eel question

[steelhead]

When do eels typically drop out of the estuaries and begin their migration to the Sargasso Sea?

[NIB]

Oct/nov.
Thats just My egdumacted guess.
Not much really known about eels.They are a mystery.
Like where is the sargasso sea.It's not a place on a map..

[steelhead]

I'm not sure either.

Here's what triggered the question. I've been fishing a particular sandy beach with estuaries at both ends up here these past few weeks during the wee hours with a few buddies. No visible or apparent bait other than small clams. It's actually been barren for several weeks, yet we have been doing pretty well. Eel plugs, big needles and sluggos are what's being taken. The other night we encountered a guy who had kept a fish and opened it up to find two fresh eels in its gut. Upon careful inspection they had not been put on a hook. So they either came from someone's bucket or they were dropping out of the estuaries on their own. If they were dropping out naturally, I began to wonder if that would explain the presence of those big bass we had been getting in to.

[Diggin Jiggin]

I bet if you threw an eel trap in you would find that there is a resident eel population. They live in all kinds of marshy/creek areas..

[Gary]

Not all of the eels leave, some bury themselves in the mud all winter. All eventualy swim all the way upstream and live in fresh water, then they migrate to the sargaso sea to spawn.

[FishermanTim]

And after they spawn, they die!
(This was part of the concern regarding the use of eels as bait and the possible restriction of their use over the past year or so.)

[shorehunter]

check this out
http://www.chesapeakebay.net/info/american_eel.cfm

[MakoMike]

If they were bait sized eels that you found in that fish's gut, they were probably resident males. Females all go upstream for years and when they start dropping out of the rivers to meet the males they are very big, usually we;; over 2 feet long and very silvery in color. Tha mature males are also silver, but they tend to be much smaller than the females.

The sarragasso sea is an area of the Atlantic south of Bermuda.

[Slipknot]

don't know when but Bermuda is in the middle of it. I beleive it is defined by currents and is about 1000 miles by 2000 miles

[MakoMike]

Its really not well defined. Its an area where the ocanic currents collect all sorts of floating objects, but mostly the Saragassum weed, which gives the area its name. The are moves with the movements of the currents, sometimes Bermuda is right in the middle of it and sometime Bermuda is on the Northern edge of it. On some of the old charts its also called the "doldrums."