Eels in Essex

[Bugle Beachbuggy]

Hi

Anybody know what the eel situation is these days in the Essex creeks. Are they getting sparse or are they thriving.

[Guest sandpipper]

Hi, there was a repor on country file BBC1 about eels in essex i think they said they were only catching 10% of what they were getting 7 years ago?

[A Norfolk Boy]

A couple of years back they were at 2% of levels 20 years previously.

[Leon Roskilly]

Actually it is the numbers of returning elvers that are crashing.

 

With eels living up to 20 years before returning to breed just the one time, it will take a while for the drop in returning elvers to show up as the adult population slowly declines.

 

But every eel that lives long enough to attempt to make it back to the Sargasso sea helps, so I've long ago given up eating them (the fact that they are also carrying lots of heavy metals and other nasties, which could be part of the problem, also helps in deciding to forgo a dish of jellied eels!)

[mbk]

there are plenty of eels coming out at proter/gamble near grays

see south east at wsf

[sam-cox]

As a lad my mates and I usedto catch lots of good eels from Bradwell creak.

We used nothing but peeler crabs for bait and carp rods and 2oz leads.

I caught 49 eels one day.

We also used to get lots of big flounders, both species are now scarse. If you fish Bradwell Creak now days all you will probably catch is small bass or if your really really luck a smoothound.

 

However in the Crouch I have noticed a distinct increase in eel numbers this year.

[DJMCJERICO]

However in the Crouch I have noticed a distinct increase in eel numbers this year.

 

He's not kidding either

[A Norfolk Boy]

He's not kidding either

 

Good.

[Bugle Beachbuggy]

Good.

 

Ditto that. I use to fish the Tollesbury Creeks. I went out on a trawler from there a few times. The size of the flatfish that were pulled up in the net was an eye opener-huge b...... Hopefully next year I will have a Teal22 or Wilson23 to fish off the coast. I would like to fish the creeks for the eels and then go out and find bigger prey later that day.

[FatOldFart]

I have been fishing the Thames between Thamesmead and Gravesend for the past 20 years and have noticed that the Eels have reduced both in size and quantity to such a point that they are now a suprise rather than a nuisance!