The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

As we all know the problem with eels is when you get them on the bank they tend to thrash about a bit which makes unhooking a problem. well heres an old trick that has served me well. As soon as you can get a cloth over the eels head then turn him on his back and sroke his tummy from head to tail a few times and you will be amazed to see your once wiggly customer go into a trance! it really works so try it next time you catch one!

I take your point sir, but i think placing a wet weigh sling over the eels head to calm it is better than having a thrashing snake bashing all its slime off. I would never place a dry cloth on any fish and i think the least we handle any fish we catch the better!

Keep them wet, turn them over and stroke the belly !!



Bob

Bloody hell bob, that's a monster!

Lovely fish Bob.

It sure is. :thumb:

CraigM wrote:Lovely fish Bob.

Dunno about lovely! Impressive, spectacular, yes.... Can't bring my self to call an eel lovely!!!

A similar trick can be performed on frogs, if you're bored and have a frog handy; just lay it on its back and gently lay your hand over it to stop it righting itself. Within about thirty seconds it will lie still, and continue like that after you remove your hand, for two minutes or so. If you repeat the experiment with the same frog, and measure the time it takes between removing your hand and froggy righting himself, you can plot a nice little graph - they soon get used to it and after a few tries, will hop it as soon as you remove your paw.
If you manage a fishery, do whatever you can to help frogs. There's something in it for you - in shallow ponds, tadpoles hammer the mosquito larvae.

In the unlikely event of you encountering a lobster while out fishing, you will find you can do a similar trick with these to that played on eels and frogs. Rubbing firmly on their main carapace - the large hard piece of shell just behind their head, renders them completely catatonic. They recover after a while. I was shown this by a friend who is a chef, and as he was giving me my first lesson in what to do with lobsters in the kitchen, I won't go into what happened to the lobster(s) while they were catatonic, in case there is anyone of a delicate disposition reading this.

BobH wrote:Keep them wet, turn them over and stroke the belly !!



Bob

I spent a couple of summer/autumn seasons targetting Eels and this was the biggest I caught.

They are a fasinating species to have a go at, very time comsuming, big Eels are not that easy too find or too catch.

It depends what you want from your fishing, if you love a challege then Big Eels will certainly give you that !!

Bob