Conger Fishing

Ive noticed a few people on here talking about catching conger from the shore? Have I got this wrong?

I always assumed u wolud need a boat rod to handle one, so do people catch conger from the shore/ piers using 13/14 foot beach casters etc. I would have thought they would snap doing such heavy lifting?

Also what type of rigs do people use, I suppose big 6/0 or 7/0 size hooks and equally big bait are also required?

Thanks for any feedback...

yea you can catch them from the shore around pier walls. havent fished for them in a couple of years, but all i used was a 6/0 hook, with a rotten bottom rig and a standard beach caster, with half a fillet of mack

Cheers Donal, ill give it a bash sure, if my rod breaks though you owe me a new one

Use you rod to hook and pull the fish to the surface, then get the fish out of the water with a drop net. Don't try to deadlift a big conger with your rod.

Hi,
I use a boat setup for catching conger from the rocks,a 20-30lb rod and an abu 7000 reel. Nothing swims faster backwards than an iritated eel! If you fish at night when they are on the hunt they are easier to land but catching any conger from the shore is a thrill thats hard to better. Good luck if you give it a go.

ballycotton pier, the breakwater, will get you some conger
80-100lb snood, 8/0 hook and mackerel fillet or head

have plenty of shockleader on the reel you can use this to lift the conger out of the water

have a look here search.php use the words ballycotton pier conger in the search box

i use a 6-7ft boat rod an boat reel loaded with 40lb line with a wire trace 6/0 hook with a half fillet of mackeral an throw it out a foot or 2 foot from harbour wall an wait with ratchet off

Stick to the Slack tides...Slacker the better for Conger.... High Humidity is an extra bonus....

I use my beach gear to catch congers. I've a 10 foot pier caster and a 13 foot greys beach caster and they both do fine. Boat rods are overkill in my opinion. As said above, neap tides are best. I use pulley rigs with 200lb snoods and either a 6/0, 8/0 or 10/0 hook depending on the venue. Mackerel fillet is good but mackerel heads will also catch as much. Ground baiting is very effective for getting them feeding. I use a drop net for getting them up the quay walls and piers. Lifting that weight by hand will cause the line to cut through your hands and the eels spin violently at times which will cause the line to snap and you'll loose your catch. I've never used wire traces but i've seen fish caught by them and their mouths can end up getting pretty messed up. Kind of like a chelsea smile. The trace slices through their cheeks if they turn the wrong way when hooked. Fish a few piers into darkness on a rising tide and you should find a few. Don't cast far. Their usually in the wall below your feet. If you hook one and it goes to ground, leave out slack line, put the rod down and wait for signs of movement in the rod tip. It might take a bit of patience but it's better than pulling for a break and leaving the fish with a massive hook hanging out of it's face.

was down the pier in ballycotton a few weeks back messing around with a slug go only about 2 feet out from the wall on my spinning rod at low tide and it was dead calm and a conger shot out from the wall and snatched at the slug go turned and went back to the wall i was luckly he missed he would have snaped my little rod in 2.

For shore conger I'd just a good heavy beachcaster cause its more fun than a boat set up. Rigs 6/0 to 8/0 bronzed hook with 100 to 150lb hook snood attached to a good heavy duty swivel. The reason for the bronzed hooks is its not always able to unhook the fish so if you leave a bronzed hook in the fish it will rust out in a day or two. Bait, mac is a good reliable choice but what I do is some the fluff chuckers call matching the hatch so I'd have spare rod set up for pouting and rockling and use what I catch for bait. As for venues deep water isn't always needed as I've had double figure eels in 3ft of water. Oh and reel, slosh 30 with 35lb line.