Me and a buddy filled a couple sacks today. Its a big deal here where most of the village goes out on the newly formed river ice to harvest piles of eels with dip nets and sticks with nails to impale them.



They attach to a salmon in the ocean but then drop off and return to fresh water to spawn in the mud.



Prized for their oily, sardine like, mild flavor.

So tonight's dinner is leg of Seal, with a side of Eels.

You don't see that everyday in Iowa. lol

I hope you enjoyed it. It looks like fun to catch them.

My wife, kids, and inlaws eat unagi, Japanese eel, but I won't touch the stuff.

Jim

Thanks it is a lot of fun. We had a commercial market here at one time, it paid $1 a lb

The smoked eels you get at the sushi bar taste very similar. I love those too with the sweet sauce and sesame seeds. Better try them again James.

Here is an old video I made years ago, I posted it before, if you haven't seen it.

Interesting post, thanks for sharing. Never thought of having either of those for supper.

Looks like fun...I'd pass on eating them

I keep looking to see if the've been gutted, lol

I would eat them, but seems like I'd slit the bellies and gut them first, and I cant tell if you did or didnt.

I would try it , Lawyers (fresh water burbot) are a favorite
lots of people wouldn't eat them if they saw them first either

Careful there you might start an Anarchy.

King Henry I supposedly died from eating lampreys.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10281476/#:~:text=For%20centuries%2C%20the%20sudden%20and,accidentally%20poisoned%20the%20unfortunate%20monarch.

since the only concern with eating lamprey eels seems to be the PCBs they might accumulate I hardly think it was the eels themselves

perhaps the physicians realized the poor handling of the eels prior to cooking or the kitchen staffs poor practice in cooking them and it is really just a case of food poisoning by bad fish.

I am curios how you prepare the eel after the catch

James one of my most favorite meals when I was there was "unagi teshoku" meaning a whole meal. Every time I go there that is what I order. Delicious!!!!.....jk

Dad likes eels. Acquired a taste for them in Nam. One of those little things he won't talk about.

I'd save him a few that I caught on trotlines but I hated touching them due to the slime. These were American eels not lampreys.

Snow snakes.

Kill them all.

once we are on the subject
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF_rP2XQoNg

Nice post and video. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, YJ, please explain how they are prepared. The seal looks good, but the eels look raw with the innards still inside? Not judging, just nothing I see around here and curious about.

I have eaten a lot of Lake eels here but never them ones.Eel is good eating,,we used to smoke a lot of them.

used to fish with eels for sea bass in the surf