When I first took up eel fishing in 2004 I didn’t realise how difficult and time consuming hunting for a specimen eel was having been involved in pike fishing prior to this I thought I had seen enough inactivity and dry landing nets, still if it was easy everyone would be doing it and we don’t want that do we lads?

          Being a shift worker I had to now start managing my time because has we know the eel generally feeds at night although I have had eels up to 3lb 10oz in the day. So to help me along I went to seek advice and what advice well I am going to have to come clean one of my old work colleagues is Dave Holman (eel fishing legend) yes that’s right Dave Holman I have known Dave for many years but never talked about eels or eel fishing and your thinking how could this be well the answer is simple I was into pike and that’s all that mattered it sometimes affects you like that when searching for one species , anyhow moving on as I said Dave was an old work colleague and had worked the same shifts as me so he would have a greater understanding of how to maximise your time spent on the bank without becoming worn out, we talked about the obvious the full night sessions and the weekend sessions and then he mentioned the short session this was about doing about 4hrs as apposed to full nights , so by doing a short session I could go into work the next day giving more opportunity to get on the bank when a full night wasn’t possible.

          I have now been fishing for eels for five seasons and I have now got a into a system regarding short session eeling the first thing to sort out are your waters and the things to consider are;

• What is a realistic distance to travel without making it along evening?

• Do you have to walk far when you get there , canals go on forever.

• Do you have to catch bait when your there is it easy to catch?

      
          Now we have dealt with those small details the next thing is what tackle do I take?
I have put together a list of what I generally take on my short sessions remember minimal is the key here.

• 2x chub 12ft power weave rods(these devils are made for eeling)

• 2x shimano 8000re reels, say no more!

• 1x ESP quiver holder

• 1x landing net

• 1x fox stalker rod pod

• 2x fox mmx bite alarms

• 1x chub ultra lite chair

• 1x small holder

• 1x brolly (nothing worse blanking and getting wet?)

• 1x small tackle box

• 1x whip for bait

• 1x head torch(with spare batteries)

• 1x flask(with hot chocolate)

• Very large amount of patience is always recommended

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          The next question is when do I start fishing , well the weather is key here as spring approaches by mid march there are sudden changes to our plants etc and what I am looking for is a increase in day time temp mainly looking for that magic warm spell that we sometimes get early spring unfortunately we have been bypassed  this year. two seasons ago I was out as early has mid march , I generally have short sessions until early may the reason for this is that it becomes lighter in the evening , so from mid march when you can fish from 7pm until midnight and from April up to may you can squeeze in four hours until midnight  this type of fishing allows me to crow bar more sessions into my already busy life style. So the next question is do you short session fish later in the year ? the answer is of course , the same principle applies that is when the day light starts to get shorter that’s when you go! For me I look around mid August until early October these can be even more productive months I have used this system for the last four seasons and I find that it helps me when I cant get a full night in due to other distractions . so now your going to ask me have you caught many eels using the short session system ? well we all know how hard eel fishing can be at times certainly when your looking for that specimen fish ! and we have encountered endless blanks to get them , but I have had most of my fish before midnight so would a full night really have mattered ? I don’t  know ,one thing is for sure this way of fishing allows me to put my bait in the water more often and if your bait isn’t in then you have no chance!!

 

Janssen Bostock