IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Maine => Ice Fishing Maine => Topic started by: icetwandrer on Mar 08, 2022, 08:19 PM
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We've been saying for the past couple years that we haven't seen any eels in a while, we don't have cusk in our pond but used to have 3ft eels, the past week instead of a nice trout at dark we've had a pile of eels on the line instead, anybody else notice an increase on eels this season, little strange but at least it's something :tipup:
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I have never caught them ice fishing. I only caught a few over the years with hook and line . I did accidentally catch one in my bait trap. It ate all of my shiners. Doh!
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When I was a kid I remember catching big ones. They were delicious!
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We used to catch a pile of them, never tried eating them though, probably never will :sick: :sick:
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We used to catch a pile of them, never tried eating them though, probably never will :sick: :sick:
Eel sushi (unakyu, but usually you'll see it called Unagi, which is actually just the Japanese word for freshwater eel) is great. It's not a raw preparation, as raw eel blood is downright toxic depending on the species, the eel meat is grilled or broiled after having been covered and basted with a soy based almost barbeque sauce (like when you grill ribs instead of smoking them). You can also prepare it the same way and serve larger amounts over rice bowls (unagidon). It is hard to cook perfectly though in that manner (can become tough or not tasty if it goes over, potentially toxic if under), so a youtube video or other instructional method would be best to follow.
Or, just go try it first at the closest decent sushi place before you embark on that journey (it actually doesn't matter if its a cheap or mid priced sushi place, they usually only use pre-prepared unagi, due to it being more difficult to cook than other cooked sushi proteins, and it still tastes really good)
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Love me some unagi! Don't think I'd try to do it myself. I know some old school Italians that prepare it for their feast of the fishes.
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Smoked eel is delicious! A polish friend of mine showed me how to do it. Gut it, wash the slime off in a bucket half full of water and some sand by rubbing the sand on the skin until the skin is silver/blue. Then brine it overnight and smoke it the next day. Good stuff. Even the kids ate it.
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I'd need an 11 foot pole with hemostats on it as I ain't touching it with a 10 foot pole
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Won't be any eels left in a few years, Elva netting is bringing in Big bucks. Just like they over fished Smelts!!
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I'm Polish and grew up eating smoked eel
Best smoked fish you will ever eat. It was a sight to see me and my sister pull one out of the fridge crack the head off, peel the skin down and eat like a slim Jim.
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Caught my first eel through the ice this morning. It was a big one, too. Fought like a sum b***h.
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Won't be any eels left in a few years, Elva netting is bringing in Big bucks. Just like they over fished Smelts!!
They should do away with the elver season and the smelt netting season in the streams.
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Had smoked eel in amsterdam. Agree with the others its better than youd expect. I prefer feeding them to big stripers.
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Had smoked eel in amsterdam. Agree with the others its better than youd expect. I prefer feeding them to big stripers.
Stripe bass candy !
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They should do away with the elver season and the smelt netting season in the streams.
AMEN!
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PH killing White fish, over fishing of one of our base fish in the system will eliminate them.
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Smelts actually kill the whitefish. They eat the eggs when the whitefish spawn. Whitefish are long lived and don't produce many young.
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Smelts actually kill the whitefish. They eat the eggs when the whitefish spawn. Whitefish are long lived and don't produce many young.
Can someone clarify if smelt are an introduced species throughout Maine? I know they were introduced to the Rangeley lakes (to the demise of blueback trout and, subsequently, giant brook trout) but were they originally limited to only sea-accessible lakes and rivers like landlocked salmon were? Or did smelt always exist in fresh water far from the ocean?
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I believe our smelts like our landlock salmon, Burbot and some other fish were originally from the ocean and migrated and when dams were built got blocked from returning to the ocean.if one looks at fossils many miles away from the sea most of our state was under water at one time.
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Eels are native to the watersheds, it's man that made all the dams to screw thing up. Normally they would migrate to the Sargasso sea to spawn and then over a long journey, return to fresh water. Nothing better than smoked eel.