Live Eels my arse!

Mr.Grumpy · #1 07-07-2008, 01:52 AM

Sorry "but". So, due to the overwhelming support of the Live Eel as night time bait product, I picked up a six-pack of them on the way to P.I. tonight. I hooked one of those little buggers through the cranium and I cast and retrieved it until I thought that my arm would fall off then I passed it off to my buddy who cast and retrieved it until I thought that his arm was going to fall off. This only stopped, after two and a half hours, because he set the bugger free when I wasn't looking. It didn't die. We didn't catch any fish.

Where: mouth of the Merrimack, south side closer to the pier than the breakwater.

When: 2100-2330hrs. End of outgoing, slack and beginning of incoming tide.

Oh yeah: I still have FIVE of these thing under an Icepack in a cooler. How long will they last like that?

BradleyBelanger · #2 07-07-2008, 01:55 AM

LOL funny,send them to me...I cant get them down here.
I bet a big blue cat would love them

MASSfisher0311 · #3 07-07-2008, 04:11 AM

They'll stay alive for quite a while just make sure you change the ice they are in so they don't drown in their own slime or ice water. Just because people call eels "Striper Candy" doesn't mean they will always catch fish. Maybe there were no Stripers around. How were you retrieving them? Super S-L-O-W is the way to be doing it. I'm no expert with eels but this is what I've learned so far from using them....keep giving them a try. You'll have better luck with live eels than any other bait 99% of the time so you aren't wasting your time.

Mr.Grumpy · #4 07-07-2008, 08:49 AM

Hum. That may be so but while my buddy Chet was planning his strike for animal rights I was baby sitting a couple of chunks of herring that got "bites". Might have been small bass that wouldn't go for the eel. Might have been big crabs (you should see what the little ones did to the herring's head!). I don't know since I didn't catch them either. If I can keep them alive I'll try them again tonight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by brian21johansen

They'll stay alive for quite a while just make sure you change the ice they are in so they don't drown in their own slime or ice water. Just because people call eels "Striper Candy" doesn't mean they will always catch fish. Maybe there were no Stripers around. How were you retrieving them? Super S-L-O-W is the way to be doing it. I'm no expert with eels but this is what I've learned so far from using them....keep giving them a try. You'll have better luck with live eels than any other bait 99% of the time so you aren't wasting your time.

MASSfisher0311 · #5 07-07-2008, 09:22 AM

That's why I said "99%" of the time. I guess there are times where Stripers won't take an eel for whatever reason. Also the bites you were getting could have been skate. Cast them out and retrieve as slow as you can....although I'm sure that speeding up your retrieve might be a good idea if you really aren't getting any "hits" after a long time fishing.

One more thing.....on your retrieve what you are looking for is a "bump" of the eel. Once you feel this bump stop reeling in and lower your rod tip and when you feel the fish again go for the hook set!. It's been explained to me like this: The striper will come by and "stun" the eel with it's tail (this is the bump).........then he'll come around to devour the wounded eel(this is when you feel the fish and go for the hook set). Be ready for that bump....if you keep reeling in the eel because you thought the bump was a rock or something then you could possibly lose the fish. (I don't know if theres any truth to the last statement but it's what I've always thought).

I caught this one last year aboard Roccus's boat on live eels. I caught about 4-5 others of similar size. That one night alone convinced me that no bait can beat live eels.

Mr.Grumpy · #6 07-07-2008, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brian21johansen

That's why I said "99%" of the time. I guess there are times where Stripers won't take an eel for whatever reason. Also the bites you were getting could have been skate. Cast them out and retrieve as slow as you can....although I'm sure that speeding up your retrieve might be a good idea if you really aren't getting any "hits" after a long time fishing.

One more thing.....on your retrieve what you are looking for is a "bump" of the eel. Once you feel this bump stop reeling in and lower your rod tip and when you feel the fish again go for the hook set!. It's been explained to me like this: The striper will come by and "stun" the eel with it's tail (this is the bump).........then he'll come around to devour the wounded eel(this is when you feel the fish and go for the hook set). Be ready for that bump....if you keep reeling in the eel because you thought the bump was a rock or something then you could possibly lose the fish. (I don't know if theres any truth to the last statement but it's what I've always thought).

I caught this one last year aboard Roccus's boat on live eels. I caught about 4-5 others of similar size. That one night alone convinced me that no bait can beat live eels.

Well, gosh darn! I thought that it was just the little fella struggling. It might have been a fish after all. Why do you have to stop though? If you are reeling in slowly? I didn't want to stop when I felt that since I thought that if he was putting up so much of a commotion he'd foul my line if I stopped then. Guess not. THANK YOU for the help.

MASSfisher0311 · #7 07-07-2008, 09:43 AM

I'm not sure why but that's how I've always done it...... If you keep reeling however slow you may be reeling the Striper will be able to feel tension in the line right? With this he may sense something is wrong and drop the bait (for the same reason we use a sliding "fish finder rig" to attach our weights to the main line.) Sometimes you will feel the bump and it will be a couple of seconds before the Striper comes around for the bait. Stripers have an awesome sense of smell and can detect bait fish using their lateral lines really well but if you keep reeling the eel in then you might be messing with the striper. The fish might smack the eels with its tail in one direction and come around to eat it. If you keep reeling in maybe the striper wont be able to find the eel cause hes looking in the wrong place. Maybe you reeled the eel through a zone the fish was holding up in because of current or structure or whatever........maybe he's just too lazy to follow your bait and he will just wait for another easier opportunity to eat.

All of these are just my ideas and thoughts....they could be 100% true or 100% false......but they seem like pretty logical ideas right?

spike10 · #8 07-07-2008, 04:28 PM

Wow Roc, if you had just let me in on this stuff 15 years ago, you would have saved me a lot of climbing, drenchings, wounds, sleepless nights and long walks from the fishing boat docks to the old church searching for signs of bait and structure.

But then again, I would have missed out on some great adventure.

Btw, are we sure it's a good idea to send Grampy and the folks from Stripers 101 out to the end of the south jetty at night?

Thanks for all your input to this forum.

Mr.Grumpy · #9 07-07-2008, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spike10

Wow Roc, if you had just let me in on this stuff 15 years ago, you would have saved me a lot of climbing, drenchings, wounds, sleepless nights and long walks from the fishing boat docks to the old church searching for signs of bait and structure.

But then again, I would have missed out on some great adventure.

Btw, are we sure it's a good idea to send Grampy and the folks from Stripers 101 out to the end of the south jetty at night?

Thanks for all your input to this forum.

I think that it might just BE that kind of a good idea.

spike10 · #10 07-07-2008, 06:06 PM

Sorry about the typo, didn't mean to call you grampy :)

Hey what do I know. If you go, do me a favor. Be prepared, try it a couple of times in day light, watch the tides/surf and don't stay out too long. I hate hearing the S&R helicopters flying low over the house at night.

Tight lines

zimno1 · #11 07-07-2008, 11:19 PM

I hooked one of those little buggers through the cranium

huh? explain please

The Point · #12 07-08-2008, 01:12 AM

Brian21 got to go fishing with roc you lucky bastard..j/k. I always have to fish solo cause all my friends say fishing is like watching paint dry..but they suck.hahaha.. as for eels they suck the worst bait ever.. just kidding. I fish eels with an egg sinker off the bottom slow and like brian said wait... till the second hit. besides that
'tight lines to all'.
I'll be fishing hard this week. Caught some desent ones the other day but no pictures.. but nothing huge either. im not posting nothing but 50+lbers after seeing rocs pictures.. HAHAHA.
Ill be going out once this week with Joe Bagwell and the River Rebel and thats always a blast...

once again 'tight lines to all'