The line drawing below shows eel fishermen setting their traps. The primitive bridge and weir shown with its sluices and winding gear were part of the bypass system of a nearby watermill, used in times of flooding to divert the spate.

Eels, like the fish farmed in ancient fishponds and moats, were deemed a rich and vital source of protein by the monks, and formed a large part of their diet, partly because meat was expensive, and partly because they abstained from meat on their numerous fast days and ate fish or eels instead. In the 14th century the Fish House was built at Meare in Somerset for the chief fisherman of the Abbot of Glastonbury; it was also used for salting and preparing fish. As many as 5,000 eels were landed here in a typical year.

In winter eels lie at rest in mud deep down on the river bottom, emerging only in spring to catch larvae, snails, sticklebacks, trout and lampreys. In the drawing the men are lowering the traps, which are tied to wooden frames. The eels swam unsuspecting into the wide oval mouth and then found that they could not back out of the narrower inner funnel. Though they thrashed energetically in their prison, the eels could rarely find a way of escape.

Eel traps were often baited and dropped in rows into the water, tied to a single rope. Whenever they were left underwater for more than a week they were usually unbaited – eels would reject any tangle of worm bait that was old and that had gone off. Eels are highly fastidious in their choice of food, feeding only on the freshest of prey.

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