Eel Bait
 

What do people find works as the best bait to use in eel traps?
I have heard horseshoe crabs (hard to get_ work best or even cat food?
The eel size situation has become unbearable and its time to start trapping again. Haven't done it in YEARS, but now have got place to store them with out having to deal with live well hassles.

squid

chunk em up

Female horseshoe crab - cut it in half and throw it in the trap. - 24 hour soak and you're all set.

PM me if you need a few HSC

horseshoe crabs.

You might want to check the regs - I believe taking horseshoe crabs is restricted to those who have a license -

There are also crtain times during the moon phases when taking them at all is prohibited

Hey, it's 5:30 in the AM and that's the best I can do on my 1st cup of starter fluid...:yawn:

plug or stay home...that's what I do...

Don't listen to him, he's just some shrunken groin, bling deprived poser, with a potato in his wet-suit, wantin' to be a big shot with the ladies and all. Hell, the only thing he uses is pink Powerbait, carefully molded to look like Dolly Parton and hooked through the pudendum. And for catching eels.........give me a break........anything that requires more work than opening a can of Skoal he needs his brother to do.

As for your question, horseshoe crabs are best, but shellfish of any kind work and back when I was a plodding heathen, bereft of self-esteem, driven by base instinct, and blind to the ways of the Lord, I learned from the lowest of all scum, Sauerkraut, that crushed mussels and conch work better than fish racks.......though where you set your traps and what type of trap for the size eel you want is also important.

stale english muffins. work like a charm. buy at a day old bread store. ran 25 traps when i owned the bait shop. it was the easiest way to go

crushed mussels is what I always used when I did it but I usually got eels of 3 foot length all the time. Usually got plenty but only a few were castable. But you may be able to hook a great white with them on your little rock.

Funny you say that - same thing for me - we get some huge ones on crushed mussels. If I was into the eel skin thing, they would be great for any plug but too big to cast.

My father was a eel fisherman in the CT river and sold them commercially back in the 50s and always swore by stale bread.

i second the crushed mussels...thats what a friend and i use in our traps...works good.

as far as setting the trap, can you just throw he trap in any salt pond with any old buoy attached to your line, as long as its out of the way of boat traffic? I am also sick and tired of paying close to 2$ an eel, especially when at certain times certain people dont want you selecting your own, and you end up with skimpy eels that wont cast 20 feet... I could tie to a dock over night, but I have a much better spot with lots of eel grass in a salt pond... kayak right out to it... I was thinking of just throwing a striper carcass in the pot... i used Bunker in the past and it worked great... had 8 eels in one hour... But that was another place

Man,
I grew up eating eels.Those 3 footers were the best!!!

The best thing I found for bait was my wallet:hihi:

I have always done the best with female horseshoe crabs, but I too think you might need a permit now a days. Back when I use to use them alot I would freeze my horseshoe crabs for when I needed them, since they are easyer to find in the eary spring....Last year since I wasn't sure about needing to use a permit I used bacon in my traps and it worked well. I use bacon to fish for white cats and usually catch about a dozen to two dozen eels in a given night on hook & line so it works well just a little pricy, but then again so are eels.

Yikes! English muffins and bacon? Someone delete this thread.....if NIB reads it there won't be an eel pot safe on the East coast.

:hihi:

squid

When I was a kid my father had boat that we kept in a brackish boat basin. I used to hang a minnow trap over the side to catch minnows for fluke bait. One night I left it over night filled with minnows the next day it was filled with eels :btu:

mike

female horseshoe crabs hands down. iused to do a little commercial eeling in college. ouy catches EVERYTHING else 10 or 20 to 1.

:hihi:

From the DMF website

Massachusetts requires any person harvesting more than six crabs per day to have a regulated
fishery permit and to report landings monthly. New monthly catch reports were developed to
more closely fit forms for other fisheries that are entered in to an Oracle database. New reports
must include the date of harvest, trip start time and duration, port, gear type, disposition, the
gender of the crabs, harvest location, and harvest method. If the crabs are sold, the harvester
must identify the dealer or person purchasing the crabs. All scientific and research institutes and
the single biomedical company must file monthly catch reports listing the names of individuals
they purchased crabs from, in-state and out-of-state, the number of crabs purchased and how the
crabs were used. Bait dealers are required to file electronic reports weekly under the SAFIS
(Standard Atlantic Fisheries Information System) system. The biomedical company, Associates
of Cape Cod (ACC), must also report the number of crabs received dead or rejected and the
number of dead crabs returned to the biomedical vendor. (The vendor is a fisherman who
delivers crabs he, his brother, and one other fisherman harvested, all with biomedical permits, to
ACC). The biomedical vendor must report monthly the number of dead crabs from the time of
harvest to the time the crabs were returned to the water.

How do you tell if its a female horseshoe crab?

I mean, are there any key identifying features? :hee:

They have little tiny breasticles, Mike, but you have to look closely...:hihi:

Chicken Drumstick, or leg quarter, no kidding, they love em'.

I think the male is the one hanging on for the ride.
If my assumption is that the one in the front is the female is correct, she's a lot bigger.

Guess they like the big girls, eh? Or wait...maybe they're..:happy:

:rotflmao:

guess they like to "go ugly early"