UK Coarse
Species
Anguilla anguilla
A declining, legally protected traveller. If you catch one, unhook it quickly and put it back. Do not keep eels.
The European eel is critically depleted. UK anglers still catch them at night on worm, deadbait and by accident on a maggot feeder. They are catadromous — they belong to a long migration — and they are not a target to chase for a bag.
If you fish worm at night on a stillwater or river, you may meet one. Carry forceps, keep the fish wet, cut the line if it's deeply hooked, and return it. Do not transport eels. Do not keep them to eat. This app will not help you target them as a crop.
Silt, snags, outflows, and the bottom of stillwaters and slow rivers. They move after dark.
Warm nights in summer and early autumn. They are not a winter sport for most people.
A slow, heavy pull. They wrap in weed and on the net. Don't panic; keep pressure and get them in the mesh.
Wet hands, towel if you must grip, unhook fast, back they go. Never dry them out for a photo. Never keep one.
You don't feed eels like a shoal of roach. A worm on the bottom at night is how most encounters happen.
Keeping eels. Deep-hooking and tearing. Posing a fish that should already be in the water.
If you don't want eels, don't leave a worm out all night. If you hook one, the job is welfare, not a change of method.
Venue type
Natural stillwater
Pits, meres, estate lakes and waters that were not built as day-ticket carp mills. Lilies, silt, snags, and fish that do not have to eat your bait.
Venue type
River
Open season — return them
Venue type
Canal
A towpath, a far shelf, boats, and some of the most thoughtful fishing in the country. Bread punch, pole, and waggler still rule.