January 25, 1990 - Spear 'Em, Skin'Em, Cook 'Em, Eat 'EmSp
By Paul Stoutenburgh
During the recent cold spell you
might have seen people on our creeks
and bays chopping holes in the ice. It
could have been my son and me. During
those cold days we took three of my old
eel spears down from the dusty rafters.
It was time to go eeling. What with the
mild winters we've had in the past the
opportunity for this old and looked -for-
ward-to winter activity had all but been
forgotten.
This year the story, as most of you
well know, was entirely different.
During the cold spell temperatures
ranged in the low teens. On occasion
the thermometer dropped to single digits
which put six inches of ice on most of
our inland waters. Even the bays froze
over. Eels like muddy bottoms to sleep
the winter out as well as a hint of fresh
water that our creeks provide so it was
there we headed for our eeling adventure.
We drove around until we saw two
hardy fellows working holes and seem-
ingly having some luck. It's sort of like
fishing. If you see a lot of boats fishing
in one spot you can usually reason there
are fish there. The same is true with eel-
ing through the ice. If people are
getting eels, why go elsewhere?
The spears we use are called mud
spears and with them the eel is actually
caught on the upstroke, which is just
the opposite of what you might think.
Remember you are spearing through a
hole in the ice and you can't see where
your spear goes. You are actually spear-
ing blind. You never see your target but
by continually jabbing the spear in all
directions in the mud it will hopefully
slide over an eel. When you feel resis-
tance, you pull back and then the sharp
barb of the spear hooks the eel. With
the eel on you pull the long spear up
dripping with icy cold water and shake
it loose on the ice.
A Cold, Deep Sleep
It moves very sluggishly for it has
been under the wraps of a cold, deep
sleep. This is in sharp contrast to the
active, thrashing eels of a warm sum-
mer's fishing trip. They never seem to
stop moving as they double, dangle and
tangle your fish lines. On the ice their
January 25, 1990 • The Suffolk Times 615
ear 'Em, Skin 'Em, Cook 'Em, Eat 'Em
Focus on
Nature
sluggish movement soon ceases as they
become completely frozen and by the
time you pack them up they are stiff
and motionless.
Even in this old winter activity there
has been a modern twist thrown in. The
standard equipment to cut holes in the
ice was always the woodcutter's ax. To
get a bit more thrust I brought along a
heavy wood- splitting mallet that works
better than the ax. But our comrades on
the ice a short way down the creek
found an even better method of cutting a
hole. They brought a chainsaw along
which made effortless holes through the
six inches of creek ice. The next time
we go you can bet we'll bring our
chainsaw for we found you can work up
quite a sweat chopping through the ice.
We bundled up in the early morning
with layers of clothing because the
temperature was in the teens but soon
found we were taking layers off.
It's funny how things go. We parked
the pickup on an old utility right -of-
way and walked a good distance to
where we thought there'd be eels. We
cut four or five holes, did a lot of
jabbing about and brought up nothing
but an old length of garden hose that
somehow got into the waterway. We
then moved closer to the two eelers but
not close enough to interfere with their
rights. More holes were chopped and
still no eels. This was getting
discouraging. So again we moved.
This time we hit paydirt and brought
up a nice fat eel. Yet, no matter how we
tried, we just couldn't raise another.
Usually once you get one eel others fol-
low for it is thought that eels hibernate
in the same general area. At least we
weren't "skinned." We'd gotten one nice
eel. "Guess we'll call it a day."
First Place, Best Place
On our way back across the ice to the
pickup we thought we'd give it one
more shot. We chopped a hole right in
front of where we first started on the
way
x
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
EELING THROUGH THE ICE —Old and young alike get involved in
one of winter's oldest activities, eeling through the ice.
ice. Down slid the long spear and back
and forth we worked. Then there was
that old familiar feeling of hitting
something soft. It was an eel, I was
sure. Up it came and sure enough
another eel was added to our bag. With
this encouragement we soon made more
holes and more eels started coming up.
We'd hit a good spot. We looked up the
creek to where we'd spent most of the
morning working with little success.
Here we were right back where we had
started.
Soon we had a nice mess of eels so
we picked up the now -stiff, frozen bod-
ies and put them in our bag. At home I
skinned and cleaned the eels in no time.
I found the white layers of fat that lined
their stomach cavities. This is their se-
cret to survival. Hibernating in the mud
where the temperature stays above freez-
ing they sleep the winter away with a
heartbeat that is barely noticeable. This
extra fat they had built up before bury-
ing themselves in the mud is what feeds
Thursday means
The Suffolk Times
them through their long winter sleep.
Other hibernators do the same.
Without that extra supply built up dur-
ing fall's abundance there would be
little chance of making it through the
winter. Now their bodies would supply
our energy needs in the form of fried
eels.
They had become part of that most
important food chain we all require and
few think about. That evening the
whole family got into the feast of fried
eels. I was glad we'd gotten those old
eel spears down from the rafters and put
them to work once again.
w•
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North Road, (County Road 48)
Southold • 765 -5872
Open daily 10-5 (Sunday 12 -5)
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