Eely good week!

Friday night was to be a humid one and perfect for a try at one of my favorite species the freshwater eel, earlier in the week i had managed another type of eel the mighty Conger Eel and we had a great trip landing nearly 70 eels to 62lb.

So with one species of eel under my belt it had to be worth a try for the other, first job was to catch the live baits. It never takes more than 10 minutes to get enough Rudd for bait and as the float sat perfectly next to a lily bed i noticed the Damselflys dive bombing the float. Its really a great way to waste an hour catching bait and watching the insects.

With the bait collected and the traps set it was time to sit back and await the onset of darkness, the time when predators come out to play.

The first predator to appear however was a rather loud Owl with the screetch echoing across the mist covered valley, i do love nightfishing. With darkness now upon me the first action was from the worm rod as a double figure Carp made off with the Eel bait, it was quickly unhooked and released not being my target species. I had just nodded off at around 1am when the worm rod was off again, another Carp was quickly released and told off for spoiling my chances. I decided to have a quick brew before returning to bed and the rod in the margin started beeping as the baits senses detected a predator nearby, it was 20 minutes later before the alarm wailed that a predator had struck. I picked up the rod and line peeled from the open spool, i struck and was met with the typical bounce bounce of a good eel. The new Chris Roberts Eel net was finally tested and the Eel which looked like a scrapper 4 went straight in. I unhooked the fish and sacked it in a deep margin for a photo in the morning. the rod was re-baited and placed back in the lakes margins. I finished my drink and returned to bed, 30 minutes later and the same rod was going again. This time the fish felt different and the sudden tailwalk along the surface proved it was indeed something different as a Pike popped into view. I unhooked the fish took a quick shot then returned the fish to the lake, they are a bit fragile this time of the year.

With the time now 3am i finally grabbed an hours snooze but decided to get up at first light to try and get one of the final 6 Carp from the stock pond. Free-lined luncheon meat was the weapon of choice and after spotting a large patch of rising silt the bait was soon taken. The spirited 6lb Mirror ran all over the pond before i finally netted it, another removed and placed in the main lake, 5 to go.

I broke camp and packed away all the kit before attempting the Eel photos, when i fished for them a lot i was pretty accomplished at taking pictures on the self timer as i fished alone. It however had been a while and i was sure the Eel now rested would make it an extreme experience. Anyway as i suspected the Eel wasn't impressed to see me again and writhed angrily, incredible strength but i soon got her tamed ready for the pictures.

Luck was with me as after 4 shots the camera beeped to signify the battery was exhausted, a bit like me, so the pics would have to do. That was that, target achieved and i hope i manage a few bigger eels this year but its early days. The new tractor makes light work of the grass cutting and now we just need a bit of good weather. My final job was to put 10 kilo of food into the carp lake and prepare next weeks carp food.