Are eels realy endangered?

[no-one in particular]

I get plagues of them. Is the endangered thing just based on elver counts which may be a lot lower than they once were but just as many are making it into adults. Just because the elvers are fewer there are still hundreds of them and just more room and food for them to grow into adults. I don't believe they are endangered; I just don't see it, would an adult count if that was possible show this.
Are eel anglers still catching plenty in the adult stage? I could probably catch them all day if I wanted to.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Plenty on the Wye at certain times.

 

[no-one in particular]

Plenty on the Wye at certain times.

Its not just me then, they can be seasonal, I find more some months than others, but never a problem finding plenty.

 

[sam vimes]

I recall seeing huge elver runs on local becks when I was a nipper. I don't see it now. I recall being pestered to death by eels if I were daft enough to use a meaty bait when fishing the local rivers. A few years back I fished for barbel and chub with meat. This was almost to the exclusion of all other types of fishing, I never caught a single eel in the three years or so that I persisted with this. I remember fishing the river Hull in the mid 90s and ending up being frustrated with being unable to catch anything other than bootlaces. I haven't fished the Hull since that time, but I don't hear of folks doing the same these days.

As far as I'm concerned, I can entirely believe that the eel population is in dire straits. The worst thing is that I miss them about as much as I would a terminal disease.

 

[jimlad]

Fishing ten years ago on some areas of the river tees would see plenty of eels being caught. There was a very noticeable decline in the period after that, however I think things are starting to look up for the population, and this is based on catching a few more in the middle tees over the last season than previous years. I agree though, absolutely nowhere near the population of the past


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[seth49]

There’s certainly not as many on the ribble as there used to be, they used to be a real nuisance, you couldn’t fish a worm static, because that’s all you would catch.

If you shone a powerful torch of a bridge, there would be lots of them, not now there’s very few, it’s a pity as there supposed to be an otters favourite food.

 

[nottskev]

I haven't caught an eel since i moved from the Northwest to Nottingham in 2004, and I don't remember seeing any caught.

I agree they could be a pain, stealing baits and providing the ultimate unhooking challenge.

But I can't hep feeling, with their unique migration, life cycle and habits, their absence is yet further testimony to the degradation of our environment.

 

[mikench]

Eels have never featured on my list of desired coarse fish which I am slowly working my way through! They still don't! Kev you have seen me trying to get to grips with a tench; I would have no chance with an eel!

 

[no-one in particular]

Must be local thing then, I have never had any sense that these are endangered, I reckon I could catch more of them than roach on some days. I can only use bread and sweetcorn as anything else attracts them, bloody big things as well, they must average about 2lb but I am sure some have reached 4lb. They will take the sweetcorn and bread occasionally as well.

 

[no-one in particular]

Eels have never featured on my list of desired coarse fish which I am slowly working my way through! They still don't! Kev you have seen me trying to get to grips with a tench; I would have no chance with an eel!

If you do first you will notice a tug tug gyrating pull on your rod, then you pull it out and it will wind itself up and all over your line, among the slime you may find its mouth to which you will find it impossible to grip it and get the hook out. So good luck with that Mike.
Seriously, I can understand why some anglers love them, but not me, they are a right pain and ugly beasts too.

 

[thecrow]

they are a right pain and ugly beasts too.

Give me a catfish any day

 

[binka]

I had a day on the Trent last summer when they were nothing less than a bloody nuisance on the float but they were all a pound or so plus.

Far bigger than the bootlaces that were common when I was a kid and I'm struggling to think when I last saw one that I would call a bootlace.

Given the slow growth rates I'm certainly going with at least 'rarer than they used to be'.

Does anyone fish the Nene, Welland or Coronation Channel?

On each occasion I fished them many years ago they were all full of bootlaces and I wonder if it's still the same now?

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Over the last few summer trips I've had on the Wey, I've caught good size eels every time - with the average probably close to 2, but nothing smaller than about 1.08. Going back to the 60-70s when I fished the same sections, I never caught any eels & don't remember any being caught.

 

[Molehill]

Going back to my childhood it was virtually impossible to cast a worm into any running water in the land after dusk, without having a bootlace eel attached within minutes.
I caught my very first Wye barbel in 1997 (sweetcorn) and was unable to fish any meat bait into the night due to eels and the resulting "slimefest" coupled with re-tackling every cast . Each autumn during a warm flood I would have a day session on the river with wire trace and some sardines and catch a dozen decent eels for the freezer - I had discovered a great recipe for eels. A few years later the eels suddenly disappeared, the word went round they were in trouble and I never kept one again.

Nowadays I sometimes catch one from the rivers, but they are hardly a pest, though in last few years I've started to notice a few more from the lakes I fish. Sometimes I drop a small deadbait in for carp or hope of a big eel and the numbers of eels under 2lb seems to be increasing. I've still never, ever caught a big one.

I do hold a soft spot for eel fishing, but bootlaces used to make fishing a misery at times. As mentioned, they were always said to be the otters favourite food, so maybe a return to the old numbers might be a good thing.

 

[terry m]

The experts that monitor these things are all in agreement that there is a significant decline in the eel population. Whilst I have caught a few, I am happy to bow to their greater knowledge.

If your area is rammed with them then perhaps your should count yourself lucky.

 

[no-one in particular]

The experts that monitor these things are all in agreement that there is a significant decline in the eel population. Whilst I have caught a few, I am happy to bow to their greater knowledge.

If your area is rammed with them then perhaps your should count yourself lucky.

Yes I do agree with that and I am not suggesting they are taken off the endangered list. But I also think its important to get right. Whenever I hear the experts it appears to me they base it on elver counts which my feeling was that this is a problem at sea or with their breeding grounds. However, plenty still reach adulthood once in the river system or, that's the way it has looked to me just on my own catch rate..
Reading the posts in the thread its difficult to assess if that's the case in the wider world but my feeling is there are fewer generally but still not uncommon. However, if the elver count continues to decline they could become so-so they should be treated as an endangered species but the long term solution is at sea.
The fact I don't like them is neither here or there, they are important, I think they are natural scavengers and the fact they seem to like decomposing stuff suggest they are one of natures natural cleaners. And if they fill up cormorants and otters that would help. I saw a cormorant surface with a huge eel once off the coast, it took it a while but it managed to swallow it; every large eel taken is one less barbel or equivalent in weight..

 

[flightliner]

Saw many a run of eels in the past, Once stood on the Cill of a weir where millions of elvers were wriggling upwards thro the silkweed to gain the higher water.
Wonderful sights.
Then in the eighties many a match on the witham was won purposely with eels.
I fish a water where in recant years a maggot baited hook would almost certainly produce biggish eels up to three pounds until three years ago when eel netters were given permission to take the lot-- work that one out ??

 

[Jeff Woodhouse]

Yes, the European eel is on the Red List of Endangered Species. The eel counts taken at several places, usually traps at the top end of eel passes, have dropped dramatically off since the 80s, and are only about 1% of the records taken in the Victorian era. Then, trappers were taking over 800 tons of eels each year and now they are only licensed to take 8 tons, but they sometimes fail to take that many.

Some interesting data and information here - May | 2013 | Dave Throup

There are areas where eels collect, at the bottom of weirs, for example. This because the weir is a barrier to its migration further upstream. What we need is more eel passes at ever weir. These are tubes lined with brushes that the eels can slither up to the next impoundment. They are costly, I'm having a simple one fitted now and the like cost will be close to £20k (funded by Thames Water, BTW). The EA can't afford them, shame on them, so it's up to volunteer groups to seek funding from external sources.

If you are lucky enough (I don't like catching them) to catch plenty then please look after them and as the byelaws state, it's now illegal for anglers to kill and remove eels.

PS: I am also a member of ZSL's Eel Forum.

 

[flightliner]

Geoff, that £20000 grand for the eel pass sounds a bit ott to me. One pass I know of is a simple green mat of plastic with wide bristles perhaps an inch long.
I reckon something similar could be found in garden centres at a fraction of the cost.

 

[Mark Wintle]

I only know of one Dorset venue where I can still catch them consistently, a small pond close to the sea and connected to a nearby stream, mostly in the ounces range. The huge numbers I encountered on the nearby Frome in the 80s (26 in a match once) and similarly large numbers in the Nene and Witham in the same era are long gone. On the Frome in the 80s you could catch bootlaces after dark in mid winter with a hard frost on maggots.