Overview
RF4 staff members dive into the game and share their knowledge with the players. This guide was written by moderator Elwoodiath with the intent to show players how to catch Eel on Old Burg.
Introduction
The goal of this guide is show players how to catch the elusive eel on Old Burg lake. The eel is an interesting fish to catch as it bites during the night hours and prefers weather conditions that other fish do not like. Through the course of this guide we will look at locations, best times and weather, baits, rigs, and ground baits. This fish can provide the prepared lower level angler a nice boost of silver and xp with minimum gear and will entertain the experienced angler who wants to hunt it for trophies.
Species Overview
The European Eel (Anguilla anguilla) is a snake like fish. It is catadromous which means it lives it life in freshwater and moves to saltwater to spawn. Like the similar American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) they migrate to the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean to spawn. They are called ‘glass eels’ in their juvenile phase and drift with the currents to their eventual homes. The younger eels are yellowish green in coloration, and mature eels are silver in coloration. Both stages prefer to live in cover such as reeds, crevices, and holes in a muddy substrate. The eels will live in freshwater feeding on small fish and invertebrates for 6 to 12 years before returning to the sea to spawn and die. The European eel can reach sizes of 1.5m in length, and upwards of 6.6kg (largest scientific measurement).
Data collection
Data collection occurred over a period of 16 hours. Each bait was baseline by fishing with a simple bottom rig, then fished with ground bait on a loop rig. Each rig, bait, and ground bait combo was fished for two hours, leading to a planned 8 hours per spot. The baits used initially were fish pieces and night crawlers. Ground baits were none, a custom mix, and white bream. A total of 47 eels were caught with a total of 365 catches. Chinese sleepers were caught quite frequently and please read further for an interesting side note on Gibels when I discuss tactics.
The reason for the long times was that even with everything perfect the bite rate on the eel is low so to get a good sample long fishing times were needed. The initial plan was to fish two spots for 12 hours and do a total of 24 hours of data collection. Then why only 16 hours you ask? Well the other challenge to fishing for eel, other than bite rate is locating a good spot. After the fist spot was completed, I searched for another good spot. I found locations online, tried many locations and would catch no eel or just one. A total of almost 8 hours was spent scouting for Eel spots. Finally towards the end of the period of time allotted to write these guides, I was turned on to another good spot by a fellow moderator. I was able to get excellent bite rate at this location. However, I simply did not have enough free time to test it as thoroughly. This was not all bad, while researching I found another bait that I was not aware of, and was able to test it.
Behavior and Preferences
The Eel feeds primarily at night. This is well known by players in the game. The truly magical time seems to be from 00:00 to 04:00 with the best rate between 01:00 and 03:00. However, players have made other assumptions about optimal weather conditions, and these simply do not really hold when the data is looked at. You do get a slightly higher bite rate at lower temperatures, but eels also bite well in warmer temps as well so try them anytime. As far as weather conditions go, Eels seem to prefer clear and partly cloudy conditions equally well, and are active during light rain as well.
For baits Fish Pieces, Night Crawlers, Crayfish Tails, Ruffe, and Roe were used. Due to time constraints, Ruffe were not tested as thoroughly as possible, but when I extrapolated the data, it does look like the bite rate with Ruffe is comparable to Fish Pieces. Roe and Crayfish tails did not produce any eels for me, but other players have reported that they work. Since fish do change bait preferences in this game, it might be a good idea to keep those baits in the back of your head for when other baits are not working.
Let’s take a look at the charts. This first set of charts show the bite rates based on time. No matter what the location, the bite rate curve remains the same.
The second set of chats shows bait preferences and catch rates based on temperature. Please note due to the limited testing on the second spot, the bite rates for Night Crawler and Ruffe had to be extrapolated. That being said, I am quite confident in the overall accuracy as the previous tables show bite rate curves that match.
Best Time of Day: Early Morning between 00:00 and 04:00
Best Weather: Clear, Partly Cloudy, Light Rain
Best Temps: Cooler temps around 10 are best, but the bite rate is ok at higher temps as well.
Best Baits: Fish Pieces, and Ruffe, followed by night crawlers
Locations
At Old Burg Eel can be found practically anywhere in the margins where there are weeds, duckweed, and Lilly pads. The two spots that produced for me during the test were 47:20, and 23:67. 47:20 died shortly after I finished testing and I had to find a new spot. I had tried 23:67 earlier and did not catch eel. When I returned based on a tip from my fellow moderators, I had my best Eel night ever there with 8 Eels caught in a single night cycle. That being said they move, and there appears to only be one or two hot spots at any given time. You may get an eel from any given spot, but active good producing spots are hard to find due to the limited window in which you can fish for them, and the lower bite rate than other species. So for the Eel, please communicate with your fellow angler, post the good spots as you find them on the forums so that all can enjoy the hunt.
This first image shows potential locations. You may feel it is joke, but it’s not really. They can be found anywhere there are weeds, and on Old burg that’s practically everywhere in the margins.
This next image shows the active locations during my data collection and all the reported locations I was able to collect as well. Green are the tested areas, and orange are the untested areas. Please note that I did catch single eels at several of the ‘untested’ areas as I was scouting for a second testing spot. For 47:20 cast right next to the weeds on either side facing into the back ‘pond’ area. Some nights they seem concentrated on the left, and others the right. For 23:67 face towards the tower on the fort, and cast right into the lilies or on the outside edge of them in the direction of the tower.
Rigs and Setups
There are three major rigs used during the testing. Simple Bottom Rig, Loop Rig, and Bait fish Rig. For the simple bottom rig, Bunnessan pickers were used, and for the Baitfish rig, my three big game setups were used. My setups are shown below, but for the lower level player – any bottom rod with a capacity of around 15kg and a reel with a max drag of 7.5kg or better should be safe to use for the simple rig and the loop rig. For the bait fish rig, I suggest a minimum of a Fortuna 360XH along with a gold 80 or better reel. Size 8 Bloody Series hooks were used with the simple bottom rig, and the loop rig while Size 4 Berserk Hooks Ultra LF Series was used for the bait fish rigs.
Tactics
This is where it get’s a little interesting. For the trophy hunting Eel Angler there is no question, fish pieces or ruffe. For the lower level angler who is hoping to snag some nice Eels at night, but still wants to maintain a good bite rate there is another option: night crawlers. These juicy worms are not just delectable to Eels, but many other species enjoy them as well. For the lower level player that wants to maintain a good silver rate, night crawlers are a good choice. And here’s a little secret: Trophy Gibels apparently like to snack on night crawlers in the wee hours of the morning. A total of 6 Trophy Gibels were taken between the hours of 01:00 and 05:00 with three of them occurring right around 01:10. However, beware – night crawlers are tasty to grass and black carp as well. You may hook into a nice one! Biggest one I caught while data collecting was 18kg, and I caught a total of 5 that were 10kg plus.
To ground bait or not to ground bait, that is the question. With the small sample size there is no clear difference between a custom mix, or a white bream mix. However, there is a mild improvement in bite rate and size compared to no ground bait. So the answer is: yes, use ground bait. Recipe for my custom mix is below.
Base: Rapeseeds
Additive #1: Casters
Additive #2: Dried Krill
Additive #3: Zebra Mussels
Attractant: Caviar Scent
Conclusion
While an elusive fish, the Eel can provide nice rewards to the angler willing to spend time finding them and catching them. For lower level anglers on old burg they should probably work on catching them during the night hours if the location they are at potentially holds them. Going out of their way to find them might slow down their silver and XP gains. That being said, if you are not concerned with steady XP and silver gains, and want to really explore Old Burg, the Eel is a good candidate to hunt for as nice specimens provide very good silver and XP. Best times are early morning and temps do not matter quite as much as some players believe, so don’t be afraid to go after them in warmer temps.
Best Time of Day: Early Morning between 00:00 and 04:00
Best Weather: Clear, Partly Cloudy, Light Rain
Best Temps: Cooler temps around 10 are best, but the bite rate is ok at higher temps as well.
Best Baits: Fish Pieces, and Ruffe, followed by night crawlers.
Until Next Time: Tight Lines!