A palingvisser is a fishermen that specializes in catching eel. Several villages around the Zuidersee (South Sea, now a lake called IJsselmeer), like Volendam, were famous for their eels.
![](https://www.dutchgenealogy.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/OSIM00008003477-672x444.jpg)
Eel fisherman next to his house near Amsterdam, 1918.
Credits: F.F.P. Bins, collection Amsterdam City Archives (public domain).