Eel Retrieve variations
 

When fishing live eels I generally use the sssllllooooww reel technique and cover an area of structure. But the other night when slow reeling the eel, bumping it off the bottom, i wasnt getting any takes. Then I switched to just deadsticking and letting the eel do his thing and it we started bailing fish one after another. Any of you guys use this method of just deadsticking live eels and if so how often do you change up your retrieve?

Jason

Differerent locales need different retrieves, no doubt. Deep water spots I usually dead stick or barely move it most times. In current I feed line out. Other spots 4-8' water its a slow retrieve. My favorite spot in Gansett is all on a slow retrieve, many times they hit it just after you start the retrieve.
If nothing seems to work, try the high speed retrieve. I took one of my biggest surf fish ever on a lightning fast retrieve, so fast you'd think nothing could catch up to it.

Lots of times your eel lands in the strike zone... once you begin retrieving it gets pulled out of the strike zone.
When you dead stick many times its landing and staying in the strike zone becuase you aren't pulling it away. Don't be afraid to use weight in shallow water, either. Lots of times your cast will just barely reach the fish(strike zone) and you want it to get to the bottom fast before the current or surf move it out of the strike zone.
When I used to fish sandy beaches alot I'd always put a 3/8-1/2 oz bullet sinker on the line just to make sure it touched the bottom asap once it landed. Fishing eels many nights you're just barely reaching the fish due to the fact eels don't cast that well....distance/range is an extremely important factor when eeling.

BB is dead on as far as casting distance. Many night's in the yak I'll pick up fish JUST out of casting range from shore. It's possible that you could hit the strike zone on the end of your cast...

And when you do cast (once the eel has calmed down and won't quickly ball on you) let it sink before your retrieve. Then go slow.

Other times when it feels fishy but no bumps or light bumps, go to a faster retrieve. Also, sometimes be sure to keep your eel in the water all the way to the end on some casts as sometimes the hit will come at your feet.

Thanks guys for the input. As far as being in the strike zone that was my feeling as well. I believe on this night we were casting directly into the zone and within 4 turns of the reel would be out of it.

Happens alot. When you employ a wetsuit in the right place, your strike zone expands exponentially as you can reach the fish more readily and keep your presentation in front of them longer. I'm still a greenhorn in the wetsuit but I've already seen enough to convince me its a critical piece of gear for surf fishing if you want to expand the strike zone quite a bit.

Can't you guys just hook them in the tail and use a bobber?

Thats what my grandfather did...

Yeah this paticuar spot is only accessible by wetsuit.

Although you can also find yourself swiiming out to the far boulder, launch your cast, only to have fish feeding 5 feet behind you. I guess its all relative.

Don't forget the lift, reel down and pause retreive. This worked wonders for me last weekend. Even resulted in my first shark while wetsuiting. Nothing quite like dealing with a pissed off sand shark standing waist deep on a rock with 10'+ of water all around you. :smash: