Our 2014 American eel team has been busy over the last month preparing for our upcoming field season! As mentioned in our previous post, one of our goals this season was to capture juvenile eels using traps. Trapping these individuals allows us to further our understanding of the American eel population in the Ottawa River. With each individual, we will take measurement data (length, weight) as well as implant each individual with a small tag, a PIT (passive integrated transponder) tag which when detected with a specialized PIT reader can display each tag’s unique code – similar to microchips that are implanted in cats and dogs!
Our team decided to make our eel traps or “pots” in house from PVC coated steel meshing – this design is very similar to a conventional minnow trap, a cylinder with a funnel, make from plastic gardening mesh on one end and the other end being closed.
We’ve taken some photos to document the progression of our trap making and deployment!
We now have our traps set in two locations; near Arnprior around Chats Dam and near Chaudière Falls, in Ottawa. We will continue to monitor these traps throughout the summer in hopes of catching some juvenile eels!
CWF
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8 comments
any luck catching eels? any advice? bait?
Hi Nelson,
Unfortunately we haven’t had much lucky lately! At both locations (near Chats dam and around Chaudiere Falls) we’ve been setting our nets frequently and have yet to find where the eels are, although we know they are present, just in low densities. As the American eel is a species at risk in Ontario, it is illegal to fish for them exclusively.
Either that, or your pots and/or bait isn’t working OR they are going in but they can get to your bait while half of their body is sticking out of the trap…
Hi,
An old native American swing is, ” when the frogs see crossing the eels are running”. Try that…
They could be going in the traps but a theory is that they could be half way in the trap and once they are done eating they will slither their way out.
Can I buy one of these pots or provide me with a step by step to make one ?
Hello! These pot traps were built for scientific collection purposes, so are not for public sale or use. FYI, we captured 0 eels in them, likely because of the low abundance and large size of eels near Ottawa. However, apparently they work well near the coast!
In Nova Scotia your allowed to fish for them. Your traps need a larger retaining area after the funnel. Best bait is pork fat with some meat left on its very oily and lasts a long time (thus keeping eels feeding not trying to escape the trap). Check early and set late I’m sure as researchers you know they are mostly nocturnal feeders.