Rigged Eel question

[Pete F.]

I have heard and actually seen that bluefish do not go after old rigged eels. John R was there that night and had some live eels chopped. Of course that night there were no stripers or at least none that were hungry. They might have been further out eating bunker the blues chopped the tails off.

[piemma]

RIRockhound wrote the best article on rigging that I ever read. I have rigged eels the "old" way for 40 years. Tried Bryan's way and I'll never go back. It involves using small wire ties and a swivel on the front hook. I forgot where the article was published but it was either "The Fisherman" or OTW. Takes about 5 minutes and the riggies stay together forever.

[Clogston29]

they fish better than live eels in rough conditions or strong cross winds, when keeping in contact with a live eel is almost impossible

i think the biggest things are that they stay down better in many conditions and the control that you have over them, as zeno said. the control and finness are definately something that i need alot of work on.

it often seams like smaller fish either choose not to hit them or aren't big/strong enough to suck them down and get hooked (i've caught 14" fish on 16" live eels, not so with big riggies), allowing bigger fish to be weeded out

sometimes, in a really fast bite, i've noticed that i can catch more fish than the guy next to me with live eels simply because i can get fish in, off, released and be casting again quicker than they can. On a few occasions, this lead to weeding out the bigger fish.

[JFigliuolo]

Originally Posted by piemma

RIRockhound wrote the best article on rigging that I ever read. I have rigged eels the "old" way for 40 years. Tried Bryan's way and I'll never go back. It involves using small wire ties and a swivel on the front hook. I forgot where the article was published but it was either "The Fisherman" or OTW. Takes about 5 minutes and the riggies stay together forever.

I couldn't rig an eel to save my life. The method Bryan outlined is very easy and works very well.

[RIfoosball]

Thanks for all the follow up information.

The hook was staying in the eel's mouth just fine so I'll find a better way to tie the mouth shut.

I am going to assume here that one doesn't want to fish the eel upside (true?) down so next time I'll use the same method of rigging but put the hooks underneath. Some of the areas I fish I get hooked up if the hooks are beneath the eel/lure as I'm trying to find the bottom.

I would be very interested in knowing how to find RIRockhound's method in writing along with Zeno's referenced chapter on it.

Thanks!