Quarantine Eel Rigs

[Mynki]

A friend of mine recently caught a couple in a local canal where according to many club regulars "there's been no eels in here for over 20 years...."

So I'm thinking of deliberately targeting them one evening. I was thinking 10lb line with a 12" wire trace with a size 6 barbless hook and piece of deadbait as dusk. Will that give me a chance?

[Mattjb]

Dead gudgeon are my go to if worms don't work. Fished on a JS rig (or Jim Gibbinson deep water leger rig, same thing) or a Dyson rig.

Caught loads on the above rigs and baits. Loads...

Sam do they have to be freshly killed gudgeon to be effective or will gudgeon that have been killed then frozen straight away do the job? I know some say freshly killed is best

[davelumb]

Dead gudgeon are my go to if worms don't work. Fished on a JS rig (or Jim Gibbinson deep water leger rig, same thing) or a Dyson rig.

Caught loads on the above rigs and baits. Loads...

Sam do they have to be freshly killed gudgeon to be effective or will gudgeon that have been killed then frozen straight away do the job? I know some say freshly killed is best

Eels do seem to like gudgeon for some reason.I did well with frozen ones.

[Mattjb]

Dead gudgeon are my go to if worms don't work. Fished on a JS rig (or Jim Gibbinson deep water leger rig, same thing) or a Dyson rig.

Caught loads on the above rigs and baits. Loads...

Sam do they have to be freshly killed gudgeon to be effective or will gudgeon that have been killed then frozen straight away do the job? I know some say freshly killed is best

Eels do seem to like gudgeon for some reason.I did well with frozen ones.

Cheers Dave,another thing to try if I can plunder any gudgeon from somewhere.

[piker66]

Could someone put a pic up of their Twig rig/eel rig please ?
Cheers.

[Sam]

Dead gudgeon are my go to if worms don't work. Fished on a JS rig (or Jim Gibbinson deep water leger rig, same thing) or a Dyson rig.

Caught loads on the above rigs and baits. Loads...

Sam do they have to be freshly killed gudgeon to be effective or will gudgeon that have been killed then frozen straight away do the job? I know some say freshly killed is best

Fresh killed are best, with frozen coming in as second. I would say sometimes the eels prefer them either way ahead of worms, mackrel strip, squid etc. Those days (and nights) I found it handy to have 3 rods out and ring the changes until I found what works. Which was/is usually gudgeon.

[Mattjb]

Dead gudgeon are my go to if worms don't work. Fished on a JS rig (or Jim Gibbinson deep water leger rig, same thing) or a Dyson rig.

Caught loads on the above rigs and baits. Loads...

Sam do they have to be freshly killed gudgeon to be effective or will gudgeon that have been killed then frozen straight away do the job? I know some say freshly killed is best

Fresh killed are best, with frozen coming in as second. I would say sometimes the eels prefer them either way ahead of worms, mackrel strip, squid etc. Those days (and nights) I found it handy to have 3 rods out and ring the changes until I found what works. Which was/is usually gudgeon.

Thanks mate, I'll give it a go when I can get hold of some gudgeon

[Mick Cobb]

Top advice as above , find their bait preference for the water you are fishing deads or worms, it will make a massive difference to your catches, semi/bolt rigs work very well with either.

[Sam]

Top advice as above , find their bait preference for the water you are fishing deads or worms, it will make a massive difference to your catches, semi/bolt rigs work very well with either.

The Dyson rig is effectively a bolt rig IMHO. As long as the tension is constant from the rod tip to the lead, I never had any issues with developing runs and fish dropping the bait. You can even fish heavier bobbins to register drop backs, although all the takes I have on that rig are slow and steady 'trundles' off a light clutch or freespool, even with the aforementioned constant tension. It's amazing to watch the rod tip bend over like a slow barbel bite before the bobbin or alarm even register.

Mega eel weather coming up this weekend. Time for me to swap the gear over this week from tench fishing, which is just about done for me for this season. My plan is to find where the carp, tench and bream have spawned, if at all, and bung lobs and gudgeon out there. I will probably catch just bream knowing my luck.

Got some gonker gudgeon in the freezer from my local river...

[Mattjb]

Top advice as above , find their bait preference for the water you are fishing deads or worms, it will make a massive difference to your catches, semi/bolt rigs work very well with either.

The Dyson rig is effectively a bolt rig IMHO. As long as the tension is constant from the rod tip to the lead, I never had any issues with developing runs and fish dropping the bait. You can even fish heavier bobbins to register drop backs, although all the takes I have on that rig are slow and steady 'trundles' off a light clutch or freespool, even with the aforementioned constant tension. It's amazing to watch the rod tip bend over like a slow barbel bite before the bobbin or alarm even register.

Mega eel weather coming up this weekend. Time for me to swap the gear over this week from tench fishing, which is just about done for me for this season. My plan is to find where the carp, tench and bream have spawned, if at all, and bung lobs and gudgeon out there. I will probably catch just bream knowing my luck.

Got some gonker gudgeon in the freezer from my local river...

I was thinking that Friday night looked good,I might have another try.

[greencard1]

YOU MONSTERS!
How can you kill poor little gudgeon?
Very rare fish in some areas.

[davelumb]

YOU MONSTERS!
How can you kill poor little gudgeon?
Very rare fish in some areas.

I know two holes-in-the-ground that are overrun with gudgeon. One has matches to remove them!

Wish I'd visited them to stock up as I might have fared better with the eels last night. One lost fish (probably a jack) to a smelt tail and a snotty, tackle tangling bootlace to a bunch of worms fished off-bottom.

At least it's a start.

[greencard1]

YOU MONSTERS!
How can you kill poor little gudgeon?
Very rare fish in some areas.

I know two holes-in-the-ground that are overrun with gudgeon. One has matches to remove them!

Wish I'd visited them to stock up as I might have fared better with the eels last night. One lost fish (probably a jack) to a smelt tail and a snotty, tackle tangling bootlace to a bunch of worms fished off-bottom.

At least it's a start.

Serves you right for being a gudgeon murderer.

[davelumb]

YOU MONSTERS!
How can you kill poor little gudgeon?
Very rare fish in some areas.

I know two holes-in-the-ground that are overrun with gudgeon. One has matches to remove them!

Wish I'd visited them to stock up as I might have fared better with the eels last night. One lost fish (probably a jack) to a smelt tail and a snotty, tackle tangling bootlace to a bunch of worms fished off-bottom.

At least it's a start.

Serves you right for being a gudgeon murderer.

If I'd murdered some gudgeon I might have caught more.

[Mattjb]

Ive done loads of eel fishing over the past couple of years and the best tip i had before i started was to use trout flesh as bait. They seem to love it. Ive also done OK on luncheon meat , they love that too. Trout flesh is the go, it's got tough skin and you can double hook through the skin with plenty of hook showing. Simple short running rigs all the way.

rob

Fished a different water Saturday night.Had 5 eels and 2 came to a strip of trout.

[piker66]

Nice. Any decent ones Matt ?

[Mattjb]

Nice. Any decent ones Matt ?

Yes,see snigging thread, had another 4.03 and a 2 after the others.

[Fitas]

JS rig is a out of date eel rig now. To many deep hook eels using it. I use very short hooks for eels now

[jack]

Interesting post fitas, any chance of anymore info on your rigs please? Perhaps a photo'?

[Fitas]

I try and sort a photo out to be be fair its just a simple running rig . 6 inch trace with twig rig size 8 hook big run ring and 2 big beads . Trouble with JS rig is how long the trace is . The eel could move 18 inches either way before you register a bite.

[jack]

Ok thanks.

[fenpiker]

When I lived in NZ the 'go to' bait was liver, never tried it in the uk though. Might be worth a try.

[The_Saint]

Lads are you getting Perch after dark on Worms?
I've had the occasional Perch on Worms but as they're predominantly sight feeders I don't tend to be troubled with them after dark...

I know several lads who get terrorised by small perch throughout the night on lobs fished under the dyson rig, something to consider if looking at this method.

[KEEP]

had my first eel today while attempting to get big perch on a cooked supermarket shrimp, ledgered at the deepest centre trench of the canal with a good feeding of very finely chopped shrimp and worm to get a strong scent trail

what an absolutely fascinating fish, the thing is actually capable of swimming backwards hard when hooked! and mine had the genius idea of wrapping itself hard around the opposite bank jetty wooden post where it proceeded to sit and wait for several minutes before deciding to uncoil to try and escape and the fight was back on

to top it off, blasted thing deftly unhooked itself in the net and backwards slithered out while I was scooping it up, damn! so clever!!!!!!!! I can definitely see the appeal of specialised targeting

[davelumb]

had my first eel today while attempting to get big perch on a cooked supermarket shrimp, ledgered at the deepest centre trench of the canal with a good feeding of very finely chopped shrimp and worm to get a strong scent trail

what an absolutely fascinating fish, the thing is actually capable of swimming backwards hard when hooked! and mine had the genius idea of wrapping itself hard around the opposite bank jetty wooden post where it proceeded to sit and wait for several minutes before deciding to uncoil to try and escape and the fight was back on

to top it off, blasted thing deftly unhooked itself in the net and backwards slithered out while I was scooping it up, damn! so clever!!!!!!!! I can definitely see the appeal of specialised targeting

[Mike J]

had my first eel today while attempting to get big perch on a cooked supermarket shrimp, ledgered at the deepest centre trench of the canal with a good feeding of very finely chopped shrimp and worm to get a strong scent trail

what an absolutely fascinating fish, the thing is actually capable of swimming backwards hard when hooked! and mine had the genius idea of wrapping itself hard around the opposite bank jetty wooden post where it proceeded to sit and wait for several minutes before deciding to uncoil to try and escape and the fight was back on

to top it off, blasted thing deftly unhooked itself in the net and backwards slithered out while I was scooping it up, damn! so clever!!!!!!!! I can definitely see the appeal of specialised targeting

As kids we fished a local canal with lobworms and one day I hooked a massive eel, it didnt stay in for very long before it straightened the hook and I lost it.
With an older head I wouldnt be surpised if many canals hold much bigger than the average sized eels, just look at the feeding options, the unlimited range they would have and the enormous potential to travel around while remaining undisturbed.

Keep, if you think a your eel was a handful imagine what a 50lb conger eel is like

.

[stubbojo]

No doubt some of the lads who target them will be along in a bit with some solid advice.

Al' has never deliberately targeted them (Yuk), but as mentioned, the free running ledger and a good Lob' or small fish will do it. Even had the buggars' up to 3+ when bottom bumping lures, on occasion.

caught some good fish on gudgeon sections....... many years back...
dont think i could cut one in half these days

[stubbojo]

Most of my decent eels have come while piking. They'll definitely take a seabait. Had a good one on a half macky from a well known SW loch many moons ago.

i myself caught a nice eel on half a mackerel intended for pike on a 2 hook trace size 4 hooks.
been out today on a lovely secluded pit , one rod on the dyson with a very small rudd and one rod with worms hard on the bottom
caught a lot of rudd on the worm rig some really good fish too
was targeting the perch that are supposed to go 3lb in there , but not bothered if a big snig turned up

[stubbojo]

I've done a couple of nights recently on a pit for eels,went last night,one missed run on prawn which could have been anything.deads on the other two rods,one off bottom. Bottom rigs basic free running ,dyson on the off bottom .It's only a small pit but I suspect not many eels in there.Big ones have come from the adjacent pits so they have to be there.its rammed with silvers and perch so worms are a non starter! If anyone's got any tips for next time I'm all ears, To be honest after reading all the eel books I'm not expecting it to be easy

I was using freshly caught roach and just the head, hard on the bottom ... Caught some nice ones but the confidence in my bait was 100% that night, all came after midnight as well.

I've been using freshly caught Rudd ,head on one rod tail on the other.You would think with the place being rammed with small fish that the eels would be predatory rather than invertebrate feeders but I suppose that might not be the case.i might give small livebaits a go sometime as well

worth trying a live rudd matt i had an eel the other day on one thought it was a perch at first....... not a big one about 3lb ish