Thread: Silly boy and an eel

" They can be a bit of a predator, "

@rugerman

Having been a keen Diver for years & with the Fiordland as our back yard we have had many bust ups with aggressive Eels over the years protecting their patch .My many encounters diving with them & like many growing up running amuck in the bush behind the family farm, with eels commonly being the feed of choice while all us kids went on our own camping trips ,lead to me always having a interest in them & if you do a bit of research they are fascinating creatures that science does still not know a lot about.

Scientists still do not fully understand their migration & breeding cycle at sea ,with failed GPS tagging due to the deep depths they swam at ,with one being logged at a extended time before being lost at close to a 1000mtrs & all swam too deep for light reception on the tags , many believe they Spawn in the Tonga Trench with one GPS tagged eel tracked off the coast east of New Caledonia. Also reading old historic accounts of shoals of the "Glass Eels' migrating back up the Waikato River & having shoals being observed "thick enough to walk over from bank to bank " that went past a stationary point for two days and two nights without stopping, showing what has been lost.


A couple of weeks ago l posted on a hunt where l head shot a Deer as it was crossing a rock bar in the river & fell into the river where l had to wade in to recover it , the water was crystal clear & freezing & much to my missus's amusement l elected to strip off to save having soaking clothes for the rest of the hunt . So l took my time wading across to the deer gathering the strength for the final family jewels dunking & its taking the wind out of you, as l looked closer at the deer l noticed the shot behind the right ear had taken the brain completely out & it laid on the river floor ,next to a large submerged tree trunk & already about a dozen Eels were out & feeding & aggressively attacking the brain .

After watching this fascinating sight for as long as l could tolerate the cold water ,l grabbed a leg on the Deer & waded it back out to the bank ,my missus who had witnessed all this yelled out for me to get out & look behind you & when l did 4 of these large Eel were in the blood trail of the moving deer carcass & 2 were actually latched on & did not let go until the deer was on the bank .

In all my years in the bush l have never seen Eels move so quickly from cover to "attack" a food source or so boldly .Here is a pic the missus managed to get after they had chased & latched on to the deer carcass l am guessing 20mtrs away from where they were feeding on the brain & totally in the open with no fear of predators ,me or the deer . You can still see the mouth full of fur floating above it, where it had bitten & held on as l dragged the Deer out of the water.

the locals in Taumarunui wont go near lake hawk....its sort of tapu as a young girl was drowned many years ago,believed to have been pulled in by the eels....the ones there look different,very large heads,Ive seen a couple in other waterways nearby the same.one of the local characters shot ducks on the lake,he said you had less than a minute to get bird off water with canoe before the eels would grab it...no way would you risk using dog on that bit of water....Ive had "something" amoungst the decoys in lake wainono,more than likely eel after the blood trail.

Pretty freaky critters. In the Jeremy wade thing, there was a report of a young girl being dragged by the foot into deeper water and it was only her sister who managed to hold onto her, and pull her back out otherwise she would have drowned.

Originally Posted by rugerman

Pretty freaky critters. In the Jeremy wade thing, there was a report of a young girl being dragged by the foot into deeper water and it was only her sister who managed to hold onto her, and pull her back out otherwise she would have drowned.

A very good friend of mine is also a mate of Jeremy, and he tells that the amount of BS involved in the prog is mind numbing.

On my Uncles farm Just south Of Hoki, outside of Ruatapu, the smaller ones come up out if the creek in the rain
The cats would get them and bring them to the back door in the car port then stand guard
Aunty Zera, she was from Latvia, naught got wasted, those eels were chopped for chook food.

Originally Posted by jakewire

On my Uncles farm Just south Of Hoki, outside of Ruatapu, the smaller ones come up out if the creek in the rain
The cats would get them and bring them to the back door in the car port then stand guard
Aunty Zera, she was from Latvia, naught got wasted, those eels were chopped for chook food.

My Mum always gave the eels I caught as a kid to the chooks. She chopped them with a spade. I lived down at the creek eeling and catching crawlys. It was the roots for my outdoors passion.

This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed at home, this little piggy had roast beef, this little piggy had none, this little piggy cried wee wee wee all the way home.

my good Mrs nearly went wee wee wee on the chair when she watched the clip.....

I showed the guys at work today and they loved it to.

Priceless footage

my dad always said you should listen, consider and mostly follow his advice. Cos eventually you will anyway. Certainly so with the eels!

I thought I'd try and hand feed an eel at willowbank wildlife park a couple of years ago. You know their teeth are like razors and the wounds go all infected and manky for a couple of weeks.

Had to laugh at the quickness his emotion changed in the vid.

That had wifey and I chuckling out loud. Poor bugger

Was standing in the Clarence a couple years ago on a stag do. Had a bit of dried deer blood up on my shins from a recently gutted deer. Few of the boys were taking a dip and one had taken upon himself to go for a skinny dip, felt some thing scratching on my shin and looked down to see a decent sized eel having a chew. I leapt out of the water like a little girl, old mate in the nude was walking on water, hand firmly clamped over his exposed gear. Bloody hilarious.

Some good stories here

Hilarious, apex predator, bold fellas

Alex got moves like Jagger! Thanks for sharing. I maintain that pain is our best teacher!