Gathering Sand Eels

[Bassy Tom]

Hi all,

I want to try gather sand eels this year and was wondering if it is a bit early to try?
cheers lads!

[Tanglerat]

Earliest I've ever got them is St Patrick's Day. Might be earlier down your way, so worth a go.

[roger de dodger]

wait till the weavers turn up its much more fun

[fishermannum1]

wait till the weavers turn up its much more fun

too ture rog;

[freedom1916]

How do u collect sand eels. Never done it my self.

[sparkey+1]

wait till the weavers turn up its much more fun

Your bad roger but true

[redzerologhlen]

I bought a few of those fish skin mini sabiki feathers over the christmas with size 12 hook which are meant for sandeels and launce but havent tried them yet. They are fairly cheap on ebay and might be worth a go if you just want enough for a session rather than filling the freezer.

[roger de dodger]

You can collect them in several ways with a sandeel net a push met or with a vingler ,for a good haul a sandeel net is a good job with a few hours normally producing a thousand or so eels each ,it's a three or 4 man job and you need waders that dont leak:'(

[Determined Dan]

Roger how does the push net work ? Dose it have to plug through the sand or on top of it?

[roger de dodger]

with a push net you kinda skim it through the top inch or so of sand ,i have never tried it as netting will out do all other methods for the effort put in ,weavers ,flounder,shrimp small fish and crabs all turn up in the net with the odd seatrout mullet and bass too as a kid i remember using a similar net for flounder in new zealand i only went once as i found out the week before a 7 foot tiger shark ended up in the net ,kinda makes weever fish seem not so dangerous

[Determined Dan]

Cheers roger , I'll be hoping to gather my own this year, so ill have to get a net. Any idea where they are for sale?

[shaft666]

Cheers roger , I'll be hoping to gather my own this year, so ill have to get a net. Any idea where they are for sale?

These are very good quality and reasonable cost too

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290834680780? ... 1423.l2648

[eoghanb]

Try that green garden netting ,bottles as floats with bits of steel pipe or stones as weights ,the push net is tiring and not that productive for eels as they tend to outrun you or dodge the net and u just end up with a ball load of shrimps and baby flats