Eel Clotting at Whitcombe

Del Cooper travels to Whitcombe, to learn about the traditional Westcountry pastime of eel clotting which involves the catching of eels from rivers using basic equipment including tree branches, woollen thread and old bathtubs. The season runs from May to September and locals in Somerset thread worms on wool called a clot or a clat in local dialect or a rayball - eels catch their teeth on the wool and the eel is dropped in the bath using a birch or hazel wood pole.

Elvers grow into yellow eels and then silver eels on the rivers and as adults make an incredible journey across the Atlantic to the Sargasso Sea near the Bahamas to spawn. The eggs hatch into leptocephali larvae and are carried back to the UK on North Atlantic Drift ocean currents developing into glass eels and re-entering the river system. They travel upstream and develop as elvers growing into adult eels which can measure up to a metre and a half in length. The European eel is a delicacy smoked, fried, poached or jellied. Since 2014 the species is critically endangered and on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List. The IUCN is headquartered in Cambridge.