Anyone fish for eels anymore?

[1190ftalt]

12 hours ago, Bucksnbows said:

Biggest eel I have seen so far was in a Musky tributary, West Portal Brook. I was surveying for a stream restoration project when I had one over 3’ go right between my legs in inches of water. I had spooked it out of an undercut bank. The Flatbrook is loaded with them. Electro fishing that river is always eelmania.


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Well what this gentleman said is so true ! I used to go fishing  with my grandpa ( he lived in Blue Mountain Lakes) and his buddies fishing for catfish , we would set up about 100 yards north on the Delaware River above where the flat brook river runs into it. They would have about 12  poles out and lanterns and used chicken liver, they caught a lot of Channels Catfish! The channel catfish would pick it up and run, the eels would would lightly hit, dink, dink then either go in a whole or swim towards shore. As soon as you had a eel messing with it you reeled in! If they caught a eel by accident well it was head first secured to a tree and a couple cuts around the head and channel lock pullback and it was skinned, these guys wasted nothing.

Well my Grand pa told me the Flatbrook River was loaded with eels so One summer night a couple of my buddies and I went fishing for eels on the FlatBrook about 1/2 mile  north of Rosencranz house or maybe 300 yards north of the Millbrook bridge that crosses over the Flatbrook ( now there are 2 bridges there) we had some chicken liver and worms , between the 4 of us we caught at least 30 in 2 hours !

Its amazing how many we caught, I don’t know if they swim up from the mouth of the Delaware River at night or if they are just in holes during the day, the River wasn’t even deep and then once it gets dark there they are ! 

Last time we did it like 20 years ago we had 2 lanterns on the side of the Flatbrook River and Red Fuller pulled up and said hello ! A real good guy, The Mayor of Walpack!

Well fishing at night with lanterns for channel cats and eels, sliding down the muddy banks, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and the stench of the chicken liver on your hands definitely BUILDS CHARACTER !

Those days are over for me but I’m glad my grand pa and his buddies were kind enough to take me out with the guys !

I actually caught a black rat snake in my garage under my lawn mower today and successfully released him in the woods, Thanks Grand Pa !

 

[Bucksnbows]

6 hours ago, 1190ftalt said:

Well my Grand pa told me the Flatbrook River was loaded with eels so One summer night a couple of my buddies and I went fishing for eels on the FlatBrook about 1/2 mile  north of Rosencranz house or maybe 300 yards north of the Millbrook bridge that crosses over the Flatbrook ( now there are 2 bridges there) we had some chicken liver and worms , between the 4 of us we caught at least 30 in 2 hours !

Its amazing how many we caught, I don’t know if they swim up from the mouth of the Delaware River at night or if they are just in holes during the day, the River wasn’t even deep and then once it gets dark there they are ! 

 

American eels are catadromous meaning they live in freshwater but spawn in saltwater (Sargasso Sea, to be exact).  They are in our rivers 24/7/365.  I have electro fished tons of eels well upstream of Lake Ocquittunk in the Flatbrook which is many miles from the mouth of the Delaware and in broad daylight hours.  They can slither over our lowhead dams and get way upstream.  They easily get upstream of the 35' tall Warren Glen Mill dam in the Musky Gorge by slithering up its face. 

[_X7]

I've heard stories that there used to be an eel weir behind Mickey's Tavern on the Pequest some years ago where people would gather eels by punching holes in a coffee or fruit can with a length of string or rope attached. They would fill the can with worms and  drop it in the water.  After a time they would lift out the can. The eels would be attached to the escaping worms and then shaken off into the boat or whatever they used to keep them.

[Bucksnbows]

Just now, _X7 said:

I've heard stories that there used to be an eel weir behind Mickey's Tavern on the Pequest some years ago where people would gather eels by punching holes in a coffee or fruit can with a length of string or rope attached. They would fill the can with worms and  drop it in the water.  After a time they would lift out the can. The eels would be attached to the escaping worms and then shaken off into the boat or whatever they used to keep them.

NJ has lots of old eel weirs and they sometimes cause us issues when we are doing river restoration.  Basically, if DEP SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office) thinks a given eel weir may have been built by Native Indians, then you can't touch it.  

[barrike]

Back in the late '80s every year a couple of my crazy uncles would arrange a trout/eel fishing trip to Northeast PA for a handful of us teens.  We'd trout fish all day and eel fish most of the night.  We'd sleep for a couple hours in the car, then we'd be back at it.  "You'll sleep when your dead!" was the motto for these trips.  We'd sneak a few beers from their cooler when  we thought they weren't looking.  They knew what we were doing.  They were "cool" uncles.  Different times, I guess.   We typically used night crawlers for the eels, but on one trip, a local old-timer clued us in on his bait of choice....trout guts!  We caught way more eels after switching to the trout guts.  Fun times. 

Edited May 20, 2019 by barrike

[_X7]

54 minutes ago, barrike said:

a local old-timer clued us in on his bait of choice....trout guts!  We caught way more eels after switching to the trout guts.  Fun times. 

The fresh gills of any fish is also a killer bait for a lot of fish.