The Hunt for Big Eels – Part 2

The first night, I managed three fish including two eels, both of which went 3 lb 2 oz and a tench that went 6 lb 3 oz. It later turned out that this was the first tench out of the water for some time.

Wol’s diary entry reads:

“That first session (although only one night) taught me a fair bit and the main learning curve on this new species was indication. Now prior to going, the bobbins of my choice were small butt indicators, which I thought, were very light, no, no, no, no no ! With quite a number of short knocks and bangs that night from the buzzers and one missed flyer which perhaps could have been something else but nonetheless indicated to me that this eel resistance thing was all so very true.”

On the second night 5 days later, I hooked a good fish and Wol came running round and watched as I played what was obviously a really big fish. After a few minutes I managed to get it to the net and repeatedly tried to bully it in but the Eel was having none of it and repeatedly wrapped its tail round the rim of the net and levered itself out.

In hindsight I should have got Wol to fetch his larger net but instead I kept pressure on the fish, which then eventually went into a spin resulting in the Kevlar trace parting. I was absolutely gutted at losing what was obviously the biggest eel I’d ever seen.

Wol with a nice bonus tench

Later that evening I managed another tench of 6-14 and just as it was getting light Wol had a screamer and landed a tench of 8-13. Whilst not our intended quarries, they were very nice fish nonetheless.

We were both fishing four rods with the left and right hand rods placed in the margins with just two swan shot as weight, size four hooks with two large lobworms on them and a good scattering of maggot over the top. The middle two rods were cast towards either on top or to the sides of the clearly visible bars. Again these were using large bore rigs but with 1 1/2 oz watch leads to which were tied 200mm Drennan perforated PVA bags loaded with maggots.

Wol had still not had the chance to sort any new indicators out and suffered several abortive pickups, which were probably eels. Despite the lake having not previously been fished for the eels, they were agonizingly shy of resistance. By the next session Wol would have much lighter indicators.

As for me, well I decided that night that I had to get a bigger landing net and start using a quicksilver as trace material instead of Kevlar. The Kevlar is very thin and pliable and is able to stand up to catfish but clearly not Eels. Warren and I discussed nets and concluded that a net with long arms but not wide across the front would be ideal as you could draw the fish to the spreader block knowing that when you lifted the net its tail would be well inside the drawstring.

The next day via a bit of surfing, Wol found just such a net was sold by Leslies and by the following week I was equipped with the ultimate eel net with 72″ arms.

For the next nights fishing I arrived at the water late and discovered to my horror that I had forgotten my brolly and the forecast was for heavy rain in the night. Fortunately Wol had a large groundsheet in his car that I could use as a makeshift cover. I would have gone home and got the brolly but that would have meant missing dusk and at the time that was when the Eels were most active.

It started raining soon after it got dark and I had one take but hit thin air. The wind then picked up and this combined with the rain made it very uncomfortable for me. In the middle of a blustery downpour I had another bite, which I struck with solid resistance. After the usual excellent scrap I eventually managed to get the Eel into my net.

A p.b equalling eel for Andy

She was a long yellow green coloured fish that turned out to equal my pb at 5 lb 1oz. Wol had come round and having congratulated me was clearly very amused as I crawled back under the groundsheet moaning about the large amount of condensation under it which had meant that I was far from dry underneath it.

After a very uncomfortable night, I was awoken in the early hours by Wol who had just landed a huge fish of 5 lb 14 oz. I shot round to Wol’s swim with him and he got me to check the scales. I could confirm it was indeed just 2 oz short of 6lb. The fish was Wol’s new pb, his first big eel and his first eel from the water! Like my 5 lb 1 oz fish Wol’s eel was a long yellow green coloured fish.

It was still raining hard when we took the photos which made life difficult. We forgot to measure my fish but Wol’s was 43 1/2 inches long. Both fish were significantly longer and slimmer than the previous fish I had had which had all been Silver/Grey in colour.

Like me Wol had managed a 5lb+ Eel on only his third session and we had now had three fives between us in just nine nights fishing.

We were both back two days later and Wol takes up the story:

Back down for another overnighter and what with having had a big five on my last trip I was keen as ever for another go at these snakes. The Dog arrived not long after me and we opted for the same adjoining swims that had produced to us both on the previous trip.

No point in moving whilst were still having it away is there? What I did do on this session was place the middle two rods on the bottom of the shelf that I had found whilst playing around with the float rod on the previous trip. It wasn’t a real steep shelf by no means but nonetheless a shelf and that’s where I deposited a fair amount of maggot soon followed by the light link ledger rigs baited with Lobworms.

Just prior to dark, John Prentice turned up. It was John who had got me the ticket for this water and although this was the first time I had actually met him it was like seeing an old mate (cheesy or what) as we frequently exchange info via email. This water came up about a year ago amongst other things whilst exchanging email and after a bit of persuasion from John I soon had a ticket, cheers John I owe you.

Anyhow back to the session. John was pleased to hear the news of the Tench and even more so about the eels we had had. Being a committee member for the club, John explained the reason for being pleased about the tench was that none had been caught (or reported) for nearly three years so what with my tench and a couple of sixes that Andy had taken this was refreshing news.

Nattering away like you do it was now around 9.30 pm and the right hand of the middle two rods started twitching. With that I manually closed the bail arm and struck. Rod arched over and that powerful shaking action from the other end I knew that an eel was on, much to John’s delight.

A good scrap and a fish of 3 lb 10 oz was recorded. Two more lobs on the hook, a gentle underarm flick and the baited rig was back out followed by a few handfuls of maggots. Half an hour later and a repeat performance on the same rod saw a fish of around 2 1/2 lb which I didn’t weigh.

A 5lber for Wol

By this time some local old boy had turned up and we were all in my swim nattering about eels amongst other things fishy. John kept looking at his watch and said he had to go as he cant miss Big Brother, more like the Mrs wears the trousers, Big Brother indeed, feeble excuse that.

11.15pm and John’s on about making a move home (to face the Mrs!) and the left hand of the middle two rods is away, a firm strike and I’m into a very big fish indeed. After a good scrap and having the Eel levering itself out of the net twice the Dog managed to get it all in at the third attempt. You have to be bloody quick with these fish when netting them, if they have the smallest amount of their body’s outside the net when you lift then 9/10 times they wriggle back out, you gotta admire these fish, they never give up!

5lb 7oz for Wol

This was a short fish but my god it had a huge girth on it and up on the scales it goes a whopping 5lb 7oz. Two five’s on consecutive sessions with one going almost 6lbs, “it don’t get much better than this” I remember thinking. After the congratulatory of shaking hands and everyone going I went on to get another fish of 3lb 10oz later that night. Not a bad nights eeling, four fish, including two 3 lb 10 oz fish and a 5lb 7oz.”

By contrast I missed a fish early on striking into thin air and blanked for the rest of the night.

Between us we had now caught 10 Eels with 4 of them going 5lb+. The potential of the water was looking very good indeed although we both realised that the fact that we could not fish a significant proportion of the bank would be limiting.

When we photographed the fish in the morning at first light, you could see why it was so heavy, the girth of the fish being massive. We both agreed that if there were a fish in the lake that had the girth of this fish and the length of Wol’s 5 lb 14 oz fish it would be a very big Eel indeed.

We continued to fish the swims for a couple more nights but had no more fish it was time to explore the areas as yet untried and we headed over to the far end of the opposite bank.