fresh water eels

[runforyourlife 361]

well mine tasted sweet but it had loods of fat on it under its skin

Yours would, but its not as if you are worldly traveled, and know acres about exotic foods and there tastes. It probarbly did taste better than sweed!

[kvnmcwebn 0]

ok im a gobshite on this post.

We only caught them by accidently when trout fishing, and were told from childhood they were dirty and not good to eat.

Sorry i shouldnt have replied to the post. but i learned something.

-kvn

[runforyourlife 361]

what makes ye think that run for your life?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

because your a young lad ferreter, with all your years in fronty of you, or have you fought in the navy....

[Guest SPIFF]

Ok lads Eels are the best but i ve only ever got them on the worm.With regards to the putting the big ones back ,IF what i heard is true we re not helping them much as these are supposed to be the cannibal eels which don t fall back to the sargasso but feed on the elvers coming in every year,so kill the enormous ones but let the silver go?

I have a few funnel nets and was just wondering when the last time to use these is.

Just to say from what ive learnt there s a disease which effects the float bubble so when they get to the sargasso they can t decend to the depth they need to spawn?I hear it effects those eels which inhabit the higher regions of streams rivers lakes bogs etc.I live on the apex of 2 separate catchments ones falling North through Lough Neagh the other west so if im right the westward flowing catchment would have a better population as they don t live as high???

 

Any way i don t know just guessing but when do they migrate??????

[4bellp 0]

on the river where i live you can see them come out from under a ledge soo what we do is just put the bait at the bottom of the ledge where the eels come out. the bait iv always used is either worm or PICNIC SAUSAGES!

[BBB 7]

i'v had a few good eel's accidentily when dead baiting for pike on the river . i'v caught em on roach,dace and smelt. my biggest was around 4lb's. but my mate had one on a sardine. that i would guesstimate was over 6lb. he was a couple hundred yard down stream to me and by the time i got there he had beat it's brain's out with a bank stick.. i told him he was out of order .that eel will a been as old as the hill's . he said it f" cked all my rig up . any way i took it home chopped it up and had a couple a pike off it. . eel's are pretty hard to release though. and i think thats why so many kill em. it is a shame. and yes i do let mine go . even though sometime it would be easier to pan it's head in. i'd say if you wanna catch a big un use a dead bait.

[Guest Eamon.Mc]

Right Davie, I grew up on the shore of the lough, the long line eel men use meal worms for bait, these can be got at some pet shops, if ya want the bigger eels use small fish heads from roach or any small freswater fish, worms are good, especially lob worms but as I say fish baits for the bigger guys, hope this helps.

[Murph 30]

Drifting further off the point of what the best methods/baits are for catching Eels here but:

 

Eels are in decline for a few reasons, one is elver fishing, another is commercial pressure on the adults but with the advent of eel farms in the 80s and 90s the price of wild Eels fell through the floor so the commercial pressure dropped on the adult population but for the same reason increased on the elvers (the elvers are caught wild and then grown to maturity rapidly). Another reason is Anguillacoli crassus, brought into the country from an introduction of Eels from the southern hemisphere-a parasite that affects the swimbladder and prevents them descending deep in the Sargasso Sea. Silver Eels are the same species as brown and green Eels, they look different as the eyes grow large and turn almost black and the body turns silvery in preparation for the migration back to the Sargasso. They taste better than browns and greens due to the fat laid down in preparation for the migration, they also fetch a higher price commercially as the fat means they are the best when smoked. Eels main runs are in the spring and autumn but they do run all year when there's a bit of flood water moving, they also move harder on the dark side of the moon. There is still a commercial Eel fishery in this country, if they were under serious threat it would be stopped so I can't see a problem with taking a couple for yourself if that's what you want to do.

[mackem 27,289]

Took the boy out earlier for an hour and a half,caught 6 eels accidentally along with a few other things,lamped in the Thames last night for 20 minutes,must have seen 8 0r 9 eels in the margins

[runforyourlife 361]

Hiya mackem, have you already eaten some of its back...

 

And everyonekeeps going on about heads and deads for the eel, which is quite true and very good. But a livebait fished near the surface after dark is a lethal way to cathc very big eels.

[mackem 27,289]

Eaten some of its back? All were returned alive and un-gnawed,I am eating trout fishcakes and chillie dip at the moment,getting grease on my keyboard.Enlarge the pic,thats a leaf methinks

[runforyourlife 361]

yes, i was joking mackem......................................................tshhhh.

[mackem 27,289]

No reason to kill eels,I am not a "flatten it on the bank" sorts,but there is a lot of them moving the past couple of nights

[Guest ooty]

well i know about the life cycle of an eel but thanks for the update eel stocks are down to something like 20% compaired a few years ago and seems to be the over fishing of elvers . everyone knows they are in trouble but still go for the young elvers ? i dont get it

i thought eels were down because of a problem developed in ther swim bladder due to some kind of pestasides farmers were using willy nilly,seeping its way into the rivers,causeing them to swim off the continental shelf,theres nowhere near the amount on the broards that there used to be just a few years ago,all the ol boys that net them are netting nearer and nearer the harbours these days,think farmers have a lot to answer for when it comes to the state of our rivers,weed seems thicker,maybe due to the amount of nitrates used on crops,also do you ever think where all those millions of tons of salt goes the highways through down on the roads at the fist sign of a chilly night?? its all got to end up in the rivers,

[Guest SPIFF]

cAN ANYONE TELLME ROUGHLY WHEN THE SILVER EELS DROP BACK TO THE SEA?i HAVE USED FISH IN THE FUNNEL NETS BUT CAUGHT NONE TARGET SPECIES AND WANT TO AVOID THIS SO WORMS THEN??