Eel Fishing Basics for Citation Stripers
By Richard Welton

I have been hearing and reading about all the really big 50 lb + stripers being taken off of Cape Charles for the last 2 years. I did not get a chance to try it until recently partly because I thought it was difficult and you didn’t catch many fish. I was wrong on both counts.g bass into striking? Most definitely not!

Claude Bain of the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament had been telling me about this fishery for the past 2 years. Anglers were drifting live eels about 20 feet down under bobbers in about 40 feet of water along the edge of the deep natural channel that runs up the bayside of the Eastern Shore. They were catching huge fish when experienced trollers were catching much smaller fish or no fish. It seems that these huge fish move down the coast and up into the deep water to hold for several months until the water cools forcing them southward. I would bet that this is also a winter staging area for eels.

Chris’ Bait and Tackle on the lower Eastern Shore had been the headquarters for this fishery until this year when western shore anglers began running across to get in on the action. Still, Chris’ went through three citation pads in 10 days recently and sold out a shipment of 350 special eel size bobbers in three days!

Fishing in the Mid Atlantic Striped Bass Shootout with Carolyn Brown, Robin & Lee Wallace and Rick & Marilyn Williams was my first experience eeling for big stripers.

Luckily the rest of the crew was experienced and Carolyn had numerous citation eel caught stripers to her boat’s credit. Still she recently went to a seminar given by Chesapeake Angler’s fishing team captain Max King, who is a real eel expert. That is why Carolyn keeps getting better and better. She never stops trying to learn or refine techniques. We caught dozens of 25 to 35 pound stripers is several hours on eels.

The rigs were relatively simple. We used Shimano Bait Runner reels on some stout spinning rods with about 30 lb test line to a swivel. Tied to the swivel was a 3 to 4 ft piece of 30-lb fluorocarbon leader tied to a 6/0 or 7/0 extra sharp octopus hook. Some people use heavier leader and clear mono and that’s fine. Whatever works best for you.

Use a dry rag or fresh paper towel to grip each eel and just hook the eel through the lower jaw up and out through the eye socket and toss him out. Strip out about 75 to 100 feet of line as the boat drifts away because of the wind. The bait runner reels allows the striper to pick up the eel and move off without feeling much drag until you turn the handle and engage the reel. Set the hook and hold on. You don’t usually have to wait to set the hook as stripers normally inhale the whole eel. Still, every day is different and you should be prepared to adjust your technique to suit their aggressiveness for that day.

We also used a bobber but we were in only 22 feet of water in the ocean so the free lined eels did better. We also used some conventional lever drag reels for bottom fished eels and they caught too but on that day, we had to keep the eels up several feet from the bottom to cut down on dog sharks that love $2.00 eels.

When using the bobbers, you can add just enough egg sinker just above the swivel in front of the 4 ft leader, to hold the eel down. Redi-Rig makes special bobbers with a tension release clip on one end and a snap clip on the other end. That way, you hook the snap around the line and let out line until the eel gets to the depth you want to fish. Then you put the line into the tension release to hold at that depth. When the striper hits, the tension clip releases and the bobber slides up the line because of the snap clip, leaving you free to reel the bobber and snap swivel up to within 4 ft of the hook.

I recently purchased a pair of Baitrunner reels on 7 ft 15-40 class spinning rods to use next year. I’ll take some pictures of the rigs and fish for this magazine. Better yet, you rig up and try it too and I’ll take pictures of you and your citation striper to put in Chesapeake Angler.