Eel Boats of the Norfolk Broads
The Night Eel Trade of the Norfolk Broads
Willow traps on the River Yare
On the River Yare, the old eel trade began after sunset. Fishermen worked from narrow eel boats, many converted from small sea-boats and fitted with a snug covered cabin. By day the boat might lie quietly in a dyke; after dark, its crew watched the water for the silver run of the European eel, Anguilla anguilla.
The main gear was made for patient work rather than sport. Conical willow baskets, known locally as bucks, waited in creeks and channels. Larger fixed nets called setts could stretch across a tidal passage, weighted on the riverbed and buoyed above it. Funnel-shaped mouths guided travelling eels into closed pods while wherries slipped past the marked net line.
Ebb tide brought the busiest hours, especially where the Yare and Wensum carried water towards Great Yarmouth Harbour. Around Hardley Cross, Ludham Basin and Potter Heigham, old boats became floating watch houses. Garden worms served as dependable bait for bobbing, or babbing, while spring brought the sharp work of picking with a spear. Eel hooks needed gimp or exceptionally strong line, since an eel could soon cut ordinary gut.
The trade left its language across the Broads: picks, liggers, grigs and babs all belonged to different ways of taking the same elusive fish. At Malthouse Broad and Hickling Broad, the scene was part livelihood and part folklore, with willow baskets stacked on deck and a lantern trembling on black water. At dawn, the catch travelled towards Norfolk kitchens, where eels could become rich jellied eels, while the empty boat drifted beneath the reeds.