Keith Arthur’s views on the news
Those who fish for them on purpose deserve every success
HUGE congratulations to Tony Arbery, son of that great specialist angler Len, on the capture of one of the rarest creatures swimming in our waters – a double-figure eel (Angling Times May 29).
I know very little about fishing for big eels, a deliberate move on my part, last having read features by John Sidley in my formative years.
The closest I came to a purely accidental mammoth eel was on the Slough Arm of the Grand Union Canal in the days when I fished for Banstead. We’d gone there following a match at West Drayton to practise for one of the old team knockout matches. Most of the team set up to have a go, with me running the bank as I wasn’t available for the match.
Most of the team set up with squatt or punch rigs but Darren Davies was fishing caster close to the far bank. Occasional bubbles came up in his swim and, sure enough, he soon hooked a beast that shot down the canal, bottoming out his elastic and making off with his hook. He blamed a carp or tench and set up a far heavier rig.
Not long after, the same thing happened but he managed to get all 11m of pole up in the air to exert maximum pressure.
The fish moved to the middle channel, when the zig-zag behaviour of the line gave the game away. He’d hooked a big ‘snake’.
Eventually he had the head to the surface, thrashing the water to a lather while the tail was stirring the silt on the bottom. I can’t guess the weight but it was big enough and, luckily, because I don’t think anyone had a landing net that would have taken it, the hooklength parted.
Big eels are nasty custards and those who fish for them deserve every reward they achieve.