rubber eels. R they worth payin for them?

[hookedstriper]

I just bought some rubber eels and im planning on using them in my local river system. i would much rather use live ones but where i live it is very hard to get them. Will the rubber ones work? Ive never tried to use one b4 so i have no idea what how to rig it up or if i should use and weights. Thanks again.
Hooked

[JohnR]

I've never tried them aggressively but it you trolled a couple of them they might excite some strikes... Use split shot or rubber core sinkers to get them deep... A lot of Charter Skippers use them on umbrella rigs to get fish. Many of them even get by with small lengths of black surgical tube...

The live ones will be deadlier...

[Roccus]

hookedstriper (07-30-2001 19:22):Will the rubber ones work? Ive never tried to use one b4 so i have no idea what how to rig it up or if i should use and weights. Thanks again.
Hooked

They'll work & you may find they're better than you anticipated. I fished the old Alou rubber eels for years until they went out of business. They made the absolute best jig head & rubber body combo of any imitation eels on the market...I still have a few of the heads...the rubber bodies succumbed long ago to brittleness.
Nowadays, Felmlee makes a jighead&rubber body that's not bad...but the absolute best rubber eel that I've run across comes from an Oregon company that markets Lightning eels...great colors, lively body action...several sizes...you can slip them on a jig head or fish them on a bucktail as you would a big sluggo...cast& retrieve or troll...they are pretty close to the real thing in effectiveness and a lot easier to handle than the live snakes...Lightning Eels, by the way, is located in Yoncalla, Oregon & you can get their catalog or dial them up online...
Don't underestimate how useful these ersatz eels can be...