probably a moray eel, they are a pain in the ass are wreck your rigs!

Thanks for that,

Not too bothered about fish wrecking my rigs, I can always make another. :)

Are they catchable and do they bite?

As out again at Two Rocks last night, It was blowing one big hooley, it rained, the wind was blowing from sh1t island and I all I caught was a load of undersized Blues. 

Keith

The

West

Australian

Turtle

Society 

I used to catch biggish morays in the Med off the rocks in Gibraltar pretty regularly.

long beach rod, 20lb line, fixed spool reel, 3 -4 oz lead.

End Tackle - Straight forward one hook paternoster ledger rig no fancy stuff. Rotten bottem for the lead might help. Heavy mono for the hook line, no wire it puts them off they are pretty shy feeders actually. I've never had a bite off or lost a hook with eels in my life. I reckon their teeth are geared for stabbing and grabbing fish not cutting or slicing. Their unique jaw setup supports grab and gulp, get up close give it a kiss and you'll see what I mean. This in mind they are very finicky and I've watched them hold a bait in the tip of their mouth for ages then let it go. Nothing you can do about that they can be mega shy one day and rip your rod into the water the next.

Bait - Single dead or live bait fish about 15cms long always worked. They have crap eyesight its all about smell or movement I swear. I've even watched this in clear water off some rocks within a few meters. The eel swimming past everything in the pool until I lowered a live bait in below me it instantly turned round and it was on it like a bloody rocket! I'm convinced it sensed the vibration from a few meters away and also while facing the opposite direction.

Cast into the rockiest part of a reef and wait. I only ever caught morays on fish baits, nothing else, oh and octopus seem to be a common bycatch when you fish in this manner, figures though with rocky terrain and fish baits in the same enviroment. All the morays I hooked tended to pull the rod into the water anyway if they could. Be quick cause its heading for its hole and you won't get it out of that easily. Strangely day or night didn't seem to make any diffence though I'm sure night time should bring better results, I just didn't get to fish at night that much back then.

They are very tough fighters and should be treated with respect. Catch a good sized one and count yourself lucky to land it, don't listen to people that rubbish them they obviously haven't caught a decent sized one, or probably pulled it in on heavy boat gear. They can tangle your rigs hence a simple set up. Thats because they fight for every inch of the way, whats so bad about that?. Always put the small ones back and let then grow bigger. Always put the big ones back they taste terrible anyway (I know trust me).

Oh yes and they do bite, like I said they have long stabbing teeth that can sink in quite deep. They are not venomous but like any wound from an animal you have to think of those little bacteria on the teeth. They do look pretty vicious though which puts people right off. Thats why they have an evil reputation with divers and anglers. The truth is they are only like any other fish, not devilish or evil or even particularly aggressive if handled correctly. So don't just kill them for the sake of it, that happens a lot which is just crazy.

Its very likely that even if these fish are not morays the methods will work for any eel species anyway. Hope that helps a bit? If you have a go keep me informed. Good luck.