Eels!

nsgsplatmaster · Baitfish Rank Joined: 07 Jul 2009 Posts: 3 Total Points: 3

Hey everyone -

I post over at ctfishtalk, and was looking online for all of the Connecticut fishing forums I could find. I met some guy at a local pond and promised to send him a picture but I guess he's not here either. Anyway, I've been really interested in catching some eels recently. I've been working brackish water in my area (Milford) along with pier supports with sandworms, mummichogs, and nightcrawlers. These baits were mostly fished with various splitshots and during the evening. I would really like to catch some of these, maybe to eat some on occassion, but more because my dad used to tell me stories about fishing for them with weighted droplines with his father. As I looked online, I realized these things have some fascinating lives and that apparently, not many people know too much about them. Important note, I want to take these with a rod, and they will not be kept en-masse as striper bait!

If anyone has any suggestions, general or otherwise, please let me know!

aqualung · Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:08 am Post subject:

Hey nsgsplatmaster, welcome to the site. I am up in the Hartford area
years back I would catch them from shore in the farmington river at night using nightcrawlers. I also trapped them on the CT river years ago using eel traps. My guess is most any larger river will hold them.

tsavfish · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:46 am Post subject:

hey ok in terms of fishing for eels with a hook what you need to do is get a 1/0 octopus hook and some fish strips something that smells bad like fishing for cats. I would recomend a sinkerslide that will let the fish grab it better. If you ever watch a eel feed they sit there and just rip and tug and pull they are very vicious fish and once you get one you will get many. i would not concentrate on the pilons so much as a dump area. what i mean by that is the mouth of an estuary and your ideal time would be evening with a dropping tide high to low. if you have any more questions come talk to me at cabelas ill show you what i mean with rigging and all

nsgsplatmaster · Baitfish Rank Joined: 07 Jul 2009 Posts: 3 Total Points: 3

Sounds good. You work at Cabela's? I'm there pretty frequently, its between my house and the paintball field I work at so I stop by there for fishing stuff and ammo.

I've had a little luck fishing a private lake I have access to, managed to catch a 21 incher off a dead mummichug and a 17" off of a piece of a nightcrawler. I know they get a lot longer/bigger than that, and they've been drawing that lake down so its shallow and hard to get out there. I might try to fish part of the Farmington River this coming weekend - so far I've been using splitshots (all I have right now, but I'm picking up some better weights soon) and size 4 hooks. So far, neither of the eels I caught really took any line. The first one felt like a snag and barely fought until it was near shore, the other took the line aggressively like a bass. I also checked out the Beaver Brook Pond in New Haven since the 2009 Angler Guide has it listed as having eels, but to be honest it's kind of in a sketchy area and you have to park your car on the side of the road while people go flying by. I had no luck there either. Thanks for the advice from both of you guys though, I've brought the idea of fishing for eels up to a few people and everyone has just been looking at me like I'm crazy. Shocked

tsavfish · Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:47 pm Post subject:

if you want bigger eels you need to fish some rivers depending on the river will depend on the areas they will be holding but if you can find rocks near weed beds that will be your best bet. i once caught a 4 foot pregnent eel in the ct river when i was younger that was crazy but they hide round rocks but feed and breed in weeds mostly so put the two together and your bound to catch some.(its why they call those thick beds of tall grass eel grass)

protacanthopterix · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:48 am Post subject: American Congers

As I understand it, the time to catch big American eels is around October. This should be the time when large, mature, "Silver" eels are leaving the lakes and streams for the ocean. Places to start should be the Housatonic, Quinnipiac, Connecticut, and Thames rivers. They are definately nasty feeders; they rip, tear, "death" roll, and can even push knots from their tails to their heads to get leverage on a big carcass if necessary.

I would like to bring up the possibility of catching (American) Conger eels, Conger oceanicus, in Long Island Sound. Congers grow considerably larger than American eels. The European conger is the largest eel in the world (80-100 lbs).
Has anybody caught a conger in the Sound? I know they are much more popular/numerous south of Long Island.

carp13 · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 11:41 am Post subject:

Here's an eel caught on an eel a couple of years back fishing the Ct river for stripers.

ehertzfeld · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 7:39 pm Post subject: Re: American Congers

protacanthopterix · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 10:58 am Post subject:

It's eel-eat-eel out there!

Hard to say what the eel of your youth was, ehertzfeld. Both species may exist around Shelter Island and the size you described could have been a large American eel or an average American conger. When (if) I get around to targeting them, I would look at the dorsal fin to distinguish the conger. The A. eel dorsal fin will be shorter, beginning mid-back. The dorsal fin of the A. conger should begin almost immediately following the head and usually terminates with a dark band running the length of the dorsal fin/caudal fin/anal fin.

It's always exciting catching new fish!