Sonny Jim's Pet Eel in the creek in the bush out the back Sonny Jim and Josh James New Zealand

We feed the Eels in the creek out the back of the homestead, the bigger ones could be over 50 years old, they can grow to over 100 years before migrating out to sea to spawn, not a lot is known about New Zealand Eels spawning habits or where they go to spawn, its suspected that the location is somewhere off the coast of Tonga, it was previously thought they spawned somewhere off Mexico. What is known is that they need a great depth to spawn. The Elvers or baby eels swim all the way back to New Zealand and are translucent when making this journey. Whitebaiters will occasionally catch these glass Eels in their nets. When they hit the fresh water they turn grey then black as they head upstream to find a habitat to live in. They can be seen navigating waterfalls by wriggling up the sides on the wet rocks, moss and grass.
Bootlaces are a common term to describe them when they undertake this particular part of their journey.
If you catch a big Eel its a good idea to release these ones back into the river as they are needed to breed and keep this valuable resource available to future generations.
Eels are a fantastic survival food in the bush, most rivers and creeks hold Eels and they can be caught in a variety of ways, using flax and worms, or Huhu grubs, or if its flooding they can often be found up in the grass searching for worms and can be flicked up onto the bank by hand.

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Thanks so much.

Josh James