Tuesday 10 January 2012

New Zealands Giant Long Finned Eels

Just watched the episode of River Monsters with Jeremy Wade. In this episode he is in New Zealand chasing up a tale from Captain Cooks journal of giant man eating Eels that inhabit the Islands. There's a bit in the programme where he rubby dubbys himself in fish guts in an attempt to prove the brazen man eating nature of the beast. This reminder of my chance encounter with these leviathans, has led me to scouring the loft for the last hour to find & scan the picture above.

My Kiwi bud & I had hiked up to Lake Daniels deep in the Southern Alps for some Trout fishing, the lake is a good 3hr hike up out of the main valley following the Alfred River up to the Manson-Nicholls hut where we had planned to stay the night giving us the chance to fish into the dark.
The place is amazing & after exploring the lake, casting to the resident Rainbows we decided to stop for dinner & wait for the evening rise. As my rucksack is always full of fishing/camping gear & booze, I pretty much gambled on catching dinner, luckily this wasn't a problem. So as I was gutting & cleaning the fish in the margins in my shorts I suddenly got this feeling of encroaching large dark shadows behind me... I turned around, shit myself & left the water like a Jesus Lizard in one swift movement.

Some of the Eels in this gang were as thick as your thigh. Not wanting to miss the opportunity I swiftly rigged up some trout guts on a large hook & bagged the bugger above!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing, that is one cool fish. You do lead an exciting life don't you!
I watched with fascination last night as those creatures came to Jemerey Wade. They are wild creatures but utterley fearless. : )

Nick Carter said...

used to lead an exciting life Phil... think it'll be retirement before i'm allowed to wander again!

Nick Askew said...

Great post!

I'm from the UK and live in Fiji at the moment. The other night I was eating a meal by a local lake full of tilapia and saw a number of very large eels (4 foot long and thick as my arms) attacking the small fish on the top. I have my carp rods from the UK with me and fancy a crack at these beasts. Question is - how do you reckon I should tackle for them? The lake is 30 m and 30 m deep (!). I've seen these eels on the top, but should I fish on the bottom, using a float, or even try a plug? Thanks for any advice. N

Nick Carter said...

Thanks Nick, sounds like these Eels are pretty game, so maybe catch some of the bait fish they're after, rig em up & see what happens? failing that pop some flesh on a hook & wait. good luck