i give another vote for eel fishing.... to answer the question above...here in the land of eternal wind n rain, we have an old eel fishery that used to catch eels for the english/french/german food markets but is now used for conservation, the eels are netted and moved past parteen weir, as theres no natural path to the river due to the weir, to toddle off to the saragasso sea for a bit or whatever eels do:wh, the optimum time for netting eels in big numbers on the move and ergo feeding hard is from november to march, water temp , unless the river is very shallow wont factor into feeding habits as at this time of year they are bulking up for the orgy
and also need energy to move as they cant/dont store fat well, so will feed often while on the move, land locked eels will get the call also but cant go anywhere but round in circles in the water their in, thus expending energy and needing to feed often, day n night, also as an avid eel fan(my biggest is 8lb4oz caught on a small perch deadbait in low flood conditions in the middle of a bitterly cold early january ) if the day/evening(dont bother with night fishing, ) is a bit blustry/blowy/bit of a chop on the water, all the better!!! use small fresh , (i cant stress fresh enough,thawed from frozen doesn't work)deadbaits for said horny eels!! or blood marinated thick wool works well, and deadbaits keep the bootlaces at bay, and dont forget , eels can swim backwards with the same power as fowards, sometimes the fight can be likened to a dog pulling back on a rope/chew toy, makes for interesting fishing, here ended my tuppence worth