Rigs / hooks for Eels!

[Tigger]

Yeaph, bolt style set ups with very short hooklengths work a treat for snig. A m8 of mine uses wire for the hooklink. Unhooking is easy, just as Andrew describes above.

[Anderoo]

I still prefer Steve W's hookless method

[Tigger]

I've never tried that one Andrew but if it works then it's gott'a be good!

[Anderoo]

Sounds perfect to me - guaranteed no eels!

[Vagabond]

Sounds perfect to me - guaranteed no eels!

I know this is all tongue-in-cheek, but I remember "eel-babbing" - worms threaded on wool, the resultant mess bundled up, tied to a stout line and dangled off a boat - lots of eels around a pound or two. Most could be shaken off into the large pail kept in the boat, but some had to be pulled off.

 

If Steve's method were tried over a period, I would be astonished if produced no eels at all. Sooner or later worms stuck in eel's throat/ or farther down, eel's teeth caught on knot (however neat and small) the bait was tied on with, sheer greed in not letting go, etc, would result in a snig or two.

 

"Into each life a little rain must fall" applies also to catching eels, toothache, taxes and leaky waders.

[Tigger]

I used to catch stickle backs like that Dave. I used to tie a worm on a length of cotton and watch the cockies cram half the worm down their throat, then i'd just lift them out and the worm was solid enough so as the cocky wouldn't fall off. I did the same with newts also .

[Steve Walker]

I used to catch stickle backs like that Dave. I used to tie a worm on a length of cotton and watch the cockies cram half the worm down their throat, then i'd just lift them out and the worm was solid enough so as the cocky wouldn't fall off. I did the same with newts also .

Me too - sometimes you could get a stickleback on each end!

 

My mate had a baby bath sunken in the garden at home, and we stocked it with sticklebacks and newts. We used to have competitions on it after getting back from fishing. More points for a newt!

 

If Steve's method were tried over a period, I would be astonished if produced no eels at all. Sooner or later worms stuck in eel's throat/ or farther down, eel's teeth caught on knot (however neat and small) the bait was tied on with, sheer greed in not letting go, etc, would result in a snig or two.

For this, one needs an emergency knife on a stick, line for the cutting of!

[Anderoo]

I know this is all tongue-in-cheek, but I remember "eel-babbing" - worms threaded on wool, the resultant mess bundled up, tied to a stout line and dangled off a boat - lots of eels around a pound or two. Most could be shaken off into the large pail kept in the boat, but some had to be pulled off.

 

If Steve's method were tried over a period, I would be astonished if produced no eels at all. Sooner or later worms stuck in eel's throat/ or farther down, eel's teeth caught on knot (however neat and small) the bait was tied on with, sheer greed in not letting go, etc, would result in a snig or two.

 

"Into each life a little rain must fall" applies also to catching eels, toothache, taxes and leaky waders.

 

That's true! We used to do the same as kids in Norfolk, every waterway was carpeted with eels then. Which was handy as we never ran short of pike and zander baits

[Tigger]

Me too - sometimes you could get a stickleback on each end!My mate had a baby bath sunken in the garden at home, and we stocked it with sticklebacks and newts. We used to have competitions on it after getting back from fishing. More points for a newt!For this, one needs an emergency knife on a stick, line for the cutting of!

 

I had a pond filled with sticky backs also...then I caught myself a water shrew and it was voracious, I spent ALL my spare time catching cockies for it. It only liked the heads and left the bodies, fussy little bugger lol.

[Vagabond]

I used to catch stickle backs like that Dave.

 

I did the same with newts also .

Done that with jacksharps and bullheads, but more often with various blennies, gobies and sea-scorps in rock pools.

 

Never tried it with newts, always caught them by hand - there was an old swimming pool in the grounds of a bombed house. The pool was stiff with newts, common and great-crested. We used to lie on the stone parapet surrounding the pool and grab the newts as they came up for air, then transport them in jam jars to various other ponds - there was nobody to say we shouldn't in those days.