When you start out, a heavy duty special ziplok with salt water to preserve the eel will be fine for awhile. You start doing it more and more, and you'll see that it pays off. Unfortunately that means you're on the precipice of a rigged eel addiction.

What does that mean?

If means you will need a place and methods to store your stash of dead snakes. The best place is in a clean very large gallon pickle or mayonaisse jar in the refrigerator.

Here are some simple steps to help with that:

1. Be a single guy, or have an understanding wife or girlfriend.

2. Have patience when rigging, or find a cheap source of dead rigged eels. (Ronnie at Fisherman's supply)

3. Be a single guy, or have an understanding wife or girlfriend. - I'm repeating this because it's THAT important. Nothing will ruin your sexual relations with the wife or girlfriend more quickly than her opening an unknown refrigerator package and finding dead snakes with hooks in them.

Set up a good brine solution - this tip comes courtesy of Fin, one of the old-school masters at eeling, rigging, and storing different creatures in his refrig.

"The brine solution is just right when you put a (hard boiled?) egg in the jar and it floats to the top"

This is important because if there is not enough salt the eel, being organic, will deteriorate and not look too cool as you swing it out there and part of the decayed tail falls off onto your face.