3 waying eels and other eel methods from boat

[BrianS]

hook was in my head the rest of the night.

That was 9pm... We left at 4am.. Got to the emergency room about 5:30

[Homerun04]

[Parapapam]

3-way rigs are supposed to be killer. But I have used a more straight forward method to date. I just run the hook through the jaw and out the eye, cast and slow retrieve....while drifting. Since I am usually in less than 20 feet of water, the eels get down well enough on their own.

But if you are fishing a specific hole or spot, then anchor up and use the 3-way. I'm not an expert. I am just telling you what works for me.

[Fishpart]

3-way in deep 40' (?)water. Take a piece of leader tie a dropper loop up about a foot from one end and tie a loop knot on the tag end. Put hook through dropper loop put sinker in loop on the end tie other end to your line, swivel if you want one. Drop over side till you hit bottom always when drifting, leave reel in freespool with the clicker on and when you hear the buzzzzzzzzzzz set up.

Otherwise fish them with now weight the same places you surfcast from but on the water side get within a surfcast of the shore, throw your eel over as if you are surfcasting and drift with the eel in tow, reel in freespool and thumb on spool or clicker on. Watch out for rocks, you don't want to fish this way when there is big water or an onshore breeze.........

[fishaholic18]

Chef, try no weight first, eels will usually head for the bottom anyhow.

[likwid]

if you can't get em down...
egg sinker above the swivel to the leader.

[MakoMike]

Egg sinkers on the line work fine if you're in relatively shallow water with little current. IN deeper water rips three waying is the way to go. You start with a 3 way swivel, tie the top eye to the line. Use a 2 foot peice of 10 pound test on the bottom eye and tie a sinker loop. on the thrid eye use at least a 4 foot leader (six is better) and tie your hook on the end. Add lead as necessary to hold bottom. This is trhe tried and true rig used to fish in the rips between block island and montauk, where the current screams.

[ThrowingTimber]

1 ounce or half ounce rubber core sinker abou 2-3 ft above the eel itself.

Chef with the 3 way its hit or miss because: say for example you run your eel off the 3 way with 3 feet or flouro. The you run a bank sinker 3 oz or 2 oz on the other line, now the line for the weight has to be a bit longer that the 3 feet you're using for the eel, so the bass dont mouth the eel and drop it on the pick up. Fishing around the island we have had the best success in the past with the eel unweighted, although 3 waying did account for numerous bass in the 40's. We fishedthe with circle hooks and used them like plugs during the day and troll them at a drift at night. gami circles 5/0-7/0 to spro swivels. Im not sure if your buddy's boat is euipt with cannon clips (cannon makes the clip they're for downriggers Im pretty sure) What we would do, would be to letout 20-30yds of line, with the eel out there, rubber core three way or no weight. Then we would clip that to the cannon clip, we'd clip right to the outside edge of the cannon clip so the slightest tug would release the clip, then it was just a matter of reeling down, and waiting for the line to go taught(we used circles) I dont really think you'll need the weight unless you stop at the mud thing and the current is really crankin, aside from that you should be ok with no weight. The thing that sucks about the 3 way is that you'll also be fighting that 2 or 3 ounce weight when you're fighint a nice fish, and well if it THE ONE, it would suck to have that weight snag up on you and you loose a nice fish, so if you go with the 3 way, use a weaker lb test line than you main line, and leader. Hope this makes some sense and good luck bro konck em dead and boat fish still wont count