December 20, 2007 - Mud, eeels and good eating14A • The Suffolk Times • December 6, 2007
Sutlolk Irma~ photo by Puul Slouleubwgh S:Ifolk Times photo by Roger Sfoulerbu,gh
Left: Let the temperature drop below freezing for a few weeks and you'll see folks out on the ice probing for eels. The picture tells the complete story: a man
probing for eels through the ice, the axe to cut the hole, the extra spear in case the other breaks and, of course, eels on the ice. Right: Here, a pretty nice -size
eel was caught on the mud spear and brought to the surface. Because of the cold, the eels hardly move.
Mud, eels and good eating
Have any of you been down to your favorite creek
lately? If so, you probably noticed the water is crystal
clear. Most might think that clear water is a sign of
a healthy creek. Not so. At the bottom of the food
chain in our creeks is the nutrient factory made up of
free- floating algae, plankton, zooplankton — and the
list goes on and on.
When you have that much algae in the creek dur-
�� ing the warm weather the water
FOCUS becomes cloudy, when it's crys-
tal clear there is little there in
O N the form of nutrients It all has
to do with water temperature.
NATURE Colder water temperature pre -
by Paul vents the nutrients from form-
ing, therefore the clearer water.
Stoutenburgh The eels that are found in the
waters around our North Fork
now head for the soft mud of our creek bottoms,
where they bury themselves in a blanket of mud.
Some killifish do the same, yet there are others that
remain semi - active throughout the winter months
It's these small fish that the great blue herons will
feed on, which hopefully will tide them over until
warmer weather returns It all makes sense once you
know how the system works
For instance, if the eels did not go into hibernation
in the mud they would soon find out that everything
else had disappeared, leaving Mr. Eel to starve for
the lack of food. It's the system that tells most of the
fish like bluefish, striper, kingfish and porgies etc, to
head south to warmer waters where they'll find an
abundance of food.
There are some shellfish in our creeks that do not
completely go into hibernation, such as oysters, clams
mussels etc, They still filter the creek water for nu-
trients, but they Curd far less in winter than when the
water is warmer.
The eels I spoke of earlier are free from harm's way
in the mud except for the men and boys who go eeling
through the ice. These brave hearts chop a hole in the
ice so they can probe the muddy bottom with their
long - handled mud spears in hopes of snagging an eel.
Some use chain saws to cut holes in the ice. The work
of using a mud spear hasn't changed that much since
the days my dad took me eeling years ago.
Later on I'd have my own mud spear and follow
in his steps, always in hopes of feeling something on
the end of my long skinny pole. If I was lucky, I'd
bring up a stunned eel hardly moving. I'd shake it off
and leave my prize on the ice while I tried for more.
I remember you always had to watch out for hungry
gulls that would sneak in and fly off with your eel.
Probably the best way to enjoy eels Is to have them
smoked. Here you see them ready to be taken off
the hooks and given to those who enjoy an eel
warm, right out of the smoker.
_+t
1
These grapefruit -size yellow -green fruits often be-
wilder people when they first see them. The knob-
by surface on this fruit identifies it as the fruit of
the Osage orange tree.
The way a mud spear works for eels is that the
main tongs pass around the steeping eel leaving it to
be caught on the sharp center tong as you pull back
up on your spear.
Another type of eel spear is used for eeling when
the waters are warmer and the eels are out of the
mud. It consists of a series of six- inch-long, sharp,
heavy -duty needles like prongs that are barbed so the
eel doesn't slip off Many a meal of eels I've gotten
using those handcrafted spears
Once you get a mess of eels there are many ways
of preparing them. First they have to be cleaned, and
that, for some, is almost an impossible task. But for
those who know how, it's nojob at all. Of all the ways
of preparing eels, I like them best smoked. Many an
eel has passed through my smoker, and many an eel
was consumed on the spot, while it was still warm,
right out of the smoker.
If you want fresh eels fried so you can eat them
like corn on the cob, the eels have to be skinned,
which is a pretty tricky maneuver, but once learned
is no problem at all. I cut the eels in about four -inch-
long pieces and then pour boiling water over them to
precook them (an old Luce family tradition). Then
when they are cool, I shake them in a brown paper
bag of flour, and into the frying pan they go. It makes
my taste buds tingle just thinking about it.
Then there's eel chowder, which can't be beat
when prepared correctly, and also jellied eels (neigh-
bors of mine years ago "put up" their jellied eels in
Mason jars and enjoyed them on their long drive to
Florida). Many of you have your own special way of
cooking eels, especially around the holidays No mat-
ter what your taste, these are gourmet delights — so
if you haven't tried them already, why not try some'?
Before I leave you, 1'd like to report two interesting
observations that were called in to me. A man wanted
to know what the big green fruits were that he had
seen along the roadside. They were the size of a small
grapefruit and covered with bumps Answer: The
fruits he was seeing were from an Osage orange tree.
It's a tree that has many uses Indians prized the wood
for archery bows Before barbed wire, the spiny plants
were planted in rows to create a fence. Some call the
fruit "horse apple," since cattle seem to enjoy it.
Then I got a report of a brown creeper sighting in
Cutchogue. It's not an easy bird to find, but occasion-
ally you will see this chickadee -size brown bird with a
longish curved bill working over the bark of trees. Up
it climbs, searching all the way until it feels the search
is useless and flutters down to the bark of another
tree and starts its inquisitive searching once again for
tiny insects that make up its diet.