Anchovy vs Herring

[Bait&Sea]

Fishing mainly around Vancouver and East Vancouver Island, Ive always done well using the small herring. I get the impression from reports many use anchovy as bait, although I thought we mainly have herring as natural baitfish around Vancouver vs anchovy. Matching the Hatch rule would lean towards herring no?

 

[trophywife]

i find it is more about matching bait size , not type.

 

[Whole in the Water]

Many I think have wondered the same thing, including myself, but for many years anchovy have been the bait of choice around SVI. You can't argue with it's success rate.

 

[Fishin'Zinn]

I never understood why people use chovies... Although I have and it works. I will always, time and again, prefer to use herring. Cut plug (done right), there is something about it just so effective vs almost everything!

 

[Bait&Sea]

I think herring has more shine as well...

 

[walleyes]

I never understood why people use chovies... Although I have and it works. I will always, time and again, prefer to use herring. Cut plug (done right), there is something about it just so effective vs almost everything!

The thing is you can't always troll a cut plug in all areas.. There are many areas where the tides are just to strong to run a cut plug you would be blowing the bellies out of them every few minutes. Your better off to have something in the water rather than a shredded mangled bait. Match the hatch is right,, the smallest Anchovies you can find and put in a holder properly to match needle fish as best we can is ones best bet for many South Island areas.

 

[getbent]

When I first started fishing salt we use to mooch with live herring (don't touch the rod till the tip hits the water) was the command I heard from 15 years old and on. When we weren't mooching we trolled herring strip.
Then all of a sudden it seemed (I took a few years off in my twentys) it was all chovie. I know we had the collapse of the herring fishery but even still, there they were.
With that said, caught one of my biggest springs on a herring rammed into a krippled chovie head, barely got the nose in and pinned, man what a roll and flash, you could see it from 50 feet.
There was an article in a recent issue of BC Outdoors about cutting strip, I still have some heads and a ton of herring vac packed, makes a guy want to give it a go again. Worked like a hot damn in the late 70's and early 80's.

 

[Aces]

I think they go for the anchovies when they are even almost full as it's just a snack instead of a meal?

 

[Dogbreath]

I think herring has more shine as well...

And they take a shine better too.

 

[Sharphooks]

Sometimes I'm left thinking that the hot gear is whatever everyone else ISN'T using. I've seen this many times with steelhead (everyone is fishing small stuff, you come in with something BIG and it happens immediately.....or the other way around

Two summers ago I came into a spot in Q.C. Sound that is heavily fished by guides. There were at least a dozen boats there, all seasoned guides who knew the drill, and every last one of them was dragging multiple lines per each boat rigged with the latest and greatest fancy UV flasher and anchovies that were rigged the way they're supposed to be.

I snuck into the daisy chain of boats not expecting too much----middle of a tide, and one of the guides who I know mentioned that things had been "super slow"

I dropped a plug cut into the water---no flasher, no dodger, just two hooks and a herring---immediate tyee, as in within a couple of minutes of getting the herring wet. Great fighting fish, took me awhile to get it into the boat. Gave it the wood shampoo, snuck back in to the daisy chain of guides, dropped another plug cut into the water, boom, another big spring, almost immediately like the first one.

This spot is very localized-- as in maybe a 35 square meter of activity---no doubt those springs I hooked had seen the other boat's gear...

All I could think of at the time: I just came into a world of digits and I was the lone thumb who got two rides....

And the flip side---if everyone had been fishing plug cuts, the guy showing up with anchovy would have done the same damage... who knows

 

[walleyes]

Sometimes I'm left thinking that the hot gear is whatever everyone else ISN'T using. I've seen this many times with steelhead (everyone is fishing small stuff, you come in with something BIG and it happens immediately.....or the other way around

Two summers ago I came into a spot in Q.C. Sound that is heavily fished by guides. There were at least a dozen boats there, all seasoned guides who knew the drill, and every last one of them was dragging multiple lines per each boat rigged with the latest and greatest fancy UV flasher and anchovies that were rigged the way they're supposed to be.

I snuck into the daisy chain of boats not expecting too much----middle of a tide, and one of the guides who I know mentioned that things had been "super slow"

I dropped a plug cut into the water---no flasher, no dodger, just two hooks and a herring---immediate tyee, as in within a couple of minutes of getting the herring wet. Great fighting fish, took me awhile to get it into the boat. Gave it the wood shampoo, snuck back in to the daisy chain of guides, dropped another plug cut into the water, boom, another big spring, almost immediately like the first one.

This spot is very localized-- as in maybe a 35 square meter of activity---no doubt those springs I hooked had seen the other boat's gear...

All I could think of at the time: I just came into a world of digits and I was the lone thumb who got two rides....

And the flip side---if everyone had been fishing plug cuts, the guy showing up with anchovy would have done the same damage... who knows

I wouldn't argue with this logic one bit..

Nice little write up..

 

[profisher]

An anchovy that is starved down prior to being killed and packaged has a much more streamlined shape which is easier to work with and get the fishy roll. I can make an anchovy do what i want for a roll much easier than I can with a herring. (trolling) With some herring you have to accept that the roll you aren't really happy with is as good as you are going to get it and sink it down. You also have to be more careful handling herring to avoid knocking off all their scales while rigging them up. Anchovy are tougher and sardines even tougher again.

 

[Bait&Sea]

I agree about scales, they come off very easily. Some scales even missing right out of the package at times

 

[bee15]

idoubt fish think of snack they will cram in whatever and all they canlike 2 or 3 large herring at a time

 

[Old Seadog]

An anchovy that is starved down prior to being killed and packaged has a much more streamlined shape which is easier to work with and get the fishy roll. I can make an anchovy do what i want for a roll much easier than I can with a herring. (trolling) With some herring you have to accept that the roll you aren't really happy with is as good as you are going to get it and sink it down. You also have to be more careful handling herring to avoid knocking off all their scales while rigging them up. Anchovy are tougher and sardines even tougher again.

I have used herring, they look good and work fine. But I just like Anchovy, "Yes" I fine them easer to use and get that Roll that you want.... Just my 2 cents.

 

[TanTastic84]

For me, I really like the size of the anchovy. In the Puget Sound, our herring tend to be smaller and running a 3-4 inch skinny anchovy is what I like to do. Granted, I tend to fish more "toys" than bait but when I run bait, I run chovies in a helmet after brining them up really nice and tough.

The other problem we run into during our fishing season is the dog fish. They tend to get thick in the summer and really have a negative impact on our bait supply. Once I start hooking into dog fish, I switch away from bait. Cant afford losing it all! Unless my nephew's on board after watching shark week.