From the short time I've had to deal with Eels, I know they are a mess. Not only are they slippery but when you get that slime on your hand, the slime sticks to your hand, then whatever you touch and so on. I tried wearing a yard work glove but once that got wet, the eels were even more slippery. Needless to say, I gave up on the glove idea, or so I thought. I was walking through Home Depot and I came across this stuff for refinishing furniture. It's like the stuff on the back of sponges only a lot coarser. It's green as well. So heres my idea.

Take my workman's glove and that green stuff, cut blocks of it to fit my palm and each section of my finger so I can still bend them and all. Then, I could either sew it on using a needle made from a wire hanger and some dacron.(I'll probably use the 10 yards of fireline I have on a spool of fireline I have laying around). I'll put on my eel glove and try to bend my fingers. Do any trimming as necessary. My next concern is, "Where do I put this glove when I don't need it?" My solution is, put a grommet in the cuff of the glove. Then put a landyard on and hang it off my surf belt.

Instant love glove for eels.

This is what I do : I use my hands then wash them off when Im done in da water . or wet your hands stick them in the beach sand pick up the eels makes your hand like sand paper hahahaha then wash them off in da water .on a jetty burlap bags cut into 6in squares works good also alot easier than putting on and taking off a glove . Micheal jackson make sure its a white glove .

Patrick, please don't try to reinvent the wheel, OK? There are several ways to do it, from the sand and burlap mentioned above, to the 3M kitchen scotch pads. I often use a rag or an old sock. Stick your rod under your armpit and rub your hands in the water. Your glove would take so much time to make you could have been at the reef... One other option. If you are using a net bag to hold the eels, you can use that to hold the eel while you hook it... You will still get slimed pretty much no matter what you do...

One other thing, the slime factor on the eel increases dramatically if your eel bucket is not draining well... Something to keep in mind...

Patrick---once anything you use to hang onto an eel gets wet and/or coated in slime, it's as useless as your bare hand. Just buy a package of Scotch-Brite pads, it's cheaper and easier. When one gets too slimy to use effectively, throw it away and use a fresh one--they're cheap enough.

Get yourself a cheap bucket, drill some 1/4" holes in the bottom so it'll drain, throw some weed in and some ice on top of them, and use a dry rag to grab the eel. The ice will make it very easy to handle, and it's one-two-three. In between the time you hook the eel, take off the slimy glove so the crap doesn't get all over your rod grip and make you cast it into the Sound along with the eel, and hang it off your belt loop, the eel is going to look like a magic 8-ball all knotted around itself and your leader.

I'm gonna go with a mesh bag. I'm usually wading so that's the easiest idea. I'm usually in about 3 feet of water. The only problem is the only mesh bag I could find online at least, is 3 feet by 2 feet. That's a little on the large side for me. Well I could always have potato sack races if I get bored. Anyone know where I could get a smaller mesh bag while we are on this crazy topic?

Small mesh bags are available where they sell laundry stuff in discount department stores. Ask for the bags that you use to wash delicate garments in.

Cool deal. I usually don't carry a lot of eels, maybe 5 or 6 a trip. If I have any alive, I'll just release them since I'm not into rigging them yet. If there is someone around, who will take them, that's fine too. Most of the people have never heard of using eels before though. The old timers do but not the young guys.

Make sure you get the bags that close REALLY well. You still need to double over the top and wrap it tight or use a strong rubber band as they can still squirm their way out if you don't.

As far as not many using eels, most of the tackle shops I've used down there sell them so there must be people using them. You are also hitting only two spots or so. You need to expand your comfort zone and knowledge of your area... You'll certainly see people using them, even some "young" ones...