There has to be someone on trapperman that has trapped eels before. Around here, it just isn't a big deal. I don't know anyone that's ever caught one on purpose. I read that they're great bait for crabs and fish, that is my main interest.

Anyone here trap em? Any tips or anything you're willing to share?

To be clear, I'm talking about the true eel, not amphiumas.

On the east coast they make excellent striped bass bait when fished alive. I've eaten a few and they are good, just a lot of work for not much meat. The meat is snow white.

Thats what I hear. I read that they're as good of a striper bait as a person can find. I also read that they make excellent crab bait. Like I said, I don't know of a single person that's tried to catch eels around here. I'm hoping that I can catch some. I'm around fresh/brackish/saline water on a daily basis, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue to set a couple pots out. I'm just trying to learn a little bit more about catching them before I buy the materials to build some pots.

Charles, is it common to hear of people running eel pots in your neck of the woods?

I eat a eel once

They're catching them here using razor clams & salted eel is one of the best baits for trottlines. Best locations are old piers & junky places

Great, thanks. Do they catch them all year long, or is it more of a summer run over there?

I think there is a buyer for eel on Rocky Hock Creek, off the east side of the Chowan River. They used to have a large floating net that eels were stored in and a suction truck came a few times per year to suck them into a tank. I heard they were flown overseas where they were smoked, and a sought by the French.

Full Circle Seafood in Columbia, NC has pots I think and surely knows who the local buyer is.

A lot of you oysters are trucked up here now to provide work in the crab houses. I suppose those trucks go back empty. Buy a few hundred traps and ask Willie to send them back on an empty truck. He also has hoop traps.

Do you have a commercial fishing license? If so, you can get your sales tax back.

Only summer/fall

They are good trot line bait. I like to have a live one hooked mid line to keep things jumping and improve the catch.

Primetime starts in early spring but they will trap in summer and fall as well.

Are eels the kind of thing that you catch one, have a few empty pots, and then maybe catch another, it would it be somewhat comparable to crab pots where you catch at least several per pot if you're in a good spot?

Take a package of chicken livers and dump them into a stocking, great bait.

Our eels are in our rivers and love to get under large rocks.

My B-I-Law runs an eel weir/rack, I was his partner at one time but there simply isn't enough time for that anymore. Some nights he'll get 20 or 30 pounds, some nights 2-3 hundred pounds and when the river's up and the moon is just right in the late Fall, he may catch 1,000 pounds in a night.

Been sitting here trying to load pics but keep being told that they're too big.

one eel every other pot and I would be pulling them for another spot.

You cant see it in the pic but there is cloth for the place for them to go in and cloth at the other end to dump them and if you can get razor clams chowder clams work also just bust the shell buy hitting them together they make to diff kinds of traps this time of year 6ft of water is wear were catching them they love grass beds also bigger ones stay near grass beds up here up here 4 dollars a pd is about the going price you should be able to find pics of the traps online if not let me no and ill get pics for u they look like minnow traps just with cloth doors hope this helps you out

Looks like a fun thing to do sometime.....on the coast.

Trapper/Caller,
I don't think you need to go to the coast to get 'em. Used to vacation up in the tri state area near Port Jervis in mid august when I was a kid and we fished the Delaware River and caught eels at night. Grandma told me to keep them and she fried them for us, I was surprised how good they were.
Waz

Lt. Dan's Big Eel Predator Bait! Made from ground up eel, and 13 original herbs and spices! I've found myself a retirement job! Woo hoo! We might even make it glow in the dark for some eye appeal!

smoked eel is one of the best things I have ever eaten

Ran across this one today so thought I would take a picture.

The females with eggs inside the shell are some of the best eel pot bait going (where legal):