Pestered by Eels

[lozza]

try hemp and tears never hand an eel on hemp.

[andy_youngs]

Eels rarely take bread.

Certainly agree with that. I have caught eels before on bread, but only when the rivers absolutely saturated with them and competition for food is exceptionally tough. Bread paste or flake is the best way to go.

[watatoad]

Contact your local Otter Conservation unit as soon as they know you have Eels there they will get a load of Otters in to eat them...solves the problem of the Eels.

[Anderoo]

With eels, it's the baiting and method of fishing that is important rather than the bait itself. Although of course some baits are more eel-proof than others.

 

The key question is, what are you trying to catch and how are you currently fishing? E.g. if you are after perch and are legering worms, then a switch to hemp or bread won't help much. If you are pleasure fishing and just want a few fish, coming up off the bottom will immediately help (i.e. float fish) as will trickling the bait in steadily and slowly building a swim. If you dump a couple of handfuls of maggots in, you will get eels on it. Trickle them in over an hour, you won't have anywhere near as many problems.

 

Once they're in your swim, you'll catch them on pretty much anything. I had my first one on fake baits this year (plastic casters).

 

As a kid we used to catch a few eels for pike baits at the river Wissey. I never once caught one when general pleasure fishing, feeding maggots steadily or via a small feeder, but if we dumped a big pile of them on the bottom there'd be half a dozen eels all over it within half an hour (the water was gin clear, you could see them).

 

On specific baits, I've found they don't seem that keen on fishmeal, which I found a bit odd. Fishmeal pellets, groundbaits and boilies rarely give me eel problems, they seem to prefer the sweeter, fruity ones. If I want to use baits that eels like, I will use that as my base and then fish the naturals over the top in a small, concentrated way, and that generally works OK.

 

If they are a real problem, the only thing you can do is feed them off. A pint or 2 of dead maggots put in with a dropper away from your (more carefully baited) fishing spot should keep them occupied.