Eels have long been a favored food source throughout much of the world and many unique techniques have been developed over time to catch them. Eels are trapped for both recreational and commercial usage and various methods are utilized. However, the most common way of catching eels is through the use of eel traps.
Eel traps can be constructed of everything from wood to metal and can be simple or highly complex. The simplest type of eel trap can be a woven bag attached to a rope that is filled with hay, straw or newspaper and baited. More complex traps are made of fashioned metal chicken wire and are even available commercially by a few manufacturers although it is not hard to fashion one on your own. Traps can be constructed by hand using metal chicken wire or by using wooden slats and creating a wooden box featuring a concave end with a hole to allow eels to enter the trap. The earliest recorded eel traps consisted of sticks and branches held together with sinew and the basic design has remained fairly consisted since those times. Commercial traps are of a design consisting of a rectangular or cylindrical shape with an inward funnel shape on one end with a hole large enough for the eels to pass through, but due to the funnel difficult to escape from once trapped. Often at bait and tackle stores you can purchase a minnow trap which can be modified by expanding the funnel hole to allow it to be used to trap eels instead. Among all the designs for trapping eels the most common are traps consisting of a rectangular or cylindrical shape.
The most productive period of time to trap eels is in the late summer and early fall when eels begin a long migration to the sea in great numbers. This migration results in increased numbers of eels being trapped. However, eels are able to trapped year round if climate permits as they go dormant in regions with cold winters. Traps are usually placed in the water around dusk and left for a few hours before being removed to prevent captured eels from escaping the trap. The traps are always baited to attract eels with some believing the more the bait stinks the better due to the eels keen sense of smell. Bait includes such things as herring, earthworms, fish carcasses, and even dog food has been used successfully. Bait is usually secured in a some type of mesh or cloth bag that allows the scent to pass through into the water but keep the bait from being washed out of the trap or consumed by eels. After eels are caught they are usually kept live in simple tanks until being killed and prepared for cooking or smoking.