How to prepare Herring

[Bobberdown]

I have about 8 pounds of herring that my uncle brought me from Washington. They are frozen in a block of ice and are in great shape. I have seen that quick bright stuff but a friend of mine told me to use Tide laundry soap and blue dye. Not sure about that plan. So my question is how to I take care or "cure" my herring? Thanks as always for your help. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[Ramstrong]

What is it with laundry products and salmon? Borax for eggs, Mrs Stewarts bluing for herring and now tide? Mtn fresh or regular? For a brine I just throw a couple of handfulls of rock salt, a couple of squirts of sardine oil, some Mrs Stewarts and enough water to cover everything. When I was growing up fishing winchester bay for silvers we just filleted the herring, cut the fillets in half and placed them on rock salt.

[Hookset]

I use the same brine that Ramstrong uses except I add some anise oil too. I was always told to use enough salt to float an egg. And last time I did this the herring became like leather. It depends on how long you leave them in the brine. I've used the brine-n-brite before with good results. A little more costly and you can also over brine the bait where they get to hard. I cut the recipe in half between brine and water, added some Stewarts bluing and went fishing. Nowadays, I keep some ralt sock and bluing in the boat and brine fresh or defrosted bait the night before. Brined bait will last for a week or so in the fridge. But fresh bait is always better.

hook

[FishinMission]

Everybody's got their preference. Mine is no brine at all. What I do is keep the bait frozen, handle it frozen. When handling it frozen the scales stay on the fish and don't come off in/on your hand. Gives them that "natural" shine from their scales. Of course..if you cut plug your herring, it's tough to cut when it's frozen. Me...I don't cut plug mine so it's not a problem.

[Bobberdown]

so where do you get the Mrs Stewarts bluing?

[FISHRUS]

at the grocery store,by the laundry soap. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Eric]

What about crushed ice in the brine to keep evrything cold?

[Tanker Man]

An old trick that my grandfather showed me is use rock salt, water & add the Stewarts bluing if you want then add 1/2 cup of powderd milk. This really works to set the scales. Try it, it works great. Don't ask why milk won't work, it doesn't. Good luck [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] Bob

[ 06-16-2001: Message edited by: Tanker Man ]

[Hookset]

I heard about using the powdered milk, just haven't tried it yet. Somehow I keep forgetting the milk part.

A word about water. I always use distilled water, never tap. Or I use water from the source.......water from the ocean, river etc...To keep it cold, I use ice around the container, never in the water. I have containers just for bait.

Fish have such a strong sense of smell, parts per billion, using tap water should be taboo with all the chemicals used to treat water. I know a guide who swore that smelt he dipped, then washed in tap water before packaging and freezing never caught very many fish. Compared to smelt dipped, packaged and frozen the difference was night and day.

Believe what you want, but scent control can make or break your next trip. Think about it.

hook

[Mr. Fisherman]

Great posts....

What about attractants?...

RT, others?....

[smilesforu]

The herring brines above have been standard s for a long time. The bluing is suppose to make the bait really shine, milk for scales and the salt for toughness. My normal herring batter is frozen dropped right into saltwater from the bay I am fishing. Nothing else added... works great for cut plugs. The key is to have bait that is of a high quality, winter bait (skinny belly) or fresh herring. When choosing fresh herring watch out for red fins (old bait).
Others I know swear on spraying their herring with a wd40 shot.

My latest experiments have me dying herring fillets different colors. Chartuese scented bait is my color of choice with a 10 to 1 bite difference over plain. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

WARNING Please don't try this at home or tell your partner [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] I need more time to varify results [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[ 06-18-2001: Message edited by: smilesforu ]

Mr. F, allow me to mention a couple suggestions before I answer your Q. If you can't get fresh herring, use a quality vacuum packed frozen product such as Ballard brand. And before you remove the frozen plastic immerse the pack in cool water for a few seconds first so as to remove the plastic wrap's adhesion to the herring; then poke a few small holes in it to slowly release the vacumm pressure before removing the bait - doing both of these things will keep the most scales intact for a better flashing herring. I also agree about using distilled water for the brine. Another recommnedation is to brine your herring or anchovies whole, because some of the natural scent and oil will dilute into the brine water if you plug cut them first. I only brine herring from 1 to 3 hours, depending on salinity, and not overnight. As for brine additives/attractants, most of the things commonly put in them have been mentioned above. There are some less common things you can try. One proven attractant is to add a few tablespoons of liquid vanilla extract to a rock salt based brine. Another is adding a very small amount, about a single rounded teaspoon, of Spice Islands white garlic powder stirred in very thoroughtly before putting in your bait (this is one of the purest yet strongest of the garlic powders, so use it sparingly; and it mixes into water much better than garlic oils). Some add other bait oils to brines but in my opinion that wastes quit a bit of the expensive stuff because it doesn't mix very well in saltwater (not at all in plain water). Better to inject a small amount directly into the herring before dunking it in the ocean. Be sure to slightly dull the needles on syringes, or even a Gilly injector bottle, so you reduce the depth you stick the thing into your hand [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]. A very good oil to to inject directly into herring or anchovies is Pro-Cure squid oil. Salmon just love it! And you can inject more of it into the herring than I would inject strong smelling sardine oil - which can be productive in small amounts - thus leaving a bigger oil 'slick' attractant trailing the bait. A quality herring oil (Pro-Cure or Mike's, etc.) can be good to inject also; either by itself or in combo with the other oils. As with colors Chinooks seem to like scents in combos - such as the tried and true eggs and shrimp river combo - and the scent of sodium. So I make a custom oil for injecting into herring, approximately as follows: 10 T. squid oil, 10 T. herring oil, 2 T. sardine oil, 1/2 t. sodium sulfite, and 1/2 t. MSG. ... However, I recommend not getting too carried away with the injected oils or WD40, at least at first. Sometimes the salmon prefer just plain herring. I do recommend either lightly spraying your hooks, line, and rigging with WD40 or wipe them off with an anise soaked paper towell before baiting up. If you have 4 rods out, fish 2 with plain herring and 2 with brined herring (have plenty of both along). If you are in an area that hookups are occuring and getting your share or better then don't fix what doesn't need it. And assuming you are reasonably dialed into the proper rigging, depths, bait sizes/actions, and trolling speed, which often takes awhile to attain, and are not getting your share of hookups I would then spray 2 of them with WD40 and inject the oil combo into the other 2 (lightly at first and then go ahead and juice it up real good). If there are biting salmon around it won't take you long to dial into what they are most in the mood for. ... Here's another trick attractant/bite stimulator I have come up with - using home made flickers (keep in mind what Marty mentioned about chartreuse color). Buy some sheets of stick on lure tape in chartreuse, flame red, and chrome prism. After washing the oils out of your hands, press together 2 sheets of chartreuse then stick together one of red to one of chrome prism. Now cut small torpedo shaped pieces approximately an 1 1/4" by 1/3". After rigging your herring on the hooks poke one end of the 'flicker' onto the lower trailing hook. This will flicker around as the herring rolls - and sometimes not very well but still is a great attractor/stimulator with the added color near the tail end of the bait, and both colors work well. (BTW, these 'flickers' are a good thing to add to the hook after baiting up with sandshrimp and/or eggs for backbouncing in rivers with). Feesh on! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

RT

[ 06-18-2001: Message edited by: RT ]

A lot of great sounding info to try. Thanks! When and wherre is using whole herring best and using plugcut herring best? Stump

Didn't I hear somewhere that treating your bait/hooks/line with WD-40 is illegal?

I have heard whisperings of that too Fobb. But I don't really know. I do know that fish cops often see guys using it on tackle and bait and they don't bother them for it. I guess they must figure that the unburned oil & gas plus the burned oil & gas from boat motor exhausts, plus sluffing bearing grease, puts millions of times as much polution into the waterways so why worry about a relatively tiny amount of WD40? They may also hear about many oil based toxins that individuals and industries put into our watersheds by the tons daily too? Knowing about those unfortunate realities makes me not lose any sleep over a little WD40 - or commercial chemmed up baitoil products from the tackle shops either for that matter.

RT

[boater]

i dont treat my herring with anything, just keep it in the bags and keep it on some crushed ice, dont put ice in the bags. i dont like to use rocksalt because i think it locks the scent in. i personly think a good fresh untreated herring is the best thing to use, just my 2 cents....

[ 06-21-2001: Message edited by: boater ]

[Mr. Fisherman]

RT,

Thanks for the reply. I'm looking forward to fishing with you and Dan! in July.

He's cleaning up the boat as I type this. I suspect that your celebrety status is the motivating force. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Thanks for everything [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Ray

[KarenLee]

useful info [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]