Snagged one in middletown tonight , on a crippled herring. Didnt get anything else though. When are the sand eels around? Whats the best way to use them for bait?

i like to throw about three em on at a time on a fish finder rig. or if your fishing with current you can drift them

Told ya....those crippled herring are awesome!:D

They are great for Bass!! If they are freash!!
I rake my own when I have the time and they are about the best bait around for Fluke to!! And the fluke don't care if they have been frozen or not!
I think at the end of May is when the big ones are around?? then after that you get alot of small babbys till the fall. But at the Pamet they are pleanty large!! Most of the time.:happy:

Fresh sand eels are the best I rake my at low tide in front of the light house on race point.

They are popular on the Cape - a lot of guys fish them. But I've never heard of any Naragansett anglers using them.
They're better suited to sandy beaches - you'll go through a lot of rigs if try to fish them down where you live.
When sand eels are around most Rhody south shore anglers reach for a Habs or Superstrike needlefish.

How hard is it to find sand eels when raking for them? I have always wanted to get a rake for that but never got around to it. I def like using sand eels for bait because they are usually around most places. Hmmm maybe Ill go for it and buy the rake this year, it is a bit pricey though......

I got some pix, that i i will post soon.

Here's a picture of a sand eel.....
http://surfcasting-rhodeisland.com/StoreImages/791.jpg

Imagine a fish that just happened to grow to look just like a redgill !! ?? :)

The one i caught was a lot wider joe. It wasnt as skinny as that one at all. Actually looked a lot different then your pic.

Originally posted by BigFish
Told ya....those crippled herring are awesome!:D

They catch(or snag!) just about anything!:)

Im thinking it wasnt a sand eel now. Maybe a baby eel. Its mouth was almost the size of a nickel when opened.

sand eels can grow decently large ive seen them at like 10 inches down at the cape. But I dunno if they get that big this early in the season... Although one way to tell the diff is that sand eels are silver and eels are brown and whitish.

i saw big ten inch eels in the east end of the canal last summer that looked like in the pic, schools so thick you could run a tremble hook and hook a dozen

do you chunk em or whole

I swallow the 6" and shorter ones whole.

Once they get too big I like to bite them in half first.

They are very tasty raw. :hihi:

haha sand eel sushi yummmmmm. The best method with sand eels is put 1-4 eels on at a time depending on the size of them.

Hey, no joke---they're pure protein, almost no fat, and while I find them palatable but slightly fishy tasting, there are those who believe they taste like raw oysters :D

where can I buy a sand eel rake?

riverview bait shop on rt 28 in south yarmouth mabyee quivet creek outfitters has them

Chef:
I had a fluke cough something up last week that looked like a sand-eel but wider w/ a big mouth, like your describing..
about 3-4" long. The mouth looked like a baby weakfish..
I'm thinking Lizard fish. some guys got some in gansett last year a little bigger on teasers...

Scroll down...
http://njscuba.net/biology/sw_fish_river.html

This is how I test if they're fresh.

That is my go to bait in the summer.

The key is they HAVE TO BE FRESH.

RIR, you;ll know a lizard fish, they look just like a lizard with razor sharp teeth

when you rake for sand eels do you stick the prongs of the rake all the way into the sand or just rake the top?

This is how I test if they're fresh.
You made me crack up. funny!:bl2:

RIR, you;ll know a lizard fish, they look just like a lizard with razor sharp teeth

Yeah.. but partially digested...
I'm sticking w/ my baby weakfish theory for now...