what is good eel bait?

[Joel Eadie]

there is a rather large one in a drying up pool near my place and i would love to catch it but what can i catch it on?

[dan25]

any bait will work mate.even trying casting a lure at it, i caught an eel about 1.5m long on a squidgy :laugh:

[sharkboi]

Cheap liver from the butcher works well.

[blairv]

I fished one about 5 foot long Pike Eel out of the River the other night on a Poddy Mullet - Damn those thing have a great set of teeth on them!

[Keechie]

bread will work, so would a piece of raw meat

[badboygibbo]

a strip of mullet flesh

I get heeps down in my local creek but remember the heavy leader because bite offs are a common problem.

paul

[natang]

mate anything from servo prawns, garden worms also I caught one a few weeks bak at Kholo on a piece of banded grunter!

[Jaymz711]

anything bait like.. literally. They arent fussy

[Whiskers]

Try some eel... :laugh:

[MoparKevUk]

Pre chewed steak, or a pizza crust.

[Joel Eadie]

MoparKevUk wrote:

Pre chewed steak, or a pizza crust.

are you talking raw or uncooked? i tried raw steak today and i couldnt entice it, i may have scared it though. i would try mullet but mum claims that mullet do not belong in the food freezer (who knew), consequently she threw my frozen ones out

[yoyo]

a drying up pool ??

[fishingnut]

dog sh!t

[Joel Eadie]

im not using that as an excuse to save it or whatever lol why is it so unbelieveable

[EMP]

It's really hard to tell which works best. But I've caught them on garden worm, bread, mullet, mullet gut, prawns.

But I would go try mullet gut. I remember catching more when using this stinky bait. Just put up with the smell I guess. :laugh:

EMP

[fenelious]

As most people said, eels will take just about anything, but something like fresh offal (fish or animal guts) or fresh meat of any sort is best. I've caught most of my eels on worms, grubs, fish meat or freshwater pippies. Keep your bait right down near the bottom and remember a decent sized hook and heavy leader. You can leave a few of these 'eel lines' out for many hours because the eel will usually swallow the bait quite deep down his throat, and with the heavy line that you use you can still haul them in hours later cos they wont get away.

Another good way to catch them is to make an 'eel bag'. Get an old hessian bag (do they make these anymore?) and put some bloody/smelly meat or offal in it. I used to use a shot rabbit or cut off piece of kangaroo meat. Simply tie up the end of the bag with heavy string or rope and chuck the bag in the river, tieing off the rope to something on the bank. The eel will chew a hole through the bag and wriggle in to get at the meat, but after having a good feed will not be able to find his way out, hence be still wriggling around in there when you pull in the bag in a day or two.

[Keen-as-fisho]

My brother and I used to catch them about 12ish years ago in the scrubby creek at Browns plains. Left over sauages (cooked) used to work a treat, any cooked meat thats been in the fridge for the night works well. I had an operah trap in one of the creeks on fraser (years ago before I found out about the 'creek laws') It was in over night, checked it in the morning to find a bloody big fat eel half inside it.

[fishing_hardcore]

Joel Eadie wrote:

im not using that as an excuse to save it or whatever lol why is it so unbelieveable

chunk of meat

eels can move across a dry river bed, dont be suprised if it dissapears soon.

cheers

[MoparKevUk]

Joel Eadie wrote:

MoparKevUk wrote:

Pre chewed steak, or a pizza crust.

are you talking raw or uncooked?

As your steaks over here are fantastically tender, tasty and big, any bits that are tough on the chew get put in a ziplock bag and into the freezer for any future Colmslie raids! (At home of course, not when dining out!) So to answer your Q; Medium to rare!

[fenelious]

P.S. With the eel bag, shove a few good handfulls of straw or dry heavy grass in there as well. This helps to give bulk to the bag, keeping the bait harder to eat from the outside and assisting in getting him tangled up and not being able to find the exit hole once he gets in.

[ellicat]

fenelious wrote:

P.S. With the eel bag, shove a few good handfulls of straw or dry heavy grass in there as well. This helps to give bulk to the bag, keeping the bait harder to eat from the outside and assisting in getting him tangled up and not being able to find the exit hole once he gets in.

Good way to get crays too.

If not a hession bag, try one of those fibrey plastic type bags that fertilisers (e.g. Dynamic Lifter) come in.

[roobs]

i used to use dog roll- the dog food in the meat section that looks like a big salami. they loved it. also chicken breast

[aussie9]

We had a guy that used to come and trap eels out of our dams a few years back before the drought. He had traps like crab pots and baited them with W.A. Pilchards. The traps were about 900 x 600 x 300 (mm) and some were chockers when he pulled them... So.......I guess the old pilchard should work on a line for them as well

[Mr FeLiX]

I fish quite reguarly for eels in the dam on my property, and have used a variety of baits. The best results I've had have come on mullet strips from coles or slightly off shredded ham from the fridge..

..And no, i don't keep off ham in my fridge to eat.. Eel bait only :laugh:

They fight hard but, I'll give em that

[Ryder29]

On 22/10/2009 at 9:29 PM, Joel Eadie said:

there is a rather large one in a drying up pool near my place and i would love to catch it but what can i catch it on?

Use corn kernels, I caught a 90cm Australian longfin eel in my own dam with a small shank hook, sinker and swivel

[Drop Bear]

4 hours ago, Ryder29 said:

Use corn kernels, I caught a 90cm Australian longfin eel in my own dam with a small shank hook, sinker and swivel

Nice, I would not have thought to use that.