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Eel Hunting..

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Ouch!! That's Gotta hurt..
Huh.. I am planning on hunting eels at night.. with a help of u/w lamp... so I hope to catch them while they are roaming the shallow water in search of some crabs.. my spear has two floppers so I think that is enough to keep the eel on it..
I have some good recipies for eel and I want to try them out.. as soon as I get my flashlight...

Pekka
 
Yeah shooting murray eels are bit risky. I never want my hands in same cave with murrays. Golden rule is kill it immediately with knife without touching it.

Hey pekka if you are loking for best flashlight around give omer moonlight elite a try. You will not be disappoint.
 
hi

Yeah with injuries like that I think i will stick to fish. Hope you recover well mate.

cheers
 
I have Sunlight something... I can't remember but it seems to be lost somewhere.. so I might have to find a new one.. thanks for the advice.
Pekka
 
Hi Pekka,

I found the info below on a fishing site, thought it maybe of interest to you: -

How Reef Conger Live
Reef conger have different habits from that of wreck fish. Reef conger do not sit tight in their holes and pick off food as it passes by. They are most active towards dusk and dawn, tending to roam across quite wide areas hoping to surprise both live fish, but also picking
up fresh fatalities, too.

This walkabout tendency seems to be triggered by two things. Firstly, that the tide is approaching slack water with little water movement evident. The eels work over the ground until the tide starts to pick up. A this occurs they head back towards a permanent hole within which they can hide their full body length, though this is surprisingly rarer than written work would have us believe.

Many reef dwelling eels, especially the 20lb plus fish with greater body girth and length, have difficulty finding holes large enough in the reef structure. They are content to lay full length along the deeper cracks and fissures in the rock strata. This method of dormancy whilst tidal activity is at it's greatest is also used by eels living over relatively smooth coral structured reefs like those along the Bristol Channel.

Alternatively, they may embed themselves around the base of bigger rocks, or sink into the camouflage of dense weed beds. There is some substance in saying that some of the larger eels tend to be free swimming as opposed to holed up and are frequently caught from the
outer edges of the reef, whereas the inner reef area tends to hold a quantity of the smaller sub 20lbers.

Periods of peak tidal flow see the eels go to ground, and only if the bait drops right on their noses will they be induced to feed.

Light entering through the water is critical to success. In water under 50ft, days with an overcast sky are needed to maximize catches. Bright sun and clear skies in calm settled seas reduce your chances of success beyond acceptable levels. If you must fish such spells of
weather, then be fishing by dawn, or stay through the dusk, safety permitting, when the suns rays are shallow and reflected off the surface of the water and do not penetrate to any great degree.

As a sea settles after a storm when the sea colour is brown and coloured, or grey as happens over a large reef area, then this is when the eels will capitalize and feed well. Such weather and sea state combinations produce the best of all reef conger fishing, both in
numbers and in size.

The neap tides will always give the best fishing, but not necessarily the best fish. The slower moving tide on the neaps prolongs the time for the eels to feed, whereas the spring tides and faster flowing water have a much shorter slack water period which reduces feeding
time. The biggest conger though, do show up on the spring tides, possibly due to their extra bulk making them less affected by the tide which allows them to feed without the competition from the smaller fish.
 
Thanks Stevie T

Tonight I am going for hunting all night.. I mean all night. Starting from midnight into 6:00.. so I should come back with couple of good sized eels and some crabs and well food for the whole bunch of friends that I agreed to feed if they just cook all the things I bring.. because I am headed to bed after the dive anyhow!

I am diving at Budleigh Salterton beach, why? Well I find it nice and good hunting at day time must mean moderate hunting at night time...... and the busses don't run here in UK at night.. so I gotta take the last buss to Budleigh and then the first one back in the morning Zzz
I have my Sun light 4.. not too bright but good enough for some hunting.
I'll let you know how it went later this week..
Safe diving to you all!
Pekka
 
Pekka,

Good luck for your trip tonight.

By the way, if you do manage to shoot a Conger or two, how do you propose getting them back on the bus? Baring in mind that even small Eels of 10-20lb are about 5ft long?????

Good luck mate, and stay safe out there, the Brittish Coast at night is an unforgiving place sometimes, i know i go out fishing at night every week..............

Remember, the Ocean is the Master not the diver.
 
Well boys... i don't want to be rude but i hope you don't shoot fishes that sleeping motionless at the bottom in the night.
 
Originally posted by Murat
Well boys... i don't want to be rude but i hope you don't shoot fishes that sleeping motionless at the bottom in the night.

Not any different to shooting, say, Groper sitting in their caves?:hmm
 
Sorry Murat, I meant I fish with Rod and Line at night, not a spear.

As for Pekka, the reason he is going at night is because the Congers are mainly active then.

But I do agree that its not sporting to shoot a fish that is simply resting on the bottom, or is it sporting when you have dived to say 20-30m to reach the fish????????????
 
Shadow mate actually there is HUGE difference in med sea.

During day time Groupers hiding in theirs caves so its challangeing to find one. But generally predators are more active at night ( i don't know if its hold for grouper also) on the other hand, during day time fishes stays in deep waters but in night they comes to shore for sleeping or hunting. In here you have to be good freediver to find big grouper. Most of the top speros in here and other parts of the europe likes to hunt groupers coz they are challanging to find. You both have to dive deep and do it many times to look all necessary holes. Sometimes i lucky enough to saw medium sized groupers but if it holed up you will have hard time to find it in its complex cave. I saw the grouper enter the hole, i dived before it but couldn't able to find it generally rock formations are too complex here, amny rooms and connections.Even if you spot it in the cave it may not give you a right shoot opportunity. You have to shoot to its head to be able to land it othervise it opens gilplates and stuck in the cave. So in here grouper hunrting is not just shooting fish sitting in the cave. Imagine some divers doing it 30+ mters.... :duh

What about oz?? What grouper hunting like there?

Take care, bye ....
 
Stevie,

In my opinion shooting defensless fish is not sporting. But if the fish stays in 20-30 meter of water and you are doing freedive its not that much defensless but i preffer not to shoot sleepy fish.
 
Murat: Have you ever been night diving? Apart from it being dark and the fish being hard to spot you will find that there is a lot of activity going on. A lot of predators hunt at night.

Very little difference in searching for fish with a torch or shooting them in caves. Either way the diver has an advantage, compared to say daylight reef hunting of fish that don't hole up in caves.
 
I never been have night hunting. Its illegal here and have high bounty. But i know some people whoes doing it and they tells me what its all about. They are using high capacity car battery and huge lights so they won't have any problems to spot the fish.

In here Dentex is the premium and HARDEST to catch fish for most euro spero. But i know some speros who has less experiance than me catching full freezer of dentex while night hunting. I didn't even see those fish during day time i am sure they didn't see either.
 
I'm sure Pekka won't be using floodlights from Wembley Stadium. It makes freediving a pain.
 
No worries I am not killing sleeping beauties.. I'll just spook them away..
Last night was a disaster though.. got sea-sick... and didn't shoot a single fish or eel or anything..
another time then.. hope to learn how to chatch those gonger eels..

Pekka
 
I caught a 9 kilo conger yesterday.

Took ages to kill it as it was thrashing around like a lunatic. Eating it for dinner tonight MMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!
 
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