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Live eels

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brady12

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I carry them in a small soft cooler bag with an ice pack on them which helps to calm them down and keeps them alive for a good amount of time. Wrap the ice pack in wet newspaper and line the bottom also. The bag can also hold extra leaders. If you will be wading deep then a mesh bag is best bet. I use a 50# mono leader with a 130# Spro power swivel on one end and a 7/0 octopus hook on the other. If you use a circle hook recommend using an Eagle Claw non-offset L2004ELFS hook 6/0. Hook the eel under the chin and out one of the eyes. Normally fish them by reeling them in slow keeping touch with them. If yo google John Skinner eel fishing video he covers it pretty well. Have an old cooler that painted inside black that I keep them in with a small aerator. Keep three dozen in it just need to change the water every few days. 

 

One thing to remember is dead eels often fish just as good as live ones hooked the same way you just need to part more action on them.   

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  • 2 years later...

First of all, there is no better bait (aside from using baby lobsters which is illegal) for a striped bass than a nice little fingerling sized baby mackerel live hooked through the back of the neck or upper lip and allowed to lively swim about, however when the stripers start going for it try to give it less evasiveness by tugging once and awhile so the stripers have a easier time catching it.  If its a mackerel Phelps (super fast mack) give it a good go a bit to attract attention with top water action then hit it once against the side of the boat to turn it into Brain damaged mackerel Phelps so its no longer too fast for the big fish.  Eels, live, are only effective to a degree making them worth using at dusk through night until dawn and early morning as that’s their natural time to come out.  Stripers are smart and know when somethings out of the ordinary.  Wells has em, KTP usually does, and Salisbury which is only an hour from Kport has em.  But trapping them is best.  Try to get a smaller one.  Fun fact, let em grow up those little eels reach 6 feet in length, check out the full grown ones at cabelas in Hartford ct.  Anyway, I usually use eels in spring, last year April 4th caught my first 28” off an eel.  Caught over 100 stripers last summer, 97 over 20”, 30 over keeper size, and 10 36” or above.  Did a little chartering during summers before that under the table while in law school to make money.  Brother was a commercial fisherman for Bobby brown, or for ppl who don’t know the Gloucester fishing community, the original wicked tuna man who without which Gloucester may never have become the epicenter of New England commercial fishing had he not had the impact he did.  Grew up with my dad. May know him as a character someone played in the perfect storm, who was portrayed as evil for sending them into the storm.  Boat in the movie is one my bro worked on. So this is the wisdom of more than just a casually skilled fisherman but a life long bad ass, Eels are dusk to dawn, free line it but maybe a little balloon, and wait it’s a patience game.  But if given the choice, always choose live mackerel.  

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22 hours ago, KportGooganSlayer23 said:

First of all, there is no better bait (aside from using baby lobsters which is illegal) for a striped bass than a nice little fingerling sized baby mackerel live hooked through the back of the neck or upper lip and allowed to lively swim about, however when the stripers start going for it try to give it less evasiveness by tugging once and awhile so the stripers have a easier time catching it.  If its a mackerel Phelps (super fast mack) give it a good go a bit to attract attention with top water action then hit it once against the side of the boat to turn it into Brain damaged mackerel Phelps so its no longer too fast for the big fish.  Eels, live, are only effective to a degree making them worth using at dusk through night until dawn and early morning as that’s their natural time to come out.  Stripers are smart and know when somethings out of the ordinary.  Wells has em, KTP usually does, and Salisbury which is only an hour from Kport has em.  But trapping them is best.  Try to get a smaller one.  Fun fact, let em grow up those little eels reach 6 feet in length, check out the full grown ones at cabelas in Hartford ct.  Anyway, I usually use eels in spring, last year April 4th caught my first 28” off an eel.  Caught over 100 stripers last summer, 97 over 20”, 30 over keeper size, and 10 36” or above.  Did a little chartering during summers before that under the table while in law school to make money.  Brother was a commercial fisherman for Bobby brown, or for ppl who don’t know the Gloucester fishing community, the original wicked tuna man who without which Gloucester may never have become the epicenter of New England commercial fishing had he not had the impact he did.  Grew up with my dad. May know him as a character someone played in the perfect storm, who was portrayed as evil for sending them into the storm.  Boat in the movie is one my bro worked on. So this is the wisdom of more than just a casually skilled fisherman but a life long bad ass, Eels are dusk to dawn, free line it but maybe a little balloon, and wait it’s a patience game.  But if given the choice, always choose live mackerel.  

KTP has eels? That’s news to me...

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13 hours ago, drmevo said:

KTP has eels? That’s news to me...

Kittery trading  post they don’t often have them, Kah tah pah Is not good for Bait really, But for live eels  I Usually go over to Wells because I’m from Kennebunk to get them at Webhannet but they’re not doing it really anymore so now I go to usually go over to Wells because I’m from Kennebunk to get them at Webhannet but they’re not doing it really anymore so now I go to Salisbury Where there’s a guy by the bridge before you go towards 10 so club and the beach that has frozen and live eels hours but again it’s all about the friggin live my life bogey and if worse comes to worse live Pollick. Where there’s a guy by the bridge before you go towards 10 so club and the beach that has frozen and live eels hours but again it’s all about the friggin live my life bogey and if worse comes to worse live Pollick but hell I caught one on a dead shiner once and a bunker  I think was the name, 

some frozen bait fish I found at Walmart in Biddeford, yesterday .

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7 mins ago, KportGooganSlayer23 said:

Kittery trading  post they don’t often have them, Kah tah pah Is not good for Bait really, But for live eels  I Usually go over to Wells because I’m from Kennebunk to get them at Webhannet but they’re not doing it really anymore so now I go to usually go over to Wells because I’m from Kennebunk to get them at Webhannet but they’re not doing it really anymore so now I go to Salisbury Where there’s a guy by the bridge before you go towards 10 so club and the beach that has frozen and live eels hours but again it’s all about the friggin live my life bogey and if worse comes to worse live Pollick. Where there’s a guy by the bridge before you go towards 10 so club and the beach that has frozen and live eels hours but again it’s all about the friggin live my life bogey and if worse comes to worse live Pollick but hell I caught one on a dead shiner once and a bunker  I think was the name, 

some frozen bait fish I found at Walmart in Biddeford, yesterday .

Your posts would be a lot easier to read if you just typed them like everyone else, or at least proof-read them. I don't think KTP ever has live eels, by the way, in case someone reading this gets the wrong idea and drives there for nothing. 

Edited by drmevo
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