The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-19
QUEER FACTS ABOUT EELS.
DUG OUT OF THE GROUND AS WELL
AS FIsHED FOR.

ground as Well as Over the Land.
Taken In Germany by PIOughInE.
The Various Traps in Which They
Are Caught.
From the New York Sun.
Eels hibernate; they burrow in the mud
in the fall and stay there until spring. A
great many cells go up the creek intersect-
ing salt meadows and burrow in the mud
of the meadows. The banks of these
creeks may be little mud bluffs from one
to three feet high. The eel strikes right
into the face of bluff, and bores its way
into the mud of the meadow With its
sharp pointed head, and body but little
greater In diameter, it makes its way
without difficulty, and it may so 500 or GOO
feet in from the bank, keeping about on
a level with the point at which it entered,
and being only a few feet below the sur
face of the meadow, however far it may
have come from the bank of the creek.
Other cells follow in for a greater or less
distance along the borings made by the
first ones. While the opening may have
been partly, perhaps almost wholly, closed
after the passing of the first cells, 1t is
easier to follow them than to bore through
the solid mud.
The cells, after they have started in from
the bank may spread out over the mead
ow with comparatively even dstribu-
ton. or, attracted to certain spots, perhaps
by the particular degree OF moisture there
found, or by some other special feature of
the mud, they may gather in larger num-
bers within limited areas. When a great
number of cells have congregated in one
spot in a salt meadow, forming a sort of
pocket or mat of cells, they make, mixed
with the mud, a mass slightly more elias
tic than the unbroken mud surrounding.
The surface above them is more yielding
to the tread and to the fisherman familiar
with meadow characteristics the elacticity
caused by the presence of cells is easily
distinguished from the sponginess of an
ordinary soft spot. A fisherman walking
across a salt meadow might come across
a pocket or mass of cells by accident. If
he were searching for cells and they were
not in sufficient quantities to reveal their
presence as he walked, then he would halt
at places likely to contain cells in numbers,
and test the ground by jumping on it. He
could tell by the manner and degree in
which the sod gave under his feet whether
there were cells there and whether there
were enough to pay for digging.
In fishing for cells on the salt meadows
the great thing, of course, is TO locate the
cells. After that everything is easy. A sec
ton of the sod is cut out and the cells are
simply speared out of the mud with the
ordinary eel spear. They are rarely more
than three or four feet below the surface.
Sometimes in digging draining bitches
in salt meadows In the hibernat ting season
great quantities of eels are dug up with
the mud.
In bays having a sandy bottom there
are sometimes pockets or depressions in
which mud collects. These pockets may
be three or four or perhaps six feet deep,
and from a quarter of an acre to two
or three acres in extent. AS the winter
approaches cells seek these mud spots in
which to bury themselves till spring. The
fisherman who lives on the shore knows
the adjacent ground under water prac-
tically as well as he knows the ground
on shore. He knows every one of these
mud spots, and by taking ranges on shore,
he can locate any of them in winter when
the bay IS frozen over, with the same ac-
curacy as in summer, when he might
be able to see them under water When
the bay is covered with ice the fisherman
who knows its waters does not go out and
cut holes and spear at random with the
hope of finding cells, but he knows ex-
actly where to go, and he goes straight
there with undertaking certainty
Having arrived at the spot, the fisher
man, with an ak, cuts a hole in the ice,
diameter.
The piece thus cut out he shoves under
the ice. The water may he here five or
six feet deep, and the mud as much more.
The fisherman spears out all the eels di-
rectly below, and then he takes all he can
get by spearing all around diagonally as
far as he can reach. When he lifts his
spear out of the water, he frees the cells
from it by pushing it from him along on
the surface of the ice. Though thus left
on the ice, the released cells do not escape.
In two minutes they are frozen stiff as
sticks. If the fisherman doesn't get cells
enough through one hole, he cuts another.
Sometimes many holes are cut, and there
are many fishermen at work at the same
time, scattered over the frozen surface.
When the eels come out of their winter
quarters in the spring people begin to bob
for them. To make the Familiarity known
bob, the fisherman takes piece of stout
linen thread ten or fifteen feet long, at one
end of which he ties a little piece of wood
to keep the worms from slipping off as he
strings them. He ties the other end of the
thread to a knitting needle, which is to be
used in stringing the worms. The worms
are strung head first. When the thread is
full the little stick is taken off and the
two ends of the thread are tied together.
Then, held together so that it makes in
effect a double thread, the worm-coVered
thread is wound around the fingers of the
open hand. Removed from the hand it
hangs together in a bunch, or bob. The
bob itself is then tied around with six or
eight turns of thread, not very tightly
but securely enough so that they will
stay about where they are put. The cells
teeth catch on this thread when they bite
at the bob, and 1t helps to hold them long
enough TO land them, and, tied up in this
manner, the bob keeps better. The bob is
used with a rod and drop line; with rod
fishing from the banks of creeks and from
the bridges, and with a drop line from
boats. In rod fishing two men generally
work together, one man handling the rod
and tho other the eels The rod man,
when he feels bite, raises the bob care
fully and then firts it around suddenly
over the meadow. He may have caught
and landed one eel, or four or five, or
perhaps half dozen at once. The cells
are likely to be twelve to fifteen inches in
length although they are caught from
twenty inches to two feet in length. The
big cells the fishermen call adders. When
the cells have dropped off the bob they
squirm about in the grass on the meadow,
and the man who is looking after that end
Of the work hands them up and puts them
in a bag In fishing with drop lines the
fisherman has two or three hobs in use at
thu earaa tfrna He raises a bOb "a ref1,llv