Our grandfather told us that rivers and streams around the country had once been so full of eels they would line up to be caught. "When we were kids," he would say with a big grin, "the creek was our local fish shop." His face then saddened. "Now, there's pollution and big operations catching our eels to sell overseas."
Us kids headed up the road to an old wooden bridge that crossed a slow moving creek. Dad said there were still a couple of big, mean, sharp-toothed eels hanging around under it.
Willie got a sack and filled it with the stinking guts from the sheep Dad had killed that afternoon. He tied a long rope to the sack. Then he got the old kerosene lamp from the shed. Mum said that she had learned to read by the light of that old lamp. He then tied the lamp to another long rope.
Luke and Tarzan's job was to lower the sack over the side of the bridge and into the water. Then they were to dangle the lamp above the surface. The idea was that the guts would attract the eels. The light would enable us to see any eels that came around the bait.
Willie, Reg and I were on the bank. We had the job of spearing them.
And it worked. That is until Tarzan got so excited he let go of the rope that the lamp was tied to.
The two good sized eels we got were only half the size of the big eel that came around just before the lamp was lost. Because Willie had the idea to use it, we all reckoned he should go in and get it. None of us were too keen to get in the water, but in the end we all helped. It was not in the best condition when it was found.
It wasn't surprising that Mum put an end to this method of eeling.