The National Anguilla Club

Eel Specialists since 1962.

The National Anguilla Club was formed for eel angling specialist 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 rest we don’t really know about except Jim Gibbinson, so if anyone knows there whereabouts please contact myself (membership@nationalanguillaclub.co.uk) or the club and let us know.

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.

The club has a structured set of rules and a constitution, but only as a framework for democratic processes at the Annual General Meeting, which usually has an attendance of 50% of the membership. We provide members with two Club Magazines and Newsletters each year and expect all members to contribute to the magazine via the Editor. Also return catch returns and news items for inclusion into the Newsletters.

The club is actively involved in angling politics with emphasis on the preservation and conservation of eels and eel angling. We have in the past worked with other eel groups and formed the “Eel Conservation Society” which was absorbed into the NAC a few years later as their political wing. We have also been closely involved with initially The National Association of Specimen Groups, which turned into The National Association of Specialist Anglers then The Specialist Anglers Conservation Group finally The Specialist Anglers Alliance.

During its years the NAC has won public enquiries set up by the Minister of Agriculture Fisheries and Food against water authorities who have tried to ban night fishing and close season fishing for eels. We initiated the campaign against eel netter's in the early 1970s and at the same time began the national campaign to try and get anglers to return all eels to the water after capture, especially those over 2lb in weight. The age of an eel of 2lbs would be approximately 20 years of age.

The majority of members fish for eels during the more prolific summer months, say April to October. But a few of us fish all year round on waters that can and do produce during the colder months.

We try and organize at least two club outings a year, for usually a week- end. These trips give the members a chance to meet, swap ideas and generally have a great social time. There is also a winter social meeting during November were we try and organize a slide show or a talk and it is here the club trophies are awarded. These range from biggest eel, biggest eel on a club trip, awards for meritorious work for the club, and best article in the club mag. Also at these meeting we hold a club raffle with prizes donated by the members.
You don’t have to be a 4 night a week eel fisherman to be a member just enjoy catching eels and be passionate about their survival.
If you feel you would enjoy the NAC now is a great time to join with membership fees dropped down to £15 for this year.

Contact me, The Membership Secretary, Nick Rose, 131 Goosemoor Lane, Erdington, Birmingham, B23 5QG.
E-mail  membership@nationalanguillaclub.co.uk

Finally thanks to Jimmy Jolley for providing parts of this information.