Eels and yet more eels.

[Peter Waller]

People fishing the Broads tell me they are being plagued by the pesky creatures, some up to several pounds too. Have they recovered from the virus that apparently killed so many? Whilst I know that some extremely weird folk actually like the things I suspect that most folk would rather they had become extinct! Are they back in your area?

[Peter Sharpe]

People fishing the Broads tell me they are being plagued by the pesky creatures, some up to several pounds too. Have they recovered from the virus that apparently killed so many? Whilst I know that some extremely weird folk actually like the things I suspect that most folk would rather they had become extinct! Are they back in your area?

Loads in the Trent apparently, although I haven't been bothered by them, or indeed anything, personally. I say this requires the widescale stocking of otters - immediately.

[Leon Roskilly]

The problem isn't so much with eels as elvers.

 

Eels will spend up to 20 years in the rivers (much longer in still waters, 70 years!), before returning to the Sargasso Sea to breed (and to never be seen again).

 

The problem is that the number of elvers replacing those that leave has crashed, so as eels each year leave, they are not being replaced.

 

So areas with large populations of eels will see a gradual reduction in numbers over a couple of decades, whilst anglers are still seeing plenty.

 

Unless the elvers start returning in numbers, inevitably they will eventually disappear.

 

There is no one cause, but something is stopping eels either returning to their breeding areas, breeding successfully, or stopping the elvers returning.

 

Population density determines sex of elvers turning into eels, so once the population declines to a certain point, an imbalance in sexes going back to the breeding grounds will finish them off.

 

(As a rough guide, with plenty of exceptions, it takes 10 years for an eel to grow 1lb, so those eels of a couple of pound or more are some 10 - 20 years old and have been here before the problems with swim-bladder parasites, pollution, changing ocean currents etc started to devastate the numbers of returning elvers)

Edited July 7, 2008 by Leon Roskilly

[dant]

I have heard the same thing Peter but havn't had a chance to fish the Broads proper this year so far. I've had many more than I expected in my Crayfish pots on the Waveney round Bungay, good ones too up to around a couple of pounds.

I for one am glad the Eels may well be on the mend a little in Broadland rivers. Their absensce has been marked over the last decade. Growing up on the Broads it used to be the case that any meaty or live bait would be Eeled within minutes. I went through a couple of years with barely an Eel on maggot or worm baits.

I have had quite a number of Eels off the shore this year though maybe more than I've had put together previously..

 

Interesting stuff Leon. Do you think the netting of Elvers off the coasts of Northern Spain and France as they follow the jet stream up has a lot to do with the lack of Eels on our shores? I've been to a few coastal villages in the Galicia region of Spain where they have Elver festivals and you can't move for them on the menus of the restaurants.

I havn't seen anywhere near the numbers of fyke nets you used to get in Broadland rivers and the marshland dykes as there used to be. The Eel fisherman seems to be a dying breed in this country at least..

Edited July 7, 2008 by dant

[poledark]

I am getting good (averaging about 2.5lbs) from every lake I fish. I fish maggots a lot..............................

 

I understand there is a problem with the numbers of elvers being netted as they return, but no shortage of good sized eels in the Kent lakes.

 

Magnificent fish

 

Den (saved many a blank)

[Leon Roskilly]

Interesting stuff Leon. Do you think the netting of Elvers off the coasts of Northern Spain and France as they follow the jet stream up has a lot to do with the lack of Eels on our shores? I've been to a few coastal villages in the Galicia region of Spain where they have Elver festivals and you can't move for them on the menus of the restaurants.

 

That, and elver netting here to sell abroad, certainly isn't helping, nor is obstruction of routes through European rivers by dams and power stations etc.

 

A lot is now being done at EU level to restrict elver fishing, and to allow elvers to journey up the rivers, but always against a lobby of short-tem self-interest.

[bluerinse]

That, and elver netting here to sell abroad, certainly isn't helping, nor is obstruction of routes through European rivers by dams and power stations etc.

 

A lot is now being done at EU level to restrict elver fishing, and to allow elvers to journey up the rivers, but always against a lobby of short-tem self-interest.

 

 

Ive been catching a lot of eels from the warwickshire Avon, all good sized fish but I have not caught a bootlace eel for over 10 years now, you used to catch them all the time on maggots or worm.

It seems there is a genaration gap.

[Dick Dastardly]

Same as Den says catching plenty of 2-3lb eels from the Kent still waters as well. In fact they are so prolific this year on one water they are really influencing bait/method selection for other species.

[ColinW]

I tried, but I can't let the idea of elvers following the jet stream go without a comment. Maybe that's why the scientists can't find them!

[Neil G]

Haven't caught any eels from rivers for ages but have caught some big ones 3/4lb from estate lakes.

 

I always like catching big eels, especially the ones which have developed a liking for deadbaits