eels as bait

[bribones]

anyone know if eels are any good as bait,hooked into one tonight and the only way i could get it off my rod was to kill it,tied itself into a pretty knot,anyway that and a small whiting was the result of the night out,was most impressed with the new abu mag elite ,casts like a dream

[micky-quayle]

not much good for bait over here but can be effective on the west coast for tope. i use them quite a bit when away pike fishing, an excellent pike bait.
a tip if you get a one tangled into knots with your trace, cut the trace off and drop the tangled sqirming mess into a bucket of water, check after half an hour, they invariably manage to untangle themselves !

[Hiram.A.Biff]

Bri if you hook an eel.
hold the trace just in front of its head, grip it s head with your right hand, and slide your hand down its length like you were milking a cow, not too tightly, do this 3 or 4 times and the eel will \" go to sleep\" for a minute or so. long enough for you to unhook it..... honest.

[macky]

i think topecatcher and doc use them from holderness coast for the big tope
and i hear you will occasionally pick up big bass on them
i have had tope from wales using 6\" section of eel
but it has to be fresh and not frozen

macky

[bribones]

i swear to god this thing had tied itself into a reef knot,i would have cut the rig off but it got tangled round my mainline as well as my cousin chodders as hed crossed lines with me as i reeled in,anyway ill remember the tips for next time,but ill give this one a go as bait for tonight you never know there may be something just hungry enough to have a go

cheers lads

[Edited on 6/8/2004 by bribones]

[Chris_Hughes]

I\'ve read somewhere that Conger Eel skin is a good cod bait.

I\'ve never tried it myself, but if you have access to a fishmonger who has the occasional Conger Eel on his slab, it may be worth asking him to keep the skin for you.

[bribones]

i dont think ill bother it was like trying to hook shoe leather ,on the subject of baits how about hardback crabs,watched a programme (fishing on the edge) they were using hardback crabs cut in half and hooked shell and all ,anyone tried this ??

[Edited on 7/8/2004 by bribones]

[RobAdair]

Bri, me and the bairns tried hardbacks last year at Whithorn for the wrasse and they were cr*p. Had more luck with ragworm floatfished close in.

[alan]

As Rob says its useless, for me anyway,i tried to float fish with some off Cambois rocks for wrasse,waste of time.