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herring, brined or not?

4K views 28 replies 25 participants last post by  viigfish 
#1 Ā·
was curious whats the choice, to brine or not to brine... and if so (don't need to know your secret ingredients) how do you brine them? Ive tried rock salt and also pro-cures brine-n-brite both with and without my secret ingerdient(s) :wink: this year I think im just going back to the ol' rock salt. 1/2 brined 1/2 not.
 
#3 Ā·
Except for last year, I haven't been much of a troller - I mainly fished on anchor when the tide was running out. The times I did troll herring, I brined them, and never had much luck. Last year I listened to the guy at B&C Angling, who said he had been having better luck on unbrined herring. So I just cut-plugged them while they were slightly frozen with no brine or salt. More springers were caught on my boat last season by trolling unbrined herring than we caught with Kiwkfish on anchor.

I think that the argument for brining or salting is that it toughens them up so they last longer on the mooching rig. However I found that the unbrined ones held up just fine for at least 30 minutes - after that, I think most guides would swap them out for new ones even if they were brined. Based on my experiences last year, I see no reason to brine herring.
 
#4 Ā·
I only brine herring that are in bad shape. If they look shiny, have clear eyes, and haven't lost any scales then I don't worry about brine. A good fresh herring will catch as many as a brined herring.:twocents: Rock salt and mrs. stuarts blueing, and plenty of ice.
 
#5 Ā·
I'm with alwaysfishing. I feel like my best bet is the freshest brightest bait I can get right as it is thawed out from the pack I mostly use brine to preserve the baits after they have thawed during the day. Lotsa rock salt, a little Mrs Stuarts bluing and 3 drops vanilla extract, keeps my bait solid for the trip. I use the brined ones for backup the following day and then rotate them out into the river, making room for the next new batch of briners.
 
#7 Ā·
In freshwater I always brine because it toughens up the herring. Seems like they last longer. I also dye mine w/ green food coloring. If I don't brine, seems like they tend to start tearing up too soon. I also always cutplug in freshwater but I think that's assumed by most people anyway.

Biederboat
 
#8 Ā·
If I am sitting on the hook I like un-brined herring and when trolling I want something a bit tougher so out comes the brined ones.
When anchored I feel that the bait is under less stress and has fewer impacts with underwater objects so a softer bait is just fine.
regardless none of my baits seem to attract anything but floating weeds and river slime.
 
#9 Ā·
It starts with buying high end bait. About the best herring going right now is puget sound bait co. It's a quality starved herring. Firm meat, tight scales. Heads and tails above any herring that you'll buy at an outdoor store.

I always brine my herring. The meat gets even firmer, the scales get even tighter and the bait will fish better for longer. The two main ingredients are bottled water and rock salt. Enough salt that it wont all disolve in the water.
 
#12 Ā·
I brine in distilled water and kosher rock salt in 1 gal.plastic jars and a touch of egg cure to make the plug cut end red. I add salt till the herring start to sink.(3-4 days)in the fridge. I take them out and let them dry and put them in pt. freezer bags and squirt of UV anise and smelly herring jelly. Put back in
the fridge and let the oil soak in. They can last a year in the fridge.
 
#13 Ā·
I brine using the Salmon University recipe. Last year I experimented with Procures Bad--- bait dye colors (Blue & Chartreaus). The chartreaus green was a real killer, you could actually let the bait out and see it glow under water for 3-4 feet. More importantly the fish thought it was exactly what they were looking for.
 
#14 Ā·
Cool thread, I also brine with the salmon u recipe and have had good success but, I dont think using un brined would be all that bad either for all we know it could be better but as has been stated the reason we do is to get your baits to not blow out to fast one tick would be to fish them whole but everyone seems to fish plug cuts I personly did good last year on whole baits. One problem I sometimes run into is I know I need to keep the bait and my brine ice cold but it creats the reaction with salt and ice that then turns my bait rock hard! Am I using to much salt! to much ice! Cant seem to find that happy medieum anyone else have that?
 
#15 Ā·
Great info here.... Going to print it.

A couple of years ago friends and I were out on the big pond fishing for Coho. One friend had a bunch of herring brined with Brine-n Bright. At the end of fishing he had a bunch of herring left over and gave them to me to use on the next trip. The lable says they'll keep a week or two in the fridge if I remember correctly. A few days later on the next trip, I started the day with the old bait as it still looked great. After an hour of not getting a bite I replaced my bait with some fresh stuff and got bit right away. Told everyone else to switch baits and our success continued.

Take this for what it's worth..... I threw my brine and bright in the garbage....

For Chinooks, do not use tap water in your brine. Keep some river water in your freezer just for bait preparation. Freeze your water in zip-lock bags. Use river water for the smelt you use for sturgeon also.
 
#20 Ā· (Edited)
Great info here.... Going to print it.

A couple of years ago friends and I were out on the big pond fishing for Coho. One friend had a bunch of herring brined with Brine-n Bright. At the end of fishing he had a bunch of herring left over and gave them to me to use on the next trip. The lable says they'll keep a week or two in the fridge if I remember correctly. A few days later on the next trip, I started the day with the old bait as it still looked great. After an hour of not getting a bite I replaced my bait with some fresh stuff and got bit right away. Told everyone else to switch baits and our success continued.

Take this for what it's worth..... I threw my brine and bright in the garbage....

For Chinooks, do not use tap water in your brine. Keep some river water in your freezer just for bait preparation. Freeze your water in zip-lock bags. Use river water for the smelt you use for sturgeon also.

Last spring I tried brine and brite a bunch of times and had zero takes until I changed to fresh and immediatly caught fish. Nothing beats pure sushi grade herring I say!
 
#17 Ā·
I use a half tub of Brine N Brite and 2 cups of rock salt . I soak 4 trays overnite in a coleman lunch cooler and use it til its gone. I've never had it go bad and keep adding trays as I go. If you're fishing back to back to back days this is an easy way to go. I've had pretty good success doin it this way. hope it helps. Good luck homes...RD
 
#18 Ā·
I dunno...the springers must like the tap water up here in Vancouver. And stinky bait? Wooh! Anybody that fished with me last year will attest to how stinky bait fished. Every time I opened the bait box...my passengers were giving each other funny looks..lol.:applause:

I just use tap water, Kosher salt, and a drop of blue food coloring in addition to one other secret ingredient I won't divulge here.

Doesn't seem to hurt my success any. In fact..I've seen guys tag out using their own bait that looked like it sat in 85 degree sun for a day or so and smelled like it too.

Too much rocket science here if you ask me. It's all in the roll.:whistle:

Keep it simple.

Mark
 
#26 Ā·
I grew up mooching in the Puget Sound, I've cut and fished a lot of herring, (hence the name Cutt Plug). In my opinion it's more about the spin than the brine. With that said, all those fish were caught in the salt where I think they're a little less particular that when they enter the river system.

I've found that it's helpful to brine when fishing herring in the bays and rivers. I did some data collection at Bouy 10 a few years back and found that brined herring outfished non-brined herring by more than 3 to 1. I think the real key was the anise scent more so than the salt and blueing. The salt and blueing kept the herring tough and shiny, but for some reason that anise scent seems to get them to strike.

These fish fell victom to 2 year old herring but they were brined and had some anise scent.

 
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