Neil, in the late fall eels will head up into the rivers and marshes for the winter, they usually go in the mud! I have done some spearing for them during the winter, its fun if u like to eat them,, or if u sell them and get a good price (something I never seem to get) anyway, i have a collection of different eel spears, i have one that is used to get them out of small pot holes in the marsh when they ball up. Mac Reed told me stories of getting hundreds of eels out of a small ppothole in the marsh, in eastham. Poor eels, live in the mud all winter, swim into an eel pot, get put into a bait tank, pulled out and put into everything from a laundry bag to old waders, bounced down the beach or off shore in a boat, get there heads smashed on my bumper, thrown out in the water and sucked up by a big old bass, or even worse chopped up by a bluefish!