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Topic: elvers (Read 1,369 times)

jdbach
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elvers
« Thread Started on Nov 23, 2005, 8:33am »

i saw a cooking programme on tv last week about the 'the world's best fish dish', the winner was sole and fried elvers (the elvers cost £400/kg).

this got me thinking about the last time i saw a run of elvers - the surface of the river looked as if it was rainning, there were millions. that was on the tawe in
1965.

has anybody seen this in more recent times as there seems to be a current decline in the eel population?

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Aled
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Re: elvers
« Reply #1 on Nov 23, 2005, 9:11am »

I saw a large concentration on the Tywi below Llandeilo Bridge (Cawdor beat 1) in the 80's, and we found some in a West Country ditch while doing uni field reserch in 1993. Strangely i have not seen any elvers (although until recently plenty of eels) in the Tywi since.
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Aled

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SJF, Simon
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Re: elvers
« Reply #2 on Nov 23, 2005, 10:53am »

Partly due to the trade in very imature eels ( elvers ), and possibly also due to a slight change in the Gulf Stream, the World population of eels has crashed.

Of course, they are ugly, slimy and brown, which puts them below silver and pretty, which is in turn below cute and furry in the "Who can be bothered to protest?" stakes!

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Baldrick: No, but I've often thought that I'd like to.
Edmund: Well don't. It's a ghastly place. Huge gangs of tough, sinewy men roam the valleys terrifying people with their close-harmony singing

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celt
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Re: elvers
« Reply #3 on Nov 23, 2005, 4:18pm »

jd

The elver run was still going strong on the Tawe as recently as the late 80’s.
I used to see them in the Pontardawe area in the spring of most years, coming up the margins in a narrow band 3 or 4 feet wide, which some years would last for nearly a week.

At the weir in Morriston, which was too sheer for them to swim over, they used to leave the water en masse and crawl along the damp stonework of the wall at the side, an amazing site.

Strangely despite looking like an easy meal for trout, birds and just about anything else, nothing seemed to prey on them.

I believe they’ve been fished for commercialy below the barrage for a number of years now. And at £400 for a kg it’s hardly surprising.

« Last Edit: Nov 23, 2005, 8:33pm by celt »

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Reeco
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Re: elvers
« Reply #4 on Nov 23, 2005, 5:26pm »

Hi Aled, Simon and Celt, Celt you have a great memory Mate, I remember going down by the Weir at Morriston we use to call it the 600 then, do you remember that name, I wonder ?

Regarding the elvers, they use to be either side of the river and probably about 18 inches thick from the edge of the Tawe inwards, just under the weir, in their 1000's, just like a black moving blanket, and you are right I saw some crawling over the rocks to by pass the weir, as they must have found it a nightmare to get over it.

I can't remember seeing them in large numbers further up the Tawe but at the time, my dad and I used to hate eels being worm fisherman lol.

I never saw anything preying on them either but I have seen some Heron's at the weir eating eels about 6 - 12 inches long.

Celt you have got a lot of knowledge about The Tawe fair play to you. ATB. Reeco

« Last Edit: Nov 23, 2005, 5:29pm by Reeco »

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" If you have never fished you have never lived "

Glyn
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Re: elvers
« Reply #5 on Nov 23, 2005, 9:02pm »

Hi all i hate to say it but i wuz there too, i remember those years from 69 to 81 / 82 maybe. The good thing about the weir it held the run up a bit so they congregated there. As you say you could scoop arm fulls of the stuff black and thick, i took a few home once and put them in the fish tank with the gold fish but the things were crawling up the sides so i had to take them back..they were on a mission and my tank was'nt included. I think the fact they were'nt seen much above the weir is they had a straight run and nothing to hold them up to gather in numbers.

Funny thinking back to past days i remember a day in May / June in 73/74 i think i was spinning the weir in high water and a big shoal of sewin turned up i can't say the numbers but they filled the whole pool from side to side fish between 2 and 3 lb, they were hurling themselves out the water and taking on the weir its a sight since that day i have never seen again and not one fish took the size 2 mepp long i was using ..it must have been bumping their flanks as it went through.. within an hour and a half the lot had gone over. I remember looking at the mepps and thinking what do i have to do i didnt take a fish that day at all.
Glyn

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blindreaper
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Re: elvers
« Reply #6 on May 25, 2006, 11:40am »

i fish the river bann, i could go down there now and pull out eels all day. only thing is they always wrap themselves around rocks, so its very difficualt to get them out. i like all fish, but to tell you the truth, i really do hate eels. they are a nuisence on the bann, when u get one out, you kill it, thats the end of that chapter

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DAZ
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Re: elvers
« Reply #7 on May 25, 2006, 5:22pm »

Blinedreaper.
You didn't say if you eat them or not.
If not i think you might have a few comebacks on this one mate.
I know little about eel's but what i do know is that these Little critters have one hell of a life,what with migration etc.etc.
I am sure someone with a little more knowledge will fill in the gaps.

I am not judging you as i am sure you are a really nice person,but maybe choose your word's a little better.

ATB DAZ

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NightOwl
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Re: elvers
« Reply #8 on May 25, 2006, 10:38pm »

I remember the continuous parade of elvers running the local rivers each year, sadly these are down to 1% now, these are official figures and not my own. The Eel is in great danger of being lost forever, please put them back if caught during worm fishing, just clip the line close to the mouth and put it back, it will throw the hook.

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Our Piscatorial friends are not ours to dispose of as we please, they are held in trust for those that follow.

sewinbasher
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Re: elvers
« Reply #9 on May 26, 2006, 5:27pm »

The Wye possibly had and maybe still has the best run of elvers in the UK. You would see cars driving around Monmouth with tin baths and metal elver nets on the roof. If you drove down the valley after midnight on a Spring tide in April you would see dozens of cars parked along the roadside and in the anglers car park at Bigsweir and hundreds of lights along the riverbank. Many passing drivers must have wondered what the hell was going on.

Some of the locals even gave up poaching for a month as an elver licence only costs a few quid and elvers were fetching £300 per kilo cash in hand (yes - £300 per kilo). With catches of up to 10 kg in a good night and a season of nearly a month, some families were making enough money in April/May not to bother working again during the year.

Of course the result of these high prices was even more pressure on rapidly diminishing stocks and the Wye has also suffered from a crash in stocks but the elvers still come.

The local tradition was to boil them in milk and press them into "cheeses" and a slice of cold elver cheese was a delicacy - one which I have to say passed me by. A slightly more palatable way of eating them was to fry them in bacon fat and eat them like spaghetti.

The photo below shows elver ascending a weir on the monnow by crawling up the wet stones at the side. This was a continuous stream that lasted for hours.

[image]

« Last Edit: May 26, 2006, 5:28pm by sewinbasher »

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blindreaper
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Re: elvers
« Reply #10 on May 28, 2006, 3:16pm »

well when everytime you throw your worm in the water when your fishing for salmon 99% of the time an eel takes it, you do tend to get annoyed, the river bann is filled with eels!! i kill eels, this may annoy people, but i am not going to lie about it. its what everyone does over here, thats how annoying these fish are, if you fished the river bann, it has a very rocky bottom, u loose tackle all day long due to eels wrapping themselves around rocks so when you finally get one out you dont put it back in!

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doctor
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Re: elvers
« Reply #11 on May 29, 2006, 1:24pm »

Quote:

Do you think you could repost that picyture

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AKA as ACW tried to re log on as that but it didnt work .
I,m the one that runs winter grayling trips around Hungerford

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