Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating - View Single Post

Mr. Sandman · 08-04-2002, 02:35 PM

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.

08-04-2002, 02:35 PM	#5
Mr. Sandman Registered User iTrader: (0) Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 7,649	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.