Quinn and Jack McGill with their catch of the day last summer.
A Reely Big Catch
Reading Bill Lawyer’s feature on eels in our January 17 issue prompted Rye mom Jodi McGill to share a picture of her sons, Jack and Quinn, fifth and third graders, respectively, reeling in an eel last summer off their deck adjacent to Blind Brook.
The Quinns are avid fishermen and that day they didn’t have any traditional bait, so they used chicken. “Who knew eels like chicken!” their mom wrote the paper.
After pulling in the eel and realizing he’d swallowed the hook, the Quinn boys knew they needed the help of experts, in this case, sixth grader Jack Anderson, who was out fishing with their older brother Wryder at the Rye Marina.
Jack had trouble removing the hook, but his older brother Thomas came to their aid. In the end, the eel was freed and splashed happily away, and the boys had an eel of a tale to remember.