly wider gape, presumably to allow the eating of larger food items? You'd not catch these ones on a worm but give them a fresh dead minnow and bang! Eel on. Picky though as they'd never take a bait older than a day old!,

[Jeremy Croxall]

As a former member and Chairman of the National Anguilla Club that is indeed good news.I caught an eel in the South Yorkshire Navigation last season for the first time ever.

Mark, you me and Andy really should have a dedicated eel session when all this is over. A fresh dead minnow was my former killer bait. I think the issue might be finding a suitable venue!

I've caught eels recently when barbel fishing with meat.
The first on the Royalty under the railway bridge, a reel scrapper, thought it was a good barbel!
The second as a guest during the NPS cane and pin day on the Trent. I didn't weigh it but estimate its weight to be around 2 lbs?
So the Trent may be as good a venue as any to target eels Darren?

JC eel are catadromous meaning they spawn at start life in the ocean before returning to freshwater (a bit like a backwards salmon). All we'll connected rivers hold eels and the Trent is a pretty good option. But given the eels can live for a staggering 90 years (the only way to tell is through ring counts on the otolith, but you have to kill the eel first) anyway, this means that eel that are likely to obtain a really impressive size of 4lb+ are those that are effectively trapped in stillwaters. These ones can't migrate to sea and grow old and big as a result. Water company reservoirs are a good option buy most I know have been netted and had lots of eels removed - such a shame. The best eel venue I ever fished was a pond directly next to the canal but not connected. There must have been some method for the eels to move between the 2 as there was plently in the lake. Here it was obvious to see those eels that had moved away from a diet of invertebrate and turn more predatory, they had bigger flatter heads with a significantly wider gape, presumably to allow the eating of larger food items? You'd not catch these ones on a worm but give them a fresh dead minnow and bang! Eel on. Picky though as they'd never take a bait older than a day old!,

Am I correct in thinking eels will slither over land in wet weather?

[Santiago]

On the face of it, this sounds like a good news story, and that's what I thought when I first read the original post. But now I'm not too sure, because I have a few questions.

Firstly, what's the current level of the parasite in European eels, the one that causes their swim bladder to disfunction, and sink into the abyss once they swim over the continental shelf, never to reach the Sargasso Sea and reproduce?

Secondly, how does the EA know that the returning elvers originated from eels that matured in Europe ?

Perhaps we're reaping the benefits of conservatory measures carried out in the States.

These questions need answers otherwise how do we know that the elvers do not originate from eels that matured in America. Isn't it thought that both 'American' and 'European' eels are but one species that both mate in the Sargasso Sea, so that the elvers carried by the sea currents to European waters might have parents that spent their lives in American rivers? At least that was thought a possibility a few years ago! I expect the science has changed and I'm not familiar with current views on this, I expect they now use DNA to determine the parental lineages of the incoming elvers, and perhaps they tag our mature eels all the way to the Sargasso sea!?

I can't see much point to the EA's work if the parasitised numbers are high and all of our mature eels aren't getting to the Sargasso Sea! Though I expect its early days so they will not know for several years!

What I've read about this mysterious fish is probably out of date, hence the questions!

Notwithstanding, it's great that the EA are helping the new arrivals!

[Hovis]

JC re: move over land. This is a well conceived notions that eels move over land with ease and that they can just get out when needed. Personally I simply don't subscribe to this thoery. I've seen a few studies looking at (tagged) eel behaviour at obstacles like weirs or pump stations. These cause significant delay to migration and physical damage. If the eels could "go round the side" why don't they? That being said they WILL move over land in very specific circumstances. Elvers climb damp walls quite regularly to assend obstructions. I have however, seen no evidance or research to this in adult eels.

But wait! What's this? Link below shot during a high water event (that's a flood to most people) with significant rain. It's a stones throw from my office and shows a large eel thats clearly silvered and is heading seawards. Interesting eh?

https://thelincolnite.co.uk/2019/10/gia ... coln-road/

So in answer to your question its a bit Vicky Pollard - yea, nut no, but yea. Overall it's a maybe