fishing eels

[steamroller69633]

i am going to try some eels this weekend and i have never used them. i was wondering if someone could answer some questions.
do you anchor or drift
weight or liveline
i have also heard of using a bobber but that sounded weird, i usually use spot and chunks but never eels. i have heard they are producing around the mullica river mouth

[mucho clams]

Drift along the sod banks. I like to use a light trolling sinker like 2 oz. Just bounce it easily off the bottom. I hook mine from under the jaw & out through the head, not to far back or you will kill them. Use 5/0 circle hook from Gamakatsu.
Good lucl:D

[CM Reel-ty]

You will want to drift with eels, a light lead will also be needed not more then 2 Ozs. If you don't keep the eel moving it will curl up in your line and make a tangled mess. When you are moving back up in your drift don't drop the eel on the deck, hang them just above the water line on the out side of you boat. Or they will again curl up in your leader and that isn't fun to try to untangle. It is a slimy mess. If you eel does get all twisted up in your leader cut you line and start over you will save yourself a huge headache. Hook the eel up through the bottom lip not to far back, they have tuff jaws and will last a long time.

I have heard about the float method, seems to be used more down south in deeper water. I have never tried it, dragging on the bottom seems to work just fine here in Jersey.

Good luck.

[cobraarvey]

Once you catch one in your bucket, (and that's no easy task), use a rag to handle them, as they are too slimy to keep a good grip. With the rag, hold the eel firmly by the tail and give it several good wraps on the gunnel of the boat to stun it or you'll just have a tangled mess once you finally get it on the hook. Now you can grab the head of the subdued eel with the rag and put the hook through the mouth/lower jaw. Usually drift with as little weight as possible. Leave 'em hanging on the hook with the rod in the holder when you move, because if you lay down your rod, you'll have another tangled mess.

[Time Out 33]

Eels are a little easier to grab with a green scotch brite pad.

[BILLO]

i am going to try some eels this weekend and i have never used them. i was wondering if someone could answer some questions.
do you anchor or drift
weight or liveline
i have also heard of using a bobber but that sounded weird, i usually use spot and chunks but never eels. i have heard they are producing around the mullica river mouth

I have been using eels since 1991 - almost exclusively off party boats fishing the cape may rips and that area in general. The most effective method is as follows:
Hook the eel up through the lower jaw and out the upper--not too far back in the head.
Use as little wt.as possible to keep the eel on the bottom - NOTE: An Eels natural movement is to swim to and hug the bottom so less is better than more wt..
Once you have the eel on the bottom - best to have it far away from the boat - but not too far wher you dont have too much line 'floating' in the wind and the waves.
Keep your reel in free spool as you DRIFT - Never anchor!
If you use a spinning reel keep 1 finger on the line against the rod just above the reel with bail open as you are drifting-dont leave any slack as your doing this. Keep your rod parallel with the water - point it out towards the way your eel is drifting.
When you have a pickup your line should 'pop' off your finger. Count out 5 seconds(real time) then,as your rod is pointing to the way your eel was drifting-CLOSE the bail. If the line goes tight then do a reverse tommy-hawk with your rod straight up and back to above your head- HARD-,but not too hard.(stripers have bone like pallets).
Keep your rod up high and reel hard - and pull your rod up higher too assure sinking that hook in the mouth. Caution - with the 5 second wait the fish may be gut-hooked. KEY - let the striper 'run' with the eel - this enables the striper to turn the eel around to swallow it head first. They never swallow an eel tail first-that would give the eel a chance to swim out of its mouth.
I never used circle hooks with eels - I hear you dont let the striper run - I dont think circle hooks should be used when fishing live eels - but - it prevents gut-hooking throwbacks since a circle hook will cause the fish to hook itself in the corner of its mouth as soon as the fish picks-up and runs.
This method works 99 % of the time!

[donzi and marie]

All the stripers i caught have been on eels and dimond jigs. I hook through bottom lip, and out through eye. And i always use circle hooks. I use a 1oz. torpedo shaped sinker. I fish mine a little different though. I keep my reel locked up. Every time i get a strike, it's usually a hard thump on line and then i just lift up my pole. They get hooked right in corner of mouth, and the eel is usually hanging outside of the mouth.

[Captain's John & Diana]

Put a dozen eels on a towel with ice under them and when they get cooled down they do not move around and very easy to put on a hook. Never used circle hooks on eels when fishing the Cape May Rips and all we ever used was a simple 4/0 light wire style from Mustad which I used to buy in a 100 packs. I never used a leader over 20 lbs when fishing eels during the day in the fall but now I guess florocarbon is in vogue but I like a light leader that allows the eels to swim the best. In the older days when the rips had bass up to 40 lbs and bigger at night in June we would go up to a 5/0 wire hook and 25-30 lb leader as we were fishing on the mussel beds so the heavier leader helped a little as the mussels beds were tough on leader material plus the stripers were a lot bigger. We used 3 foot leaders with a 60-80 regular swivels and mostly 2 oz sinkers. We always hit the striper right away and never let them run with the eels as when you feel the tug they already had the eel in their mouth. The reason we did this is to keep the striper from being gut hooked as many were under 28 inches and we wanted to release them without them bleeding from gills or stomach. Down In Virginia in January when the big cows are present big big eels catch the largest stripers and the bigger the eel the better but the fish up here at least on the Cape May Rips are no where near the size found down by the bridge-tunnel in winter. Good luck but most anglers I know now use pretty much spot only these days when fishing the Cape May Rips but I bet you can still catch some nice stripers on eels but spots have become the way to go from what I hear these days.

[Barnegat Light Mike]

I have caught hundreds of stripers with eels from both boats and shore/jetties. I use 8/0 Eagle Claw Circle Hooks and 50# Floro. No weight. As a pick-up occurs, I do a 5 count (as mentioned above) and then engage the reel. Seldom do I lose a fish. Good luck. Eels are a fun and great way to fish.

[BILLO]

Put a dozen eels on a towel with ice under them and when they get cooled down they do not move around and very easy to put on a hook. Never used circle hooks on eels when fishing the Cape May Rips and all we ever used was a simple 4/0 light wire style from Mustad which I used to buy in a 100 packs. I never used a leader over 20 lbs when fishing eels during the day in the fall but now I guess florocarbon is in vogue but I like a light leader that allows the eels to swim the best. In the older days when the rips had bass up to 40 lbs and bigger at night in June we would go up to a 5/0 wire hook and 25-30 lb leader as we were fishing on all mussel beds so the heavier leader helped a little as the mussels beds were tough on leader material plus the stripers were a lot bigger. We used 3 foot leaders with a 60-80 regular swivel and a 80 lb swivel in length mostly 2 oz sinkers. We always hit the striper right away and never let them run with the eels as when you feel the tug they already had the eel in their mouth. The reason we did this is to keep the striper from being gut hooked as many were under 28 inches and we wanted to release them without them bleeding from gills or stomach. Down In Virginia in January when the big cows are present big big eels catch the largest stripers and the bigger the eel the better but the fish up here at least on the Cape May Rips are no where near the size found down by the bridge-tunnel in winter. Good luck but most anglers I know now use pretty much spot only these days when fishing the Cape May Rips but I bet you can still catch some nice stripers on eels but spots have become the way to go from what I hear these days.

Also - never put eels in water - dry bucket on top of ice - dont like towels on ice since they need to create slime - plastic bucket is best-lets the slime form and nothing to absorb the slime(towels).
I also was told by an 'old-timer' who was using live spot and eels last week that SPOT tend to catch smaller stripers as compared to eels.?. If true - then why pay twice as much more for spot ! Eels dont need anything but a plastic bucket to keep them alive! At best(so it seems) you'll catch the same size using spot or eels---BUT, I know that Eels catch big ones. Chunking is a different subject-just comparing spot and eels here!:thumbsup:

[Captain's John & Diana]

Some good info here. I should have mentioned that a few times we had guys let their stripers run to a 5 count as that is the way they learned how to fish eels and they slammed the stripers and really gave me the heck about this in a fun way so to each and their own but on the rips we hit them fast just like when a jig is picked up by a striper. When I fished with eels a lot circle hooks were used mostly for tuna then and even today I have friends that only use J hooks no matter how they fish for stripers and this holds true when chunking even more so. Lots of good information and I personally pretty much gave up fishing the rips the last few years but miss the days we used to catch a whole lot of stripers on eels long before the spot thing started. Does spot catch smaller striper is another subject but my guess is their a fewer bigger fish on the rips than when I used to fish it for so many years in the past. I know a few 50 lbers caught right in front of the Gun Mounts about 15 years ago drifting eels and do not hear of fish this size caught these days on the rips but possibly they are still but the boat traffic these days it might have something to do with this. I caught my personal best striper drifting eels which went 47 lbs about 12 years ago on the rips but this was at night with no boat traffic.

[BUCKTAIL WILLIE]

it is always best to give your eels a good kiss before putting them in the water

[Justinfish]

A soon as you hook your Eel drop it right into the water to avoid any kind of tangle ups. They can be a real pain in the ass when they get tangled up in your line... I also like to fish Eels with out any weights. The Eel will naturally swim to the bottom. Good luck!

[dano1801]

Does anyone drift eels in the backwaters (i.e., along sodbanks, flats, bridges, etc.) during daylight with success? Or are they pretty much a nighttime only thing, unless you are fishing in the rips? I also like the idea of drifting eels under balloons/bobbers, anyone do this?

[Barnegat Light Mike]

Does anyone drift eels in the backwaters (i.e., along sodbanks, flats, bridges, etc.) during daylight with success? Or are they pretty much a nighttime only thing, unless you are fishing in the rips? I also like the idea of drifting eels under balloons/bobbers, anyone do this?

I've had some success in the back during the day with eels but not nearly as much success as at night. I've fished them under ballons/bobbers out front: in Virginia, we've caught lots of fish that way. In New Jersey, not so many -- no explanation for that though -- why VA but not NJ?

[steamroller69633]

wow you guys have been so informative, i cant wait to try this weekend i just hope the weather holds out.

[Capt Steve]

Don't beat the head of the eel as suggested. Rather, allow about 4 inches of TAIL to protrude from a towel and give the tail a few whacks against the gunnel. This breaks the end of the tail and the eel will not die or swim erratically. Also, this keeps them from making the ever popular eel ball since they can't hook the line with their tail. By the way, the 5/0 Daichii circle hook is the only one I use eeling the rips. No drop back, turn the handle when it feels heavy. You won't miss many and they are usually hooked in the corner of the mouth.

[JoeyZac]

You can completely conquer and control the eel with a paper towel. It's like Kryptonite.

Hook the eel, peel the towel off, put'em in the drink!