Eh wiz in Fraserburgh when eh wiz a bairn for aboot twa weeks.
That is whar eh got meh first black eye (Seesaw bounced back up as eh wiz on meh way doon).
(Weel that's whut happens when yir showin aff tih a lassie).
That is also whar eh seen meh first and only Conger Eel.
MAN wiz that ever a doozie it wiz an easy 5 feet long, twice meh size at the time.
A man threw it oot o' a fishermans boat as it passed the peer and the thing wiz crawling and sliding all over the place, another man grabbed an axe and chopped its head aff, but that never made any difference it still kept wriggling aboot for ages.
Eh wiz warned no tih git near it (Eh didnih need telt tho) a bairns memory it wiz aboot 4" diameter, but tih me it wiz a sea monster that had been caught beh the fishermen.
It wiz scary and exciting and remember it as if it wiz yesterday and it was aboot 60 year ago, mibe coz eh coodnih git past it tih git aff the peer?
BoB
When I was wee I used to handle them when I caught their young in the rivers, but now I just can't stand them.
I think it was seeing a young Eel that someone had cut the head off still bite someone on the thumb and keep a tight grip.
He was daft enough to pick the head up as it was still moving after 1/2 an hour. The mouth snapped shut on his thumb and we couldn't get it to open its jaws.
I had to cut along the side of its mouth to make it let go. Found out it was him who had cut its head off when he had found it. It was only a foot long but even after having its head cut off for 1/2 an hour it could still bite, that is some nervous system as it couldn't be alive after its head chopped that amount of time.
If you touch the body of an Eel after an hour of being dead it will start to wriggle again. Oh, I just don't like it when I catch one.
When I was wee I used to go oot to catch them and let them wrap themselves round my arm as I removed the hook, but sometimes they swallowed the hook so far down that I couldn't get the hook oot, so had to dispatch the Eel before I could get the hook oot.
Now killing an Eel is not easy and they would wriggle for hours even after getting a good battering, so it had to be put in a bag after cutting the line, leaving the hook inside. Then after a day of so it would stop wriggling and the Eel could be cut open to retrieve the hook.
Oh how I hate catching Eels. I have caught two this year
Wee John
Haha that'll teach him tih watch whar he puts his finger.
Wow eh didnih ken that aboot them, well as eh said eh only had that one experience, which was inuff for me, eh think eh wiz aroond 7 ir 9 year auld?
Eh remember jist standin their (well back) in total fascination and it wriggling aboot, but cannah remember for how lang jist it wiz a whilie.
Oh eh remember eh wiz scared, coz like eh sayed it wiz a monster fae the sea, that the mannie coodnih kill.
