is there away to catch eels or do you have to pay 1.00 apeiceand if so how do i catch them if someone knows thanks!!!!

I've seen them caught with sea worms. How to catch them in bulk I would also like to know.

I'm not sure if you need a permit but when I lived on Plum Island I used to see a guy with eel traps in the marsh by the bridge onto the island
:D

I read on a previous post Horseshoe crabs for bait. There is a thread about how to catch eels, do a search.

Eels are EASY to catch. Takes a little time and effort. Get a killie (or eel) trap and get some horsehoe craps as bait. You will need a cart to keep them alive . You could build one easy or you could keep them alive in a large paint bucket (2 bucks at home depot) by drilling lots of holes in it and sinking it with a big rock inside. But you can't keep more then 30 or so in the bucket.

You can use somethng else for bait (ie clams) but horsehoe crabs work 10X better. Place in a marina, tied to the pole off your dock. (they like the mud, don't put it on a sandy bottom) If you check it and CLEAN it and re-bait it once every 3-4 days you will have hundreds of eels for the fall. (eels don't like dirty pots for some reason)

I use to do that all summer and by fall I would have 200+ eels ready to go. (Now I make a deal with a commerical guy directly who delivers 200 eels to me and it lasts the whole season.

The killie trap works good too. They make eel pots witch are nicer and bigger and you can get them from the commerical fishing supply. Keep the inlet small, you don't want eels as thick as your arm in there....maybe you do? ;-)
Two pots will catch you plenty of eels for fishing.


I have kept eels alive in thoses big plastic paint buckets (drilled)for over a year no problem without any attention. They are amazingly tough and eat each other when one dies. 2 years ago I left a bucket tied to Paines Dock on BI and I left it over the winter and when I pulled it up the next fall nearly all of them were still in there happy to see me. I also had some in a salt pond in stoington CT that I had forgotten about for nearly 2.5 years, the buck was pretty rank but they were still alive in there.

Though the eel traps are definately the way to go, I used to go down to the Charles river and catch them while fishing the bottom for catfish. I just used a slider and a nightcrawler.

My eels start to turn white when I leave them over 2 weeks at my dock. 2.5 years is amazing! I can't remember what I had for breakfast, never mind where I left eels 2.5 years ago!

I just put an eel pot on my moring pole at Cuttyhunk so we will have eels ready to go every time we run over. Nice muddy bottom and lots of eels about every time I get over there so I finaly got smart and put out the pot:D

Thanks for the info, GBOutdoors. When I need some "Skinning Eels" I will know just where to go and look!!!!!:D

Chet - can you get yer rig in there at low tide :D ?

Sorry Chet but I have changed poles as the Farthingtons wanted mine so I sold them ours and bought thiers and I am not going to tell you were it is:happy: you will have to try and catch me on it :D :D I just bought a nice new picnic table that seats 8 and am sending it over on the Alert tomorrow so we will have a nice place outside to sit and eat during the rematch this Fall. Speaking of this fall any ideas as to when we should get together over to Cuttyhunk agian????? Lets hear some dates so I can pick a weekend!!:D :D

Cutty! :happy: Cutty! :happy: Cutty! :happy: Cutty! :happy:

The 3rd weekend of September is out for me as I'm my entire company is moving from 2 floors on 2 different buildings to 2 adjacent floors in the same building - crappy fall :(

GB - When we goin' FiShIn? :D

September 29th and 30th ??