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1. Effectiveness:
I look at it as using the right tool for the job as anything else.
Sometimes you just can't get where you need to go with an eel.
If the wind is 20 knots in your face and the structure the fish hold on is too far away to put the eel where it needs to be, the eel isn't going to have a chance to even compete with a plug.
Whatever gets the job done is what I use. Where you fish obviously effects how far you need to cast. This is part of the reason I haven't used eels much in recent years.
2. Skill level:
Eels are bait and bass love them. It's basically feeding the fish (most of the time). Not that I don't respect an eel, bunker, or herring caught fish, and not that there isn't some skill to fishing eels well, but it's different. A live, wriggling eel, or a hunk of hard plastic or wood. If you're a fish, which do you choose? Nuff said.
3. Fun:
I love that "thump" of a well hit eel. But a giant bass having it's way with a topwater offering is awfully tough to beat.
4. Catch and release:
Real tough one to analyze. Fish rarely swallow a plug into their stomach, but plugs sometimes do some serious damage too.
5. Cost:
If you don't lose a lot of plugs, eels almost have to be more expensive. I haven't fished eels as much as I have in the past because the bluefish have been so miserable in the spots I fish, and they definitely increase the cost of eel fishing.
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