Scup

Our local CT coves are currently producing eels. Should you have visions of soon slamming into that big cow bass on a moonlit night, but will not have enough $$$$ left to purchase eels after your fuel tab takes you broke, get your traps out now.

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather

Bob & Mag

I've got a new trap, well new to me that is ready to collect some.
Will run that and an old one. Biggest problem is keeping them someplace where
they all don't get "borrowed".

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of food, electricity, gas, and oil, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

Smoke free 4 Months!

74Formula233

Been seeing little showstring eels in the lights when squidding in Newport too

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Scup

I am bothered by a borrower as well as several times when I checked my traps I have found them on the shore rather than in the water. What was strange, the eels had not been removed. Could not figure out who would go through the trouble of pulling a trap and then not bother to clean it out. That was until two nights ago, when my wife told me to look out the window. You guessed it, a big fat raccoon. The raccoon has yet to figure out how to open the traps but I am sure he is working on it. When brains were passed out to the animal kingdom, the raccoon surely walked away with more than his fair share.

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather

Bob & Mag

the little bandit, but that's why they where a mask. ;)

__________________
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of food, electricity, gas, and oil, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

Smoke free 4 Months!

Rover74

Scup, what type of bait do you use in your eel pots?

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Scup

They are not fussy. Most of the ones I have been catching were in my small Gee killie trap which was baited with bread. I may not even put out my eel traps as a dozen eels is probably more than I would wish to hoard at any time and I well on my way to meeting that goal. The eel traps tend to catch larger eels than I like use anyway. The best bait was chopped horseshoe crab but the DEP and my wife will not allow me to catch them anymore. Eels will go after just about any protein like material you have around. Fish scraps, fish guts, whatever is left after a chicken dinner, dump the remains of your last lobster dinner in there as well. They are scavengers, hence they will go after anything they can get their teeth on; should the rains bring up giant night crawlers, put them in a fine mesh bait bag and toss that in as well. If you are not catching, it is more likely you are placing your traps where the eels aren't than your choice of bait. Eels also tend to move about at night, one night you might get zilch in all your traps, the next night there could be five in the first trap you pull. When I was a kid, we used to wind a mess of night crawlers with silk thread until we ended up with a massive tangle of silk thread and worms. This technique was called bobbin for eels. An eel's teeth are slightly curved backwards, hence they get their teeth tangled in the mass of worms and thread. My favorite spot was the base of Marine Parkway Bride in Jamaica Bay. Eels loved to hang around the base of the bridge supports. Good luck, and I would not be surprised if the cost of eels rises to new heights this year as well as everything else. Now that you reminded me, I will see if I can find my old eel spear, and post a picture of it later on this week. The imported ones you buy today cannot hold a candle to what was available in the past. Even if I cannot find it, I could draw a sketch of it as they are not hard to make.

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather

Scup

Could not find my thirty year old plus eel spear! It has to be somewhere about the garage but its whereabouts eludes me. Since I am planning to go blue claw crabbing later on this summer, due to a form member sharing a clam/blue claw recipe with me, I decided to purchased another one. Almost always one will spot eels while crabbing and they are very hard to nail with an Asian imported spear head (50/50 chance). The odds improve to 90% with a decent designed spear head. While my mindset might still go back to the fifties, the cost of a new spear head has certainly moved into the twenty first century. Had to pay $60 for it, and to the best of my knowledge I know of no one who still makes them. The Long Island gentleman that made them died years ago. Felt stupid for paying so much for a decent eel spear head until I went to ebay (item # 270233544744) in which the current bidding for a similar item right now is $100 more than what I had just paid. Now I driving my wife nuts looking for my old and worn spear head as I figure I could prefix the spear with the words "antique" as surely something more than thirty years would qualify as such. Look at the thumbnail (12 inch tile) and you will see how it was done years ago. The spear catches on the pull stroke. A smart forward thrust forces the eel between the tangs and the reverse pointed barbs secures Mr. Eel on the pull stroke. Very effective in muddy bottoms where imported heads have trouble even penetrating the tough body of the eel since there is nothing solid behind the eel to push against. I have tried making such a head in the past but while easy to make, it is hard to make a good performing head. The tangs must have enough spring in them to allow an eel to pass up between them, yet be tough enough to hold fast on the pull stroke. It is sort of a balancing act, and I found it to be quite difficult to emulate its construction. I would also like to point out, our coves no longer hold the large numbers of eels as we had in the past. There are several reasons for this and depending on whom you speak with the answers will vary. Small glass eels are now very tightly controlled by law enforcement. These small eels, much smaller than earthworms, are prized in the Asian community. There is no fish that I know of that had brought a higher price per pound. The Asians imported them and then grew them to maturity. For a while, the unbelievable black market price for glass eels, became an inducement for poachers to target them, especially in Maine. Now, the Asians more or less solved their shortage problem and law enforcement officials have tighten up on poachers. Our current Connecticut laws prevent their taking. I personally believe when the Striped Bass population was at an all time low, eels abounded. Now that bass seem to be everywhere, and they love their eels even more than the Asians, the eel population dropped. The best time I found to go for eels, (for eating, not bait) is at the end of the season. When the frost is on the ground, and thoughts move toward pulling ones boat for the season. At this time, the organic material in our waters are minimal and underwater visibility is maximum. Get yourself a decent look box and a long handle eel spear such as the one shown. As you drift over the bottom, look for small holes. Eels have to make preparations go to bed for the winter. These holes will contain an eel that while he might still forage some during the night, it will not be long before Mother Nature will start to close everything down. Take your spear and direct it at about a 45 degree angle and a few inches from the hole. The idea here is to intercept Mr. Eel while he is at rest in his hole. It it almost unfair to take eels this way in that he does not have a chance to evade your weapon. Again, an imported eel spear head will be useless for this type of sport, if you call it that.

Attached Images

DSCN0133eel.JPG (694.7 KB, 3 views)

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather

fishcounterbob

Bobbin' for eels is one of the most insane times I can remember as a young waterman. Thread up all the almost dead sandworms and tie a weight to this ball of mush. On unfishable nights you stay in the creek and anchor across the current to put down 3 or 4 lines and watch them pull. Hand line up an unweight the eels teeth and they fall right off. Italian in East haven bought all I could catch!

Scup

I think those days are gone forever! There is just not that many eels around any more although who really knows for sure. There could be some bright kid somewhere who knows where a cache of them are. There was a popular (mostly because he was in the numbers business) Sicilian barber named "Pete", his shop was in Brooklyn during the fifties, who would trade a haircut for two eels. Most of my eels went to a semi-homeless bum. He lived in an abandoned metal tool shed in the back reaches of Jamaica bay. He built himself a small smoke house and used to scrounge hardwood/driftwood or whatever else he could find to smoke his fish. He would trade eels, two for one. If I gave him 12 eels, he would give back 6 smoked eels. The remaining smoked eels he would sell for his substance which was probably in liquid form.

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather