I'm sure you're right, S, but there seems to be something missing...namely, something for 'elect' to mean. The clue should surely have read something like: "Choose mixed eel caught short." Or am I missing something?
I was thinking along the same lines - with perhaps "short" being the "meaning". The word "caught" on its own is suficient to give the letters "ct" ( without using the word "short").
The "meaning" I was thinking about was as in "president elect" - that is "standing by" or "shortly to become"!
I thought along similar lines, C, but could not come up with any way in which 'elect' might mean 'short'. Sorry, but I'm far from convinced by your 'President elect' theory!