Both men were given two year conditional discharges

John James Riney, 29, of Lower Road and Jody Hele, 24, of Stradling Ave, both Weston-super-Mare, pleaded guilty under the Land Drainage Act 1976.

The pair was caught on 23 March by four Agency officers who launched a surveillance operation at Brean Cross Sluice near Brean in Somerset.

The tide concentrates the number of young eels below the structure.

Barbed wire

The elvers cannot move upstream until the tide ebbs and the sluices open.

Fishermen can improve their catch of elvers by fishing from the sluice rather than fishing from the riverbank.

The sluice had recently undergone security improvements costing more than �20,000 to prevent just such an occurrence happening.

The two men were videoed using a ladder placed next to a 'Danger Keep Out' sign to climb over a 2.4 metre fence topped with three strands of barbed wire.

Conditional discharges

The film shows them making their way down to the gantry where Riney began to fish for elvers with Hele helping him.

Bridgwater magistrates ordered Riney, a licensed elver fisherman, to pay �700 legal costs.

Hele, his fishing companion, was ordered to pay the remaining costs of �72.

Both men were also given two year conditional discharges.

John Richards for the Agency said: "There are clear environmental reasons for controlling the fishing of elvers that responsible elver fishermen respect."