herring ?

Troller · 05-29-2002, 05:10 AM

I have been reading some of your post's and it seems that some of you fish for your own herring. What do you use for bait and what techniques are used?. How do you preserve for later fishing trips?. Do you just freeze or do you brine and freeze them?. Ever add any scents to them or color?.

tailchaser · 05-29-2002, 06:09 AM

All you need to use is a herring jig set up that you can find at most fishing shops on the coast or in Newport. Usually they are a small bead with a little flashy plastic on the hook. Use a 1 1/2 oz. sinker on the bottom and let it down. Jig it a few times and you've got a fish.

Most people don't do anything extra to herring, besides occassionally adding some blue dye to help keep the flash a little, but you don't have to. The best way to freeze them is to vaccum pack them on trays. Hope this helps.

tc

bait boy · 05-29-2002, 06:09 AM

Herring are caught by using a series of jigs usually from 4-8 with 1-4oz of weight. jigged in the bay. biggest issue is finding the little buggers. we have been getting them in the bay at Newport from the green can in front of the coast guard station all the way to the embarcadero and over by the water tower.

As far as preservation some folks are getting meat trays from the grocery store and others are vac packing. add rock salt and some folks use blueing and milk in their brines....

Hope that helps

Threemuch · 05-29-2002, 07:17 AM

When we fished for herring, I put 50 pounds of ice in the cooler with 50 pounds of rock salt. It pretty much froze them instantly. I then packed em in this brine when I put them in the freezer. They came out pretty firm, not quite like tray bait, but not squishy either. They don't cut plug well, but they troll whole great.
KB

Troller · 05-29-2002, 07:32 AM

thanks for the info guys do you use ritz die or something else for the blue color

Pilar · 05-29-2002, 07:37 AM

I recently tried to make some salmon bait. Maybe next time I will do it a little different but it worked pretty well.

As soon as possible after herring fishing arrange the bait on meat trays, like you are used to seeing in the bait shop. Wear latex gloves as this seems to help with not scaling the bait. Then just freeze them overnight. You can glaze them with a water spray as this will help preserve some of the color. Once they freeze hard, sprinkle about a tablespoon of non-iodized salt (Kosher works) and several drops of Cravex +. Then bag and vacuum seal. The vacuum will crush the tray somewhat.

When you thaw for use, pop the bag first or the vacuum will crush the bait as it thaws.

I keep the herring in a holy bucket so they don't slime up. The meat trays can be had at the supermarket butcher. Find a shallow tray the size that will fit in your freezer bags.

The bait that is available now is an ideal size and is in good condition. 7 to 8 inch and firm.

Mrs Stewarts laundry blue.

[ 05-29-2002, 08:38 AM: Message edited by: Pilar ]