Sooke / whole Herring

[walleyes]

Was reading an article in Salmon and Steelhead mag about using whole herring instead of cut plug in areas with heavier tides.. I wonder if it would work well in the Sooke area ??? The author stated that he averaged much bigger fish with this system than with traditional tackle.. What do some of you guys in the area think and have you tried it ?? I would suspect a person may not get the numbers of fish but i wonder if you could average better size...

 

[Rum Buddies]

its worth a try, but most guys use anchovy as thats about the same size as most the bait in the area.

 

[Barbender]

3 years ago I gave this a try by the Trap Shack. Put a whole herring down with no flasher in a strong tide. Rod flew out of the holder and fish kept going. Never got a chance to see it as it spooled me. Only tried it one more time after that with no success. Will have to take another look this year.

 

[wolf]

You can and I know of a few people that do but with so little salmon around and time frame i go with what I know works and produces


Good luck Wolf

 

[Kramer]

Last year I fished almost exclusively with whole herring. I used the firecracker sized (I think red or orange label) and dry brined them in rock salt. Stuffed them into anchovy heads and they produced very well. Stayed on and held up a lot better than anchovies too. Never tried the larger herring because the little ones worked so well. Caught springs up to 42 lbs with them.

 

[wolf]

Well my brined anch will last almost a whole day because I have my own recipe that really really works and no I am not going to share it so dont ask LOL


Wolf

 

[walleyes]

I am not talking about running them in a holder but,, Oh natural,, with a cut plug rig...
I have fished a lot of species of fish over the years and it seems to be the more natural you can get the better it is,, but there are the exceptions to the rules..
Again I am not looking for the numbers but the size.. The last few years in Sooke during the Aug run the numbers have not been hard to pull in,, but I would like to try and get into some bigger fish... Just trying to throw some ideas out there and get some feed back...

 

[scott craven]

quote:Originally posted by wolf

Well my brined anch will last almost a whole day because I have my own recipe that really really works and no I am not going to share it so dont ask LOL


Wolf

hey wolf, what's your recipe ?

 

[Rum Buddies]

not another secret brine recipe [B)] - let me guess the main ingredient is salt.


As for the whole herring rig, how would you keep a bend in the herring without the hooks ripping out?

 

[wolf]

salt on the rim of the glass clamato, vodka celery stalk mmmmmm good
thats the beginning



Wolf

 

[Fishinnut]

I like to rig whole herring exclusively. It seems to always bring in the bigger fish. Got a 40 plus and a 30 using whole purple label lt Oct. I like the wider loop roll and not the bullet spin. Although the bullet spin is what they want on some days.

 

[walleyes]

According to the info given you would set you're hooks into the bait the same as you would into a cut plug setup.. Setting the lead hook through the lower jaw through to the top jaw,, the trail hook is set at different lengths from the lead depending on the amount of bend you want in the bait (i.e) the closer to the lead the less bend.. This of course set on a tied rig of about 4 inches between hook sets.. The idea is to present a natural looking bait that is more durable in heavy tides. The reason being you don't have a cut plug filling up and getting washed out from strong currents... Just makes sense to me "BUT" I am not familiar enough with the area to know what is the natural bait,, Herring or Anchovies..

 

[Fins -n- Skins]

Hey Wolf will that cost $300. for info ?? Or the price for a trip..

 

[Captain Dudds]

I have a friend who took a guided trip in the Charlottes, and his guide had been screwin around with whole herring set-ups; anyways, he had a decent way of doing it by shoving a toothpick up the herring's butt while its bent so it holds its shape, I can't remember the exact details but thats the jist of it. If your determined to get get a whole herring going without a teaser, its worth playing around with. I tried it briefly once, but its hard to keep down when you've got a perfectly good pack of anchovies that you know work great right there beside you.

 

[bent rod69]

I would think a small piece of wire would work, say it was attached to the hook some how?

 

[Captain Dudds]

ya I'd imagine a wire would work fine; however, it was not attached to the hooks or line, so I don't think you'd get your wire back. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure he had very long toothpicks that were a little thicker, which means they weren't actually toothpicks but the same sort of thing only bigger.

 

[Dogbreath]

There's a way to do whole Herring by threading the back hook through the nose and then wrapping the line around the body of the bait a couple of times then placing the back hook much the same as you would for a cut plug, this is with 2 singles .

The leading hook can then be placed either crosswise through the nose or directly up 'n down as a pulling point.

By tightening the line that's been wrapped you can put a bend in the body of the Herring quite easily.

Like anything else it takes a while to figure out but all kinds of spins are possible.

I've used it up north where bait is larger and it's worked well but still prefer a holder.

 

[totally tyee]

Dogbreath,

That rig you described works unreal!! but its a secret. SHHHHHHHH