Hi Guys,

I was holidaying in Batemans bay for a few days. So I was trying for a Jewie in the Clyde river. I heard the locals said there are plenty of Jewie there. Anyway, I managed to make my own slide bait rig and sent out a live yellowtail. Nothing took it for a while, and then the tip of the rod started tapping for a bit. I made a mistake of retrieving it in to check it. The live bait still there, still alive and well. So I cast the whole thing out again (instead of sliding), so obvious it's not out far enough I guess. Waited for another little while and the rod started bending down so I was sure something was hooked on. I quickly grabbed the rod and retrieved, it then felt like a snag, after trying to break the line by pulling it hard it was free and then the fight was on again, something was still there attached to the hook ... it's an eel!

It was late in the night so I took it back to the motel thinking I'll kill it and clean it in the morning. But when I woke up in the morning it had already crawled out of the bucket and died on the floor. I didn't fancy eating a dead eel so I filleted it and cut it up into small pieces to use as bait to see what bites. The locals tell me eel as bait is good for bull sharks and gummy sharks, but I was hoping to see if I could catch something else with it too. Went back out to the rock after cutting it up to small pieces. I was surprise that there's a lot of small tugs, which tells me the small fish are biting it. As I was fishing 3 rods I put down the big rod that had the eel bait and was baiting up the other rods, then something suddenly grabbed the eel bait, pulled my big rod and immediately the 20 lbs braid snapped. I regretted not having the drag loosen. So I have no idea what it was that snapped my line.

Has anyone else here used eels as bait? And if so, what fish were you able to catch? I'm curious!