Eel Numbers

Just a thought with having read that eel numbers are on the decline.

Bait firms will sell eel sections for dead bait, yet the eel must travel to the Sargasso to breed, this is not a sustainable source, surely?

Not meaning to sound like some kind of hippy or anything, but surely this is dammaging in the long run?

Just curious to see what people think, maybe it will be subject of interesting debate

Its a good question, I will not use eel sections for this reason, personal choice for me, a mate of mine swears by them and uses them a lot, his choice too, dont fall out with him over it, however the warning signs are there.

I have only used eel section once and that was 20 years ago. There are so many other baits available I have never felt the need to use them. Now that they are in massive decline I doubt that I will ever use them. It's a good point. If angler's stop buying them the shops will not need to stock them.

I've not caught one for a few years now ( not that i try to catch them )
I don't use them and never have i don't see the need as we have so many varieties of deadbait available Plus why use eels when we have Lampry Which is much better IMO anyway

I've used Eel as bait before and found it to be really good, but I'm rather reluctant to do so now.

never had an eel in 22 years of pike fishing on dead baits untill this year and have had 2 now??? i have no doubt though that eel numbers are at an all time low. i live near a canal and in the 80/90 if you fished maggot or worm you could get 10 a day no probs. in last 3 years only seen around 5 caught

All this stramash about eels in decline troubles me. I've seen no evidence that eels are in decline in Scotland whatsoever. I catch them every year. In fact I know a bit of Lomond where you practically cannot avoid the blasted things and these are bootlaces, not just grown on adults, so breeding they are. It could just be that eels have stopped migrating to and from English rivers as much as they used to.

Not just in England Andy its all over Europe
Just Google eel decline !! theres loads about it on the net

its good to hear they are still about somewhere in good numbers

eel section is a great bait and i haven,t used it for my zandering for over ten years

its strange but i found a few places that don,t seem to have any decline in the eel population and while out predator fishing more so in early autumn and get plague by them ,but then i,ll go general quiver tipping with a maggot feeder on places where the bait wouldn,t be in the water more than a couple of seconds before an eel had taken it but now its doesn,t get touched by an eel

i seems there are still area,s where eels haven,t declined yet but for how long though

adie1200 wrote:Not just in England Andy its all over Europe
Just Google eel decline !! theres loads about it on the net

its good to hear they are still about somewhere in good numbers

I was suggesting that maybe they're migrating elsewhere. I'm aware of what's been said about eel decline but since I've yet to see any evidence of it myself, I just wonder if the eels themselves have found somewhere else to live. I'm not disagreeing with the data. I'm suggesting they're maybe looking in the wrong places. The climate and migratory routes of all kinds of species, not just fish mind are changing all the time.

That said, I know the eels used for baits come from places where eels are in decline or at least conspicuous by their absence and therefore, I won't use them.

We used to catch them by the dozens in all our rivers
But they have disappeared over the last few years
Its a shame as we had some nice ones apart from the bootlaces lol the were a nuisance

If they're disappearing from all rivers, as is suggested, that doesn't suggest overfishing. That suggests something else is at work, like a change in the Gulf Stream or a change in climate or as I've suggested, a change in migratory routes.

The eel has been about for millions of years, virtually unchanged and it was only 10 years ago we were catching them in plague-like numbers. Now because they seem to disappearing from our rivers, it must be something we've (humans) done.

How do we know that? Eels have probably change migratory routes 1000s of times over the eons.

Who knows?..Maybe in 10 years time we'll be overrun with the things again.

I'm just trying to be positive.