NEW CAMPAIGN has been launched to help protect one of Britain’s most vulnerable fish through the use of ‘safe’ rigs.
Eels can sometimes swallow the hook on the take, and with the species having been in decline since the 1980s due to a combination of factors, including commercial over-exploitation, it’s more important than ever that anglers play their part in protecting stocks.
In a bid to do just that, the National Anguilla Club (NAC) is this week calling on eel fishing fans to use rigs that promote lip-hooking.
“Eels are our passion, and their welfare is paramount,” said Jason Webb, from the NAC. “They have a very challenging lifecycle, traveling thousands of miles to reach us from their spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea and taking decades to grow to specimen sizes.”
While eels have had a cult following for years, many of the old textbooks promote the use of rigs that are simply too long.
“More often than not, these resulted in a deep-hooked eel,” Jason explained. “Thankfully, times have moved on and we’ve been able to build up enough information to promote proven lip-hooking set-ups for eels. These make deep hooking a thing of the past when targeting these truly wild fish.
“There are two main rigs we’re promoting – the Barry McConnell ‘Twig Rig’, and the semi-fixed, short hooklink rig. Both of these are very effective at lip-hooking and have accounted for some huge specimens in recent years.”
To find out more about eels, and a series of diagrams of safe set-ups, visit: www.nationalanguillaclub.co.uk/eelfishingrigs
