The National Anguilla Club was formed for eel angling specialists in 1962. It is one of the longest, if not the longest continuously running specimen groups ever formed. The eight founder members were AJ Sutton, G Moss, J Larly, N Game, J G Bellamy, J Gibbinson, J Smith, and K Dickens.
From those early members only Arthur Sutton remains in the club.
The club was formed to study Anguilla Anguilla the freshwater eel and being fishermen, catching them as well. During those early years extensive study was made using the otolith bone, situated in the eel’s head, mainly to assess the eels age this involved killing the eels and extracting the bone. Eels were 95% more abundant in those days but this practice was stopped early on in the clubs life due to eel welfare.
Since then the club has flourished all be it with few but very enthusiastic members whose numbers usually ranges these days between 40 and 50 enthusiasts. In the past this has been down to 10 and up to 85 members. Membership is restricted to anglers over the age of 18 years. read more here...