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Originally Posted by inTHERAPY
The "adult" eel we kill by the hundreds over the course of the fishing season have never spawned. Born in the Sargasso, make it to shore off of the Stream as elvers, move to fresh water, live for 5, 10, 15, leave to go back to the Sargasso. Those eels spawn only once in the Sargasso Sea and die. There in lies the shortage problem.
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Michele Burnette, DEM's eel specialist, gave an interesting talk to RISAA on the American eel a few months ago - the export of live elvers for the Asian market is a big factor as well as the usual culprit, habitat destruction in our streams and rivers. Another major factor is the commercial harvesting of seaweed out of the Sargasso Sea where the eels spawn. Apparently last year there was a complete recruitment failure in the St Lawrence and several other important areas.
She said the eel may go straight to the Endangered Species list prohibiting sale or possession without even making it to the watch list first. Not a real good thing for those of us partial to them as bass candy
Ya know, I wish there was someone out there smart enough to come up with a good artificial that would do a better job of mimicing the profile and
action of a live eel. I've used Sluggos and Senkos with some success, but I wish someone out there would come up with a better mousetrap - or basstrap, as the case may be.
I dunno, maybe somebody's already got it on the drawing board
