Jigging Herring

[Brian Reiber]

Looking for some help from any of you who have experience jigging their own herring. I went to French Creek yesterday as I had heard of some recent successes jigging for herring off the breakwater. Unfortunately it was slow and I only caught one. That was actually pretty good as most got none. However, everyone I spoke to said that it was pretty hot the day before. So I did some digging through the fisheries notices and there have been test sets indicating 5000 ton off Porlier a couple of days ago. Porlier is fairly close to us so if I wanted to go try again today it is 6 and 1/2 dozen whether I drive to French Creek or launch the boat and run out to Porlier. My question to you who have fished herring before is just how easy would it be to isolate the beaches that the herring have chosen to spawn on? Obviously looking for seal, sea lion, and bird activity is a good starting point but there are a lot of bays on Valdez and Galiano. I'm just wondering if it would be an expensive hunt for a needle in a haystack vs going back to French Creek which has a confirmed spawn this year.

Thanks for any tips and before anyone states the obvious.........yes I know that it would be cheaper to go buy my own herring for bait. That isn't the point. I may end up buying my bait but for now it is fun, I have time on my hands, and I find the whole process of learning new things quite enjoyable.

Cheers,
Brian

 

[ExFlyGuy]

Also interested in this around French creek area! I was planning on taking my boys either this afternoon or tomorrow to try our hand from shore.

 

[Cuba Libre]

Bit late boys, unless you can find a later spawn. Gave it a shot two weeks ago-- but the fish we found were in 300ft or more. Not within reach. Last week bud and myself found fish in the shallows on the east coast of Denman Is. Jigged up 60 ( all we need for hali) fairly quickly. Since they were for bait, we brined and blued them before putting them in the freezer.

 

[Brian Reiber]

Early this week was great at FC. My son and his buddy and I went down on Wed. night and had a great time...fun and smiles , great comradery was had by all.

It truly is about timing when fishing from shore, when they are in on the area that you are, they are extremely simple fish to catch.

Pic's and clips from our excursion.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9nSINvhPZI/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9nTdcNBFe6/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9nT9avBQyC/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9nXLhuB1UP/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9nbK6ZBjX3/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9nb6oDBgGU/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ncikKhwje/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ndhFehmeU/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9nfWHgB61Y/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ngcAJBRqk/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9niGhKBGWT/

Right on. Good job. Looks like fun. I tried Thursday night and tonight in French Creek and also in Nanaimo tonight. No luck. Maybe next year.