Anyone catch eels while fishing? What do you do with them?

[testdepth]

I took my girls crabbing in St Marys and my daughter pulled up a green colored eel about 18 inches long and 2 inches around.

Do people eat these things or just do like we did and throw it back?

 

[CBH13]

i know you can eat eel and have in the past but no clue as to which ones are good or not. Whenever we caught them they just ended up as more bait

 

[biker_bill]

I remember my Dad telling me that the freshwater eels were eaten pickled and considered a delicacy.
I've never eaten one. As a young kid fishing at night it was like trying to take a slippery snake off the hook.
We could catch them all night in front of a freshwater rock dam.
I've caught many out of the ocean, but never kept a one.
My wife's favorite sushi is eel, it's boneless when they serve it and she thinks it's the best.
So they're edible for sure, I just don't know if the ones at the sushi place are saltwater or freshwater.
Give it a shot, it won't kill ya, lol.

 

[3clicks_Off]

Salt water eel make good sushi

 

[10thmountain]

Throw em back. Just a critter.

 

[captdave77]

Sand eels are great cobia bait.

 

[HERMET]

I like eels except at meals and the way they feels.

 

[spencer60]

Man... back when I was a teenager around Boston we would sometimes go saltwater fishing down off Cape Cod.

One time my friend caught this huge eel. This thing had some serious teeth on it, and neither of us was going near it to try and get his (fairly expensive) lure back.

We were about to just cut the line when an older Japanese guy on the beach came over. He saw the problem and said if he could keep the eel he'd get the lure back. We agreed and dang if he didn't just reach down that things throat and pull the whole lure right out.

Made us 'rough and tough' 16-year olds feel like a couple of wimps, that's for sure.