Eels...the 'prison water' theory ?

[piker66]

Is this theory still current amongst eel anglers ? I seem to remember the idea that waters that are extremely hard for eels to leave (maybe high man made banks, maybe no nearby water courses) were thought to produce very big eels as they cannot escape from them to travel back to the sea.

[Pinkie]

Is this theory still current amongst eel anglers ? I seem to remember the idea that waters that are extremely hard for eels to leave (maybe high man made banks, maybe no nearby water courses) were thought to produce very big eels as they cannot escape from them to travel back to the sea.

Depends on food availability. There's also a theory that some eels never get the urge to go back to sea. A lake nearby me has eels to over 6lb and is connected to a river!

[stubbojo]

some thing i have thought about myself , one water i fish has really steep sides and does contain some really good eels
which i have seen on the waterwolf camera also big , carp, bream, tench there seems to be big old fish in there , i will be targeting the eels this coming season after having a nice one on mackerel tail while pike fishing last year.....one of the biggest eels i ever saw was in a old deep moat around an old castle in wales it looked into double figures .
they must get trapped sometimes in these types of water and just get bigger and older... but i believe pike will feed on these over the years and maybe there not that prolific... as they cant leave that water...... they say they can travel across land , in all the years i have been fishing i have never come across one on land ...has anybody else

[Pinkie]

Read accounts in old angling books of eels being found in cow trouphs. Plenty of evidence thay they cross land to get to remote ponds, in the old books.

[Mike J]

some thing i have thought about myself , one water i fish has really steep sides and does contain some really good eels
which i have seen on the waterwolf camera also big , carp, bream, tench there seems to be big old fish in there , i will be targeting the eels this coming season after having a nice one on mackerel tail while pike fishing last year.....one of the biggest eels i ever saw was in a old deep moat around an old castle in wales it looked into double figures .
they must get trapped sometimes in these types of water and just get bigger and older... but i believe pike will feed on these over the years and maybe there not that prolific... as they cant leave that water...... they say they can travel across land , in all the years i have been fishing i have never come across one on land ...has anybody else

Eels on land.
Yes once, while walking my dog alongside a tidal river just after dawn I found an eel around 12" in a small puddle, it was undamaged and very active so presumably could only have got there by itself. There had been heavy rain overnight. I threw the eel back into the river.
The river was unfished by anglers, in Iberia.

.

[davelumb]

I doubt there are many waters eels can't escape from if they want to.

[OLDESOX]

thought i read a while back non sexually mature ones do not have the drive to return. therefore non asigned ones stay here!!!

[stubbojo]

I doubt there are many waters eels can't escape from if they want to.

seen them in really tiny ditches only a couple of foot wide.....i suppose some waters have old pipes we cant see that could lead out....

[davelumb]

I doubt there are many waters eels can't escape from if they want to.

seen them in really tiny ditches only a couple of foot wide.....i suppose some waters have old pipes we cant see that could lead out....

One of the local postmen said he found one on one of the lanes one morning. Plenty of ditches around here for them.

They definitely cross land, but don't always survive.

I had two bootlaces escape from my garage when I used to keep 'pets' in a bath there. One got to the back lawn and expired, the other made it down the drive and half way across the road.

[Mike J]

I remember the case of a large eel found when a raised concrete reservoir was demolished.
The reservoir was on an WWII base used to store bombs and ammunition and was originally built to store water incase of fire. Each storage site had its own reservior which were built above ground and apx 50ft square and 6ft deep with the only access up a steep flight of concrete steps.
The eel was large, some non anglers who saw it said it was 10lb so Id guess 5-6lb is more probable. Nearest river was 3m away.

.

[stubbojo]

I remember the case of a large eel found when a raised concrete reservoir was demolished.
The reservoir was on an WWII base used to store bombs and ammunition and was originally built to store water incase of fire. Each storage site had its own reservior which were built above ground and apx 50ft square and 6ft deep with the only access up a steep flight of concrete steps.
The eel was large, some non anglers who saw it said it was 10lb so Id guess 5-6lb is more probable. Nearest river was 3m away.

.

just goes to show they will take up residence in almost any water as long as there is food for them ......
noticed on most venues nobody seems to fish for eels anymore , most are caught by accident ....
when i was a teenager me and my mate used to get the train to Chester from warrington to fish the river Dee the tidel stretch near the race coarse ...
we used to catch bags of eels and bring them home for the elderly neighbours who loved eating them ......some times we night fished too and got the train back home in the morning