Marlene and Craig Skeet from One Cast Fly Fishing Adventures, who were guiding a Japanese client who filmed the action, have added a bit more to the story:
“Mitsuo goes through a lot of shaking and screaming before capturing the big eel attacking his trout.
(The song Japanesey replaces his hysteria voice)
The camera was put down after the 2 minute drama and the trout was saved and released. This Japanese angler thought it was a rare moment. As guides in New Zealand it is not uncommon for eels to eat or chase trout and if your lucky enough to experience an actual attack then yes the moment is rare.
The photo on our home page of the eel face to face with trout is a rare moment of the same situation, the exception is for the first time in my 25 years of fly fishing I witnessed this eel force my trout against a rock edge while the fish was on my line. The rare moment was how the eel flared its cheeks out like gobstopper cheeks, hissed, yes hissed and then made the final attack. Gladly the trout was saved by me kicking the eel away.”
Marlene also sent me a shot (below) of a trout (not the one in the video) with old eel bite wounds. The fish survived but it must have counted itself lucky.
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