Experience with eels - or experience with kidnapping :-).
Eels are fun. Start with a 2$ covered eel bucket which will positively lock shut. You really don't want the bucket tipping over on that long drive out and having an eel escape into your trunk...to be found by smell a week later :-).
Bring a rag; you'll need it. For starters buy a couple "eel rig's"; which are usually 6/0 siwash hooks on 60 or 80# test. They will work fine; circle hooks are for lesson 2 :-).
Rig your rod w/ 20# test (at least).
To hook an eel. Dry rag makes thing easier.
Grab an eel behind the head and hold it tight otherwise it will slither away. On a beach I usually start by tossing the eel in the sand and let it get nice and sandy - it adds gripping friction.
Don't worry about how rough you handle an eel - they are basically indestructable.Once you have a firm hold on one, quickly run the hooik up thru the white chin and thru one eye socket. If its not hooked in an eye socket you'll toss it off eventually.
Once the eel is hooked get it in the water, just in the wash immediately. If youn don't you'll have an eel ball; a twisted mess of eel and leader. If its in the water it will swim and not knot up. After 3-4 casts your past the worst risk of an eel knot; for the first 3-4 retrieve the eel constantly; keep it moving slowly, and once its in the wash; get yourself ready and only pick it up out of the water to make the cast. Dangling eels will climb the line and knot.
Work the eel like a big live fly; I know you got that down :-). Slow, almost imperceptible retrieve is best; you want it swimming for you,. not being dragged along. Just as you work a fly along your Trunk Beach pockets work an eel along the same structure and depth changes, using it to explore the entire water column.
When you get a hook, drop the line, open the bail, count one one thousand, two two thousand, three three thousand and set the hook. I prefer sideways, not vertically but then I'm different. If th fish is gone immediately open the bail and pay out line; I often pick it back up on a second hit.
As Tony said 4-5 months back there is nothing like that THUNK when a big striper hits an eel..