Herring?

[corrirod]

Any herring in at Newport right now?

[Phil Layer]

I was crabbing there last weekend and saw a lot of blurs on my fish finder. I'm pretty sure they were herring. I never dropped a sabiki down to check but shoulda.

Good luck.

[Riverliver]

How affective is it? And what are the limits? Is it worth a trip down to the coast just for bait?

[corrirod]

Cool. They were in there thick last January and I'm hoping for the same this year. I'm going to try and get a bait run in the next couple weeks.

Riverliver, it's well worth the trip and if you have any kids it's great fun! Nothing like a 4 year old screaming her head off because she just hooked 6 herring at once!

Thanks for the report Phil.

[apparentgenius]

Can someone give me the scoop on the best method to handle the fresh caught herring. So far I caught quite a few, but most of the scales get lost in the shuffle. Thanks,
glen

[Mark Mc]

Glenwood, what has worked well for us is to put crushed ice, rock salt, and sea water into an ice chest. Mix it up a little. Then just shake the herring off the hook right into the slush. Freezes them quickly, which sets the scales.

- Mark

[hrspowr]

I decided on a whim this morning to head out to the bay and drop the pots and try to see if there were any herring available. Weather was just too darn uncooperative. Wind blew the boat all over, rain was coming from the water up!! I stayed out less then 1 hour. No herring, 2 crabs. I probably shouldn't have bothered, but I have been off all weekend and reading SD archives. I had the itch to get on the water, and this was my last day before heading back to work.

[corrirod]

Thanks for the report Hrspower. Sorry the weather gods weren't cooperating.

[Pilar]

Rod, I crabbed with Ragnar on 12/26 in the 'Pilar' at Yaquina. We got 17 for 5 traps, about 1/2 were new sheds and pretty soft. No sea lion barks were heard but there may have been a few around somewhere.

There were a few smears on the sonar like we see for herring during the summer. Like everyone else, I neglected to try some jigging.

Does anyone know about what time of year the bait starts to go soft with roe? February?

[Popeye]

John...You're absolutely correct, Feb.

[Mello-Yello]

I thought 'self-caught' herring wasn't any good cuz it wasn't "starved"??

or, are you guys eating them?
:shocked:

[corrirod]

Shhhhhhhhhh Mello..........don't let the salmon, tuna, and halibut find out they're no good! :tongue:

They work pretty good for me.

[ 12-29-2003, 02:34 PM: Message edited by: corrirod ]

[tailchaser]

HMMMMMM....that's getting close to the TA meeting on timeframes. There should be some in there during the end of Jan. don't ya think??

tc

[hrspowr]

They should be out there any time soon. Last year I think it was Mid Jan, and we filled a couple 5 gallon buckets with them right off the pier!

Any day now.

[Pilar]

Yeah, right on Rod. I won't say a thing to all the Halibut and other tasty fish that ended up in my fishbox last summer.

I wouldn't even think about crossing the Yaquina bar without a baitbox full of fat, brined and near froze fresh herring. They're free!!!! And they catch nice fish, Ga ron tee.

[The Bad Fish]

hey pilar. who makes the best bait???

[Mello-Yello]

Hey, whoah! The thing about "non-starved" herring not being good...I heard that here!!

At the time I thought to myself..."self, so they aren't starved...they aren't starved when the other fishes in the sea eat them neither"....

I dunno...

[Mr. Fisherman]

Just for clarification....

The starved fish do better in captivity in a live well. ALIVE...

So long as they are not soft with ROE they work great brined for multiple species. I had one day last year that I caught 7 species, all with fresh Herring from the bay, packed in salt on ice the way Pilar and Popeye have described many times in the forums.

This will be the year that many of us experiment with live bait so stay tuned or contribute with information on what works and what don't.

Good luck, I hope this helps...