Starving Herring

[Tanner]

I was just reading the thread on catching your own herring and I got to thinking.
I know that the commercial harvesters starve the herring before they are vac packed. I guess they do this to harden up the nice shiny scales so they don't fall off during vacuum packing.

For those of you that jig your own herring and then use them throughout the year for chinook or silver fishing, Do you have any kind of process that you use to help keep the scales on the fish before they are packaged?

[ 12-26-2002, 11:02 AM: Message edited by: Tanner ]

[will_e_fish]

I have heard it was the rock salt and ice bath inducing instant death that did it. How does starving them work to keep scales on? I would think that shock and traum would shed scales rather than retain them. How do you keep them alive after they have been hooked and pumping in enough fresh water while starving them?

[Bill Monroe]

Someone who knows more than I (all right, then, most of you) may expand on this, but I believe herring companies electro-shock for intstant death, which keeps the scales on...they starve fish, I think, to thin them down to the right sizes...

[Timber]

I have been told they starve them for three days to get rid of the enzimes in the digestive system to keep them from going soft then they electricute to kill them instantly.

[CATCH AND EAT]

By starving the herring it thickens the belly of the herring. Thus they do not tear so easy. I found that the herring we caught last year set up very nicely when rocksalted in ice water with distilled water. (no chlorine) We did this iin layers and they worked very well. The males worked the best because they had thicker belly meat. The females tend to tear easier and were ok for the ocean but did not perform well at bouy ten.

Lots of rock salt, ice, a little powdered milk, a little slam o la might also do the trick. I rebrine them before taking them out for fishing and that really sets them up nice and hard.

Should be a run of herring showing up in a month or so at yaquina bay. :smile: