Met a good friend of mine today, a long time professional eel fisherman by the name of Jack.

Jack is also a keen and able piker. After we had bemoaned the huge increase in pike angler numbers, and the corresponding decrease in catch numbers, we got onto the subject of eels.

Jack agreed that eel numbers in fresh water were down by over 90%, but not in salt water. Jack nets a number of salt water esturies and rivers, as he has done for 20 or more years. Just as many eels as he has ever had. But the eels are not entering fresh water as they used to, and its not because they got caught by Jack in the sea! The whys and wherefores are a mystery, but the result is clear to see, eels are not crossing into freshwater as they used to.

And you know what, none of the scientists have bothered to ask the likes of Jack!!

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Program on the B.B.C.last week(Midlands News)about the elver fishermen at Tewkesbury what was caught and where they went to.A lot was exported to the Baltic countries for restocking or to countries for food by a company I think called (See Through Glass)they were making mega money even bought there own planes to deliver them. They were going out by the plane load.

For a few years now, sea anglers have been regularly catching freshwater eels from beaches

That never used to be the case when I did a lot of shore fishing in the fifties and sixties. Silver eels from estuaries in the autumn, yes - bootlaces from the estuaries at all times, yes. "green eels" from saltwater - no

Must agree with Peter's friend, there is something odd going on in the sea.

...but must say as many eels as ever are still turning up in the freshwaters I fish. These are eels from bootlace size to 3 lb .

My own experience is that there are much fewer eels being caught in saltwater, this is borne out by many posts on the various sea fishing forums.

Tight Lines - leon

Forgive my ignorance here, but do eels actually come up rivers from the sea?

My understanding was that they arrived as elvers and entered the river systems as elvers and then stayed and matured into eels, and then reentered the sea as adults and swam off to the Sargasso to repeat the cycle.

Where I have seen eel traps setup on rivers they have always been to catch returning eels!

Den

That was my understanding of it Poledark. I thought they matured in rivers too.

I can only tell it as I understand it, or has been told to me! There is not doubt in my mind that I have caught eels from the North Sea on a number of occasions.

The estuary/river that Jack fishes is the Blyth in Suffolk, and it would be a very tenacious eel that would make it to freshwater via that route.

Eels are very regularly caught by anglers, but whether coming or going I haven't a clue. Gt Yarmouth Harbour and Breydon Water, the entrance to the Broads both yield many eels to anglers.

An interesting species, and I'm no expert! It was an eel fishermans words re eels crossing over into freshwater. He's been at it a long time, and he's no country yokel!

[ 10. May 2004, 12:26 PM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]

Fewer than since when Leon ?. As I said, up until the late sixties green eels (as opposed to silver eels en route to spawn) were virtually unknown when shore fishing.

More recently (nineties) I have caught green eels from the shore - East Anglia and S coast and so have many others.

Poledark and Andy are right - eels usually enter rivers as elvers, grow on (green eel phase) and mature (become silvery) in freshwater, and normally only at that point do they return to the sea.

So what were those green eels doing in the sea ? Had they refused to enter freshwater and grown larger in the sea? or had they entered freshwater and grown but migrated to the sea early, ie before maturing (turning silver) ?

Is this anomalous behaviour linked in any way to the presence of the swim bladder parasite?

All I know is, Eels are mad, mad fish. I've found them in wet fields miles from the nearest bit of water. I've also found them lurking in drains in the street!! They do get about don't they?

The normal eel life cycle is described here:

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subje...286089/?lang=_e

Many go into freshwater, but many also live their lives as totally marine creatures.

Tight Lines - leon