Huge 8lb 2oz eel from Grand Union Canal

Further proof of the surprises which are swimming around in our canals came this week when a netting operation on the Grand Union produced this massive 8lb 2oz eel.

The Canal & River Trust was in the process of relocating fish into the water below a section of canal at Watford Flight so that it could be drained for engineering works when the specimen was discovered.

James Kirk of MEM Fisheries, which was carrying out work for the Trust, said it was the biggest he had seen in 20 years in the job.

“What a monster! It’s rare to find an eel of this size on the canal network, it must be around 50-years-old and goes to show that you never know what you’ll find.  We are helping the Canal & River Trust to carry out its annual winter programme of repair and restoration on its waterways,” he said.

It’s part of a five month, £45m programme of work to repair and restore hundreds of historic waterway structures and will see the Trust work with MEM Fisheries and local angling clubs to perform more fish rescues on venues. These include sections of the Kennet and Avon, Leeds and Liverpool, Staffordshire and Worcester, Shropshire Union, Rochdale, Monmouth and Brecon, Huddersfield Narrow and Grand Union Canals.

Big eels fall to corn

Raymond Wallace couldn’t quite believe it when his tench fishing session was interrupted by not one, but two, huge eels of 7lb 10oz and 6lb 4oz.

Targeting a lake close to his London home, the 64-year-old caught both fish using a waggler and a corn hookbait three rod lengths out. Both fish were beaten using a 12ft match, 3lb line and size 14 hook, over a bed of corn and mashed bread feed.

Raymond reckons that soaking his corn in halibut marine oil for three days previously pulled in the eels: “I’ve had success doing this for tench before and when I hooked the first eel I actually thought it was a record tench,” he said. “Then it started going backwards in that giveaway eel style. I didn’t even know there was any in the water. My personal best was 6lb 3oz before this and I’ve had a few 5lb’ers on deadbaits but these latest two were pure luck!” 
 

'Stop using eels as bait'

With the traditional pike season fast approaching the National Anguilla Club has this week issued a plea for predator anglers to stop using eels as bait.

Despite laws aimed to protect the species – in England and Wales it is an offence to remove them from freshwater, estuaries or inshore waters up to a distance of six nautical miles – they are still exploited for commercial gain and eel stocks are believed to be as low as five per cent of average levels in the 1970s.

NAC General Secretary Andrea O'Sullivan said: "There has been some debate over whether anglers ceasing to use dead eels as bait will make any difference to the overall impact of commercial fishing.  However, this is about anglers standing together and raising awareness of the issue within our own community.  We are also planning other initiatives aimed at improving the conservation of the European Eel."

The call has been supported by the Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain, the Pike Anglers Alliance for Scotland and the Catfish Conservation Group who have united in issuing a recommendation to their members asking them not to use eels, particularly when there are so many sea and freshwater species which can be used without any negative impact on their overall populations.

PAC general secretary Alan Dudhill said: “It would be wrong of us to condone the use of a ‘critically endangered species’ as bait for catching pike. We have urged our members to consider the history, life-cycle and plight of the eel when deciding whether or not to use them as bait. Eels are in fact rarely used by pike anglers but where mitten crabs and signal cray fish are present they are often the bait of choice.

“The main issue here is the continued commercial netting, export and exploitation of eels by the food industry. How can this be allowed to continue even though the eel was registered by CITIES as being critically endangered a number of years ago? We should all be prepared to join forces to protect our fish and sport.”

Earlier this year the Angling Trust stated that commercial eel fishing was simply not sustainable and called for an end to the practice.

Huge eels from pond

Big eels often turn up in the most unlikely spots as David Lambert found out when he netted a trio of fish to 7lb 2oz during a session on a farm pond.

The Brighton-based rod made his debut trip to the water close to his home and legered a small dead roach alongside a handful of chopped up freebies.

Fish of 5lb and 6lb were banked but the memorable session was capped off when his new personal best found the hookbait.

“I’d experienced a number of blanks on a large water and all I really wanted was a run to get back into the swing of things. Thankfully, I got a lot more than a bargained for with three fantastic specimens,” explained David.

Eel rumours result in an 8lb specimen

A rumour of the presence of large eels in a Kent gravel pit was all the incentive that Mark Boyle needed to have a go for the species – and his efforts were duly rewarded with this 8lb specimen.

Seven years ago the Sidcup-based stockbroker  caught his previous biggest eel of 6lb 2oz but while struggling for bites from the resident carp he was chasing in the tricky venue he decided to dust off an old barbel rod and try and find out for himself whether there was any truth behind the claims.

“I certainly wouldn’t class myself as an expert on the species, so I went about catching one the only way I knew how – a link leger rig with an air-injected lobworm hookbait tipped with a piece of fake corn. I fished this over two pints of live and dead maggots down the marginal shelf of a large silty bay,” explained 30-year-old Mark.

His tactics proved effective when he received a take out of the blue at 1am. “I can only describe what followed as the ‘ruck of a lifetime.’ On its initial run it stripped over 30 yards of line off the reel and for the first five minutes I assumed I’d hooked a carp. When it flashed under the light of my headtorch I was met with the sight of a huge eel and I had to endure a further 10 nerve-wracking minutes before I netted it.

“Thankfully, it behaved itself on the bank and I was blown away when the scales settled on 8lb as there is every chance that this fish would be around 80-years-old. I’m certainly going to be having a few more sessions after the eels, because if the rumours are to be believed there are even bigger to be had in the venue.”

Mark got the fish to the bank with a size 6 Solar 101 hook attached to a four inch 15lb Avid Captive coated braid hooklink with the outer coating stripped off and a 2oz bomb on a 15lb Amnesia link.

Huge eel landed in Stafford Moor contest

Keen match angler Mick Simpson was given a major shock during the latest event at Stafford Moor when he banked a 5lb 12oz eel.

The Worksop-based rod had made the 550-mile round trip to the Devon complex and drew peg 8 on Tanners Lake in the contest.

Several carp to 8lb fell for his bomb and pellet attack in the early stages before the specimen made its way into the net.

It isn’t the first large eel to be reported from the venue, with unconfirmed rumours suggesting fish to 10lb have been taken in the past.

Huge eel caught by fly angler

WHEN game angling guide Rob Waddington latched into a heavy fish during a session at Rutland Water last week, the last thing he expected to see on the other end was this huge eel, weighing in at a mighty 7lb 8oz

The professional fishing coach took the impressive predator on a sinking fly while casting from the bank at the vast 3,000-acre East Midlands venue. He had already been ‘bitten off’ by another big fish just minutes before doing battle with the surprise catch.

Rob told Angling Times: “I knew they were large eels in Rutland, which you’d occasionally see in the rocks, but this is the first one I’ve caught. We’d had a successful day with good sport from the trout on buzzers, then the wind got up and I decided to try a sinking line and a cat’s whisker booby, slowly drawn through the depths. On my first cast I had a savage take, while retrieving the fly up from the shelf, from what felt like a huge fish. I got smashed and the 12.5lb leader had been bitten off cleanly.”

Having tied on a new fly, Rob’s next cast produced another powerful bite followed by a long, slow run which took his reel down to the backing.

"I hoped it was a big brown trout, as there have been some good ones caught recently,” he said,

"but the fight was different and I thought it could be a big pike, which I’ve had to over 20lb from Ruitland on the fly rod. When it came to the net, I couldn't believe it was a huge eel!"

It’s not the first time that the Anglian Water-owned venue has produced a specimen eel, with a giant fish estimated by its captor to weigh well in excess of the British record having been caught almost a year ago to the day.

Rutland Water fishery manager John Marshall said: “Rob’s catch is a bit unusual but it doesn’t surprise me. Going back 30 years or so there were a lot of eels in there and some of them where huge.  Sometimes they’d get stuck in the inlet pipe at the dam and they’d be as thick as your arm!”

*Rob’s Rutland Fly Fishing Adventures offers guiding and coaching at the reservoir and can be contacted through www.rutlandflyfishing.co.uk