In my last post asking about eel sizes, I mentioned that I was getting ready for a trip on Wednesday. It turned out to be a fabulous day. Under gray, overcast skies, I was slinging eels into the rocky shores of Little Gull Island, which is between Orient Point, Long Island, and Niantic, Connecticut. Lots of rocky structure, lots of white water flowing through, it looked just perfect.

Armed with the newly-acquired knowledge you helpful sharpies provided, I reached into the eel bucket and picked out a nice 14 inch, black eel. On my very first cast, I caught my best striper ever, 41 inches and 36 pounds, on my Penn PowerGraph rod with my Penn 4500 SS reel and 12-pound test.

What a thrill - I haven't stopped smiling yet, and I'll probably go to bed tonight with a photo of this behemoth on top of my pillow. The only problem is, now that all I can think about is striper fishing, I'm heading into my worst fall ever for weddings - 3 in the next 4 weekends. I wish people would be more considerate when picking their wedding dates!

As always, thanks for the info. It sure paid off for me!

Jamie M

That's why you fish nights during the week!!! Nice to know a couple spots you can hit for 2-3 hours for big bass!!! Congrats on the fish!

Last night I had 14 eels (13 under a foot and one 15") that were all green,gray,or brown. I had 6-7 hits and one half-a$$ed run. I really believe that when they are picky that black or at least very dark eels make a difference...

Later,

John

Congrats Jamie a 36 lber is a nice fish now a days, by any method. Those big ones sure do like those eels, tight lines.

Nice fish Jamie!
Don't worry, after all of these weddings are over we'll have plenty of time to get more like this one. We still have the end of september and all of october and november. Just get that wool hat out of the drawer!
MZ

Thats a nice fish, but are you sure about the length/weight? A 41 inch fish would have to be extremely fat to weigh 36 pounds. A normal, healthy 41 incher would weigh about 10 pounds less.

Thats what I was thinking too, Damon. i recently caught a fgish on the cape that was 41 inches long also. It was a very fat fish and still only weighed 28 pounds. If that fish weighs 36 pounds, I can't imagine how fat it was. Maybe a new weigher should be purchased. Still, congratulations on the great catch. Derek

I weighed the fish with 2 scales to be sure, it was 36 pounds on the nose. It had enormous girth - a real behemoth! I tried to load a picture here, but couldn't figure out how.

No way that fish weighed that much at that length ever,I have caught enough bass to know that at 41inches 26lbs is about right,28lbs is acceptable and 30lbs is a remote possibility,but not 36 or 37lbs, you need to check those scales your using they are definatly on some sever drugs!!!

By the way what the F#$y Is a "Black eel" why do all the cape codders call them that?? there is only one kind of eel and its a plain "eel" I dont want to hear the argument that "black eel" differentiates them from "sand eels" because sand eels are not eels at all they are a fish!!

Bill, "Black Eel" means one that has stayed black, not light gray, light green, or light tan which often happens to them when they are sitting in the bait tank for a week.... How was the party???

Eels whether american or sand are fish!