Did a quick search.. came up lame.
I'll preface this with, I've never used eels before. :think:

Now that thats out of the way, I have a question about eeling from a boat. I've read JohnR's eelin 101 a few times now (great read btw) and am wondering if the same methods apply to boat fishing eels?

Do you keep the eels on ice while your out for a night? Can/should you use your live well in order to keep them alive. Im guessing that that will kind of keep them a little bit too alive?


Should you be casting them off the boat or just set up a drift and let them do their thing?

Can you troll eels?

OR should I just stick with slug-gos, which killed them last night :)


:thanks:

ice em unless you want balls.

I have a couple of coolers that I made a cage out of using the green, vinyl coated rabbit wire from Home Cheap-o. Out of the sheet of wire mesh I cut it to form a cage but with no top and it fits inside the cooler. Inside the cooler I put two 2 Litre bottles of ice on the bottom and let the cage sit on top with the eels inside the cage, lay a wet piece of burlap on top of the eels or a wet rag and the things stay alive for days so long as I keep the rags wet, even with no ice. The ice just keeps them slow.

When eeling in the boat, I either drift, which is most of the time and cast, and depending on where I am, I might anchor up and cast and set the eel out on a fishfinder or an egg sinker, and most of the time, the rod will go off as the rod is deadsticked in the rodholder.

I've never trolled an eel before, mostly because I use them at night and don't want to be dragging an eel around the rocks when I can't really see, and going stealth means the motor is off.

Ice them..

Drift them, cast them, it's all good...

i do not ice them, but i do switch the water in the bucket I keep them in often. We toss em from the boat toward the rocks and reel real slow, feel a pickup- drop the tip of the rod and then set when you feel tension. some guys whack the eels head on something to stun it b4 casting, which prevents the eel from balling up- but i just hook the eel under the chin and out the eye, quickly drop it in the water until i am ready to cast, them toss away. I doubt bass see many eels that are stunned swimming around, so I keep mine as alive as possible as to keep a natural appearance. just my humble opinion

make sure they hit the bottom........

I have always done good trolling eels, even in the daytime in my tin boat. I use 30 lb big game and a 4' fluro leader. No weight. I let out 2 or 300 feet of line and troll very slow with a 15 hp motor. I lay the rodtip on the gunnel and the butt in my hand and drive. I fish grass patches in 10 to 20 ft depths. I started doing this because the eels would go into the grass and hide if I drifted. This way they stay in the upper water column. Don't believe the people that say you can't catch fish in the bright sun with eels either. I usually only fish this way in daylight. Good luck. Paul

Thanks guys... lots of good tips.

We were out last night trolling around and when it gets dark trolling becomes a challenge perhaps a little dangerous.. this certainly is a better alternative. :cheers:

Avoid eel balls...don't dangle your eel, throwum on the deck after you hookum or break their tails. Use ice.

I put em in the livewell, get one out with a net, throw it on deck, pick up with rag, sinsert 7/0 hook up thru bottom jaw and out eye socket, get it into water asap..No eel ball. You can cast or just drop over and drift..Good luck.