Well in my search to re-encounter a large barbel which got the better of me between the two weirs in the park at Stratford-on-Avon (Warwickshire Avon of course) I switched from a large piece of bread flake to a large piece of luncheon meat and encountered several eels running to the 3lb mark.Snape wrote:I've never fished for them deliberately but a mill pool I fish on the Warks Avon reputedly has them to 4lb+.
Using barbless hooks certainly has its advantages when unhooking them and I would reckon that 1 in 2 of the eels I have caught have blown the hook out once I have got them on the bank. If I cannot see the hook I always just cut the line rather than do internal damage to them and all the eels I have caught are returned as I have no Cockney roots.
I used to catch alot of bootlace eels in Norfolk on the Broads when using maggots and they inevitably took the bait well down. They invariably made a mess of my line and managed to put a couple of knots in it with their antics when being landed. I gave up using maggots as bait in Norfolk and rely on bread or sweetcorn to encounter the roach and the bream.