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More I didnt know about eels.

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eels
12K views 18 replies 9 participants last post by  MASSfisher0311 
#1 ·
Stripers dont eat eels they crush them and then spit them out through their gills. Eels are striper egg predators. And a female striper will crush them immediately when detected. Eels are rarely if ever found in a stripers belly. If you fish eels during a spawn it is unfair, and is outlawed in Marylands Chesapeake bay during the spawn.
 
#3 ·
Eels

Kevvy
Sand eels are different than the american eel. On another post a montauk surf fishing guide agrees with you. He says the fact that eels are striper egg predators has been debated on the beach for years.
Others I have talked to that have cleaned out thousands of striper bellies have said they have never found and eel in a striper belly. I wonder if any one can say they have. They are outlawed in the Chesapeake during the spawn. Not lookin for controversy I just find this stuff fascinating. I dont want to pretend like I'm some sort of authority on the subject cause I'm not. I cant even get the darn things on the hook without cussin at least twice.
 
#6 ·
fishing with eels.

Eels have been used for many years in s.c. river fishing. They are a good bait but you have to hold them by the tail as you throw them or they twist back up your line. Live bream or small trout are great baits for large fish also. If you release the fish it really doesn't matter what you catch them with as long as it's legal.
 
#7 ·
new user

great place to share info on fishing. If anyone is coming to s.c. to striper fish don't hesitate to send an e-mail for the latest conditions and fishing reports. i fish exclusivley on lake murray but talk to people fishing other lakes in s.c. all the time. Lake is coming back up after drawdown for dam work and fish seem quite active. Time to break out the fly-rod and go!!
 
#8 ·
Re: fishing with eels.

streeterk said:
Eels have been used for many years in s.c. river fishing. They are a good bait but you have to hold them by the tail as you throw them or they twist back up your line. Live bream or small trout are great baits for large fish also. If you release the fish it really doesn't matter what you catch them with as long as it's legal.
somthing about using a live trout for bait doesnt seem legal.....
 
#9 ·
Re: new user

streeterk said:
great place to share info on fishing. If anyone is coming to s.c. to striper fish don't hesitate to send an e-mail for the latest conditions and fishing reports. i fish exclusivley on lake murray but talk to people fishing other lakes in s.c. all the time. Lake is coming back up after drawdown for dam work and fish seem quite active. Time to break out the fly-rod and go!!
Hey, welcome to the board! I wickid want to go to SC and fish for Linesides. I've never been there, but I like those southern girls from SC :) Is there good dam/resovoir fishing down theya?

Be sure to check out the "Carolinas" regional forum here ;)
http://www.stripers247.com/phpBB2/forumdisplay.php?f=31
 
#10 ·
Eels In The Belly

Yep I have found eels in the belly of strripers on more than one occasion. They are a great live bait and are a cow magnet. I am doing a lecture on fishing eels from the surf in a couple of weeks at the Freeport show-- Here are the details---The New York Sport Fishing Federation is holding its auction and forums at the Freeport Recreational center February 18, 19, and 20th. There will be plenty of venders there to get great deals on fishing tackle. I will be one of 30 guest speakers that will address a variety of fishing topics. On Saturday at 11am ? 11:55am I will speak on EELING THE SURF. Many of my bigger fish have been taken on live eels. In this lecture I'll talk about choosing eels, eel storage, terminal tackle, structure consideration, time of year, and most importantly the trick to getting your eels in the surf on your hook and in the path of large without eel knots. On Sunday I will discuss BUCKTAILING THE MONTAUK SURF. If you can use a bucktail in MECCA you will catch fish! I'll talk about terminal tackle, types of bucktails, dressings, color, what bucktails imitate, retrieve speeds and weights as related to the conditions in Montauk. Come by my booth to talk shop, sign up to the web site, or book a trip. SEE YA THERE--Bill---- DIRECTIONS-- Meadowbrook parkway North to Merrick RD west. 1/4 mile down Merrick rd. on left hand side.
 
#12 ·
Wish I couild have gotten out there Bill. Would have loved to listen to you talk on eels and bucktailing from the surf. Ah.. Maybe next time. I also missed the striper clinic in lancaster this past weekend. Just too much work around my home.
 
#13 ·
Some more to add to the controversy. :D

Fishermen skeptical on rarity of eels for bait
Published in the Asbury Park Press 05/16/05
BY KIRK MOORE
STAFF WRITER

LITTLE EGG HARBOR ? At the peak of the season, boats are out at the inlet in the middle of the night, their red and green running lights winking as fishermen bob and maneuver in the rushing tide where striped bass lurk.
Often, the anglers have some helpers swimming under their boats ? live eels, snakelike fish that as bait unquestionably capture trophy-sized fish, yet mysteriously never wind up in the stripers' stomachs.
That escape act is just one more slippery trick for the enigmatic American eel, a seemingly plentiful species that helped make a generation of happy striped bass anglers. But a sharp drop in eel numbers in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River has fish experts reassessing the state of the American eel throughout the Atlantic states.
Fishermen along the Jersey Shore, however, say they've seen no shortage of eels.
This spring, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is holding meetings to gauge public perceptions of the problem ? and whether there's public support for new conservation measures.
"The Great Lakes have historically been a very important area" for the American eel, said Bruce Freeman, a research scientist with the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, at a May 5 meeting in Galloway. "But in the last four or five years, they've seen an almost total absence of juvenile eels coming in."
There's "no known, accepted reason for this," although hydroelectric dams and pollution are suspected among the possible culprits, Freeman told a group of about 20 fishermen and conservationists.
At the 2003 meeting of the American Fisheries Society, researchers presented a report outlining worldwide declines in eel populations.
Last winter, Tim and Douglas Watts, two brothers from New England, filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking it to consider adding eels to the federal list of threatened and endangered species.
"Robust" catches
But Shore area fishermen haven't seen any problems.
"We feel the industry is quite healthy. The catches are robust and increasing," said Barry Kratchman of Delaware Valley Fish Co., the major East Coast buyer of eels.
More eels are being caught, even as the ranks of professional eel fishermen have thinned by about 20 percent in recent years, Kratchman estimated. So eel fishermen think any suggestions for a closed season or other major cutback are premature at this point, he said.
"I can't even imagine that there's a problem. . . . The last five years they've just gotten better and better," said Sam Veach, an eeler from Cape May County who's been in the business for 30 years. "I really don't see any problem with eeling."
Federal commercial fishing statistics, which are culled from interviews with fish dealers, show the annual catch was around 1 million pounds in 2003. That was an increase from 2002, when 641,225 pounds were reported to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Those annual totals used to be higher, more than 1.5 million pounds in 1993-94, according to NMFS records.
New Jersey's share of the fishery has fluctuated quite a bit, according to those statistics ? from a peak of 231,751 pounds in 1996 to 45,393 pounds in 2000, before rising to 100,701 in 2003. Kratchman suggested fisheries managers should get more accurate landing reports from fishermen as one way to clarify their hazy picture of the eel population.
Future restrictions on eels ? such as closed seasons or minimum sizes ? would be felt in the Shore's bait and tackle shops. Live eels have been a key part of the striped bass boom, but anglers use other baits too, said Scott Albertson, who's owned Scott's Bait & Tackle in Little Egg Harbor for 20 years.
"Five years ago, it was all about eels. We have seen a significant transition (in bait use) from eels to clams," he said.
"Eels are not an easy thing to fish with," Albertson said. "You need towels. They tangle up. Bluefish bite them in half."
Fishermen use eels while their boats drift on the tide. Another option is to anchor, then bait the hook with shucked surf clams. Albertson said that method has gained more favor in recent years.
"Five years ago, if they said, "No more eels,' I'd be devastated," he said.
If there's a problem with St. Lawrence eels, it could be from pollution, said Fred Layton, a commercial fisherman from Middle Township. The river's beluga whales are already known to be suffering from decades of industrial pollution, he noted.
But the answer may be more complicated, Freeman says. Other eel populations are declining around the world, so there may be a problem, too, with the eels' reproductive processes far at sea, he said.
Eel populations traditionally were seen as so plentiful and robust that fishermen were subjected to few rules when fishing for them. That began to change in 1996, when a surge in demand and prices for very young eels ? called "glass eels" for their transparent bodies ? triggered a frenzy of netting in New Jersey tidal creeks.
Fish farmers raise eels for sale in Japan, China and other markets. But aquaculture experts don't know how to breed the animals in captivity, so the industry relies on wild-caught elvers to stock its ponds. Prices in the latter 1990s sometimes topped $300 a pound for baby eels.
Amid complaints of "gold-rush" fishing and fears that eel stocks could be depleted, New Jersey and other coastal states severely restricted the glass eel business. There is still a seasonal fishery for glass eels in Maine and in Canada's Maritime Provinces.
"We didn't wait for the situation to get critical," and New Jersey deserves credit for that, Albertson said. "At least we still have a fishery here to manage.

Unusual life cycle
In early stages of the eel life cycle, baby eels drift at sea until they come within range of coastal bays and rivers, where they swim upstream toward brackish water. It's part of a two-stage catadromous life, meaning the fish spend most of their lives in fresh or brackish waters, returning to the sea to reproduce ? the opposite of anadromous species, such as salmon, that come in from the sea to breed.
Some eels remain in coastal estuaries, while others migrate upstream to live for five to 20 years as "yellow eels." During their inshore phases of life, the eels can be caught in specialized traps by fishermen, who say frozen female horseshoe crabs are the preferred bait.
Migrating shorebirds eat horseshoe crab eggs, and declines in bird numbers led state officials to ban crab gathering in May and the first week of June. Layton said bait shortages are a problem for eelers, who must pay $1.75 or more for a single crab.
When they reach the reproductive stage in later life, eels head downstream back toward the ocean ? a phase when they're called silver eels. Fishermen say silver eels will not enter traps to feed, and their bodies are so focused on reproduction that other organs such as eyes and teeth actually atrophy, said state scientist Freeman.
It's thought that eels converge in the central Atlantic Ocean to mate, in the Sargasso Sea region east of Bermuda, based on eel larvae found in those waters, Freeman said. But since eel researchers established that fact about a century ago, scientists have yet to observe breeding adult eels in the wild.
Another mystery remains: What do striped bass want with those eels?
"I've cleaned a lot of bluefish, and some striped bass, and I've never found an eel in their stomachs," said Derickson W. Bennett of the Sandy Hook-based American Littoral Society.
"It is curious," Freeman said. "To find an eel in the stomach of a striped bass is almost nonexistent."
Scientists think eels that are attacked by stripers escape out the large gill covers of the fish before they are swallowed, while toothy bluefish chop the eels to bits, he said.
"It could be that eels are good at getting away," Freeman said. "But there's no question the fish go after them. Otherwise it wouldn't work."
 
#14 ·
Scientists think eels that are attacked by stripers escape out the large gill covers of the fish before they are swallowed, while toothy bluefish chop the eels to bits
ANY PROOF OF THAT?

Another mystery remains: What do striped bass want with those eels?
"I've cleaned a lot of bluefish, and some striped bass, and I've never found an eel in their stomachs," said Derickson W. Bennett of the Sandy Hook-based American Littoral Society.
"It is curious," Freeman said. "To find an eel in the stomach of a striped bass is almost nonexistent."
VERY INTERESTING I HAVN,T FOUND ANY EITHER IN 45 YEARS
 
#17 ·
Interesting thread.I fished commercially for elvers (glass eels) for quite a few years.After we emptied our fyke nets we would have to clean all the bycatch (sand fleas,and other small creatures) from the eels,we did this in a friends garage where he also happened to have a fish tank with a couple large oscars in it.Of course the temptation came to drop a few elvers into the fish tank to see if the fish would eat them,keep in mind these elvers,or baby eels if you will,are only about 3 inches long.Every time we dropped a couple in,the oscars would be right on them and inhale them,then,almost simutaneously,the little elver would come flying out the oscars gill plate swimming like crazy and the oscar would go after him again and the whole process would repeat itself over and over until the elver made it down into the gravel of the fish tank.After witnessing this,I am a believer that stripers just have a hard time swallowing an eel before the eel finds its way out through the stripers gillplate.
 
#18 ·
I definately agree with that statement Buddah.
I think I saw a post from Roccus somewhere where he said a bass blew a
friggin eel out its ass after inhaling it. sign10.gif
 
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