Rigging eels...some rough drafts

[Saltheart]

Here's some stuff i wrote a couple of seasons ago about rigging eels RI Style. I will be putting it all together in an article but wanted to get this stuff up asap since the person who asked about it recently will be leaving on a trip soon and I don't know exactly when I'll have it all pieced together for a final article for the article page. I also included a couple of posts concerning replies about rigging eels. Those are under replies since all together they are too long for one post.
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to rig eels you start by saving your left over eels for a while. Its such a nasty job that I won't rig any less than a dozen at a time and prefer to do 2 dozen if posible. You simply bring your dead
or left over live eels home and freeze them. The next thing you need is a rigging needle. You make the needle yourself. Cut the long straight section off a coat hanger. Pound a flat spot in one
end then drill a hole in the flat spot. Sharpen the other end to a point and you have a 1 foot long sewing needle. A regular sewing needle is also needed. thaw the eels out by dumping into a
sink or pan of water. As they thaw the slime fluffs up around them. I wipe it off. that is gross work so hope you keep your chow down while doing it. take apiece of 50 or 30 lb mono (I like
50) and thread through eye of big needle. Shove the needle through the eels inside and out the blow hole. pull the mono through and take the needle off. I use 4/0 long shank Lazer Sharp
hooks. Tie the tail hook on with you favorite knot (I use a polamar but snelling will work well also). Pull the line up from the eels mouth so the shank of the hook goes into the blow hole.take
the head hook and thread it into the eels mouth point first. You want the hook to come out under the eel but with the point about an inch behind the back of the head with the eye of the hook
about in the middle to rear of the head. Tie the line onto this hook and leave a good tail coming out of the eels mouth. this eventually goes to you running line. take the smaller needle and sew
through the head trying to catch the eye of the head hook. You are trying to keep the hook pointing down with this sewing. Do the same with the tail hook. Now wrap some light mono around
the eel behind the head but in front of the hook end of the head hook. This wrap should be really tight and kind of compress the eel behind the head. That way the wrap has to come over the
big bump of the head to come off. Tie that wrap securely. that wrap eventually catches the hook part of the head hook and secures the whole thing for hard casting.I also wrap a light
thread around the front part of the eel to keep its mouth closed. this keeps it from gathering weeds. That's it. Work you fingers down the length of the eel and break all the vertabrae
cartiledge so the eel is loose and very limp. You simple cast them out and retreive slowly. you can cast them as hard as you want cause unlike live eels , they will not rip off do to that heavy
head wrap taking up all the load during the cast. I catch a lot of bass on the head hook as expected but the tail hook is also deadly. If the eels is good and limp , the tail whips around on a
strike and catches the bass under or aside the outside of the mouth. The tail hook also keeps the bluefish honest. One hit from a blue and the eels is done but with a tail hook at least you get to
land the fish. That's how I rig eels. Lots of guys also rig eels using a tin squid. This is a spoon type thing with a hook on one end. the hook gets placed inside the eels mouth. You still have to
tie the eels around the head though. This suid blade acts like the lip on the front of a swimming plug and makes the eel wiggle nicely. The squid work very well if drifting the eel in a current.
You can essentially just hold it in place and the squid and current cause the eels to wiggle. I don't use squids cause they are too expensive and also I think they get hung up more than the eels
rigged without them. If the vertabrae are all cracked well , that eel will wiggle pretty good without the squid. My personal preference for dragging the eels through rocky areas is no squid however , the guys who put squids in swear by them too.

You can simply freeze the eels till you are ready to use them and refreeze when done with them till the next time. Rigged eels are so economical its unbeleivable. You get the eels free cause
they are just eels that died while fishing them live. the hooks and line are pennies. I once fished rigged eels Thanksgiving weekend at Montauk. caught 2 bass on consecutive days , both over
25 pounds. Froze that same eel all winter long then pulled it out the following Memorial day weekednd and landed another keeper bass on that same eel just west of Fresh Pond Rock. can't
beat that for economy and effectiveness. Hope I covered it all. Any questions just ask and I'll fill in what I may have left out.

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