Eels - Not just bait

EELS – NOT JUST BAIT – CATCHING COOKING AND EATING

This misallighted fish has been sought after as a delicacy for years. Some time ago I used to have a couple of customers that paid me fair wages for a bucket of slimes to eat.

Having too many alternatives to please my palate, I haven’t cooked up a bunch in years, but the thought of a heaping pile of them cooking before me makes my mouth water.

During the depression in the 1930s people ate a lot of things that didn’t cost too much to get, including surf turkeys washed up on the beach, sea robbins, the lowly dogfish, turtles and eels.

Who but myself would take a few hours of the mayhem to go catch a bucket full of eels is unknown, but come next summer I’m going to take the time to both catch and enjoy the mess of slimes.

Two hand lines will be used instead of rod and reels. A few dozen number one short shank hooks will be died on twenty-inch leaders. A half-ounce barrel sinker will be the sinker sliding on the line, a large swivel, easy to handle, will complete the tackle. A pound of squid, precut into two inch strips will be the baits. A chum pot with a quart of bunker will be the attractant.

The mouths of such creeks such as Lakes Creek, English Creek and Patcong Creek would be a good choice spost to go for these suckers, but I’ll probably wind up somewhere up the Tuckahoe river. Eels, like catfish, don’t feed according to the tides.

But were I to fish into a large creek, it would be on the incoming. The reason for the three dozen hooks is to save time by snapping the eels that have taken the hook deep. The hooks can be recovered later. A five gallon bucket of eels would be quite a chore to clean, but my experience has taught me a few secrets that will save time and trouble. Two clean, five gallon buckets are required for a big mess of eels. Half gallon of vinegar and one gallon of water is put into the two clean buckets.

Dump the eels into the mix, add more water if necessary to cover. A half hour is usually enough time to kill the eels. The slime is loosed by the vinegar and can easily be removed by circling the thumb and forefinger and running them down the length of the eel. A little practice and the next thing you know the eels are de-slimed.

A cut through the skin behind the head and the skin is ready to be removed. A large pair of slip joint pliers is used to hold the head, a smaller pair is used to pull the skin off. Remove the guts with a stiff brush. Cut the eels into two-four inch pieces and put into a large pot of salted, boiling water. It doesn’t take long to par boil these morsels. Remove a piece and stick a fork into it. The fork should not stick going in or out. Dump into a large container to cool.

Use your favorite recipe for browning the pieces. The small rib bones dissolve almost completely while parboiling, leaving only the back and rib bones, easy to eat.

The white meat is scrumptious. An old friend of mine used to smoke a batch of eels each year with the results coming in nothing short of excellent. Other old timers used to pickle eels, but it seems as this is a lost art these days. Scoofers beware, you are missing out on a cheap way to enjoy some of the best eating from these waters.