Processing self-caught Herring for quality Salmon bait.

[Buckethead905]

Hey guys, I have a few questions and perhaps ideas I wanted to bounce off the knowledgable members here.

As easy as it is to buy herring from the store, there is just something about catching your own bait with hopes of landing your fish of a life time. Heck, it's just fun to catch herring!

Catching and processing Herring for Halibut bait would seem to be a non-issue, they may flop around and lose the odd scale, but with relative care can be vacuum-packed in groups and fished when thawed.

What are the steps to take when processing your bait that will yield the highest quality product for mooching? I would assume scale retention and belly burn to be the leading issues that us sporties are faced with. I have read that commercially harvested Herring are kept alive for a few days so their bellies are empty, or in other cases, killed by electricity. Unfortunately I'm a little weary of electricity and the old lady would kick me out if she found Herring in the bathtub.

Since the two former ideas are out the window, my understanding through some reading would be to have an ice bath/brine for the fish to go directly into. The solution would work two-fold in that the extremely salty and subzero temps, along with any additives (powdered milk), would kill the Herring quite fast and set the scales. Upon arriving home the bait could then be individually frozen and packaged for later use, subject to needing additional brining time before being mooched or tossed on your hook. So here is my next question... Would it be frowned upon to group your Herring into similar sized groups, make your compound cuts, remove the guts, and perhaps place in your favourite heavily salted liquid brine for a few days? At this point you could rig up multiple mooching leaders based on your size of pre-cut baits (one less step when out on the water). After the brine, the said pre-cut Herring would have the scales set, firm flesh, and no chance of belly burn from the entrails. From this point, vacuum seal your individually frozen, pre-cut, pre-brined baits. When it is time to use them, simply open your packages of bait and place back into a liquid brine of your choice until it is time to throw them on your pre-tied leaders?? The only one issue I can foresee would perhaps be freezer-burn inside the bellies? Could be a total non-issue but a thought nonetheless.

Any input or ideas in addition to would be great.

Cheers,

Buckethead.

 

[TheBigGuy]

I have no real experience with how well your idea would work. All I can say is that the fattier the fish the faster it freezer burns. Brined fish will freezer burn even faster. So if you take a fatty fish like a herring and cut plug it unless you have a commercial grade vac sealer I'd think it will freezer burn fairly fast. If you do have a skookum vac sealer that totally removes all the air, I'd imagine that might squish and deform the bait so much that it wouldn't be in great shape when thawed. Maybe others can comment.

Good luck.

 

[profisher]

I don't mooch but have caught lots of herring over the years for both halibut bait and for trolling. I see nothing wrong with making the mitre cut and removing the entrails before freezing. So long as you are vacuum packing which eliminates much of the likelyhood of freezer burn. I freeze mine until they turn hard and then vacuum pack. This prevents them being squished flat by the vacuum packing process. You may have to make a fresh cut once thawed but that is a better scenerio than leaving the guts in and having the bellies blow out quickly.
As far as killing them, I like to keep them alive as long as possible until I can get them in the freezer. I just let them die from lack of oxygen and tray them right away making sure they are flat and straight. I have a chamber sealer so I use 5mil bags which keep the bait in good shape for a couple of years if needed.

 

[leaseman]

For what it is worth.....
I helped my BIL a few times with his commercial license and the way he did them was after catching the herring, he would put them into a live well (or pen in ocean) until their stomachs were empty, then brine them quite heavily and set up his seasons worth ......

 

[RiverBoy]

I scooped up a herring bait ball that the birds were working hard. put them on cookie trays and spritzed them with water. They " flash froze." Then I vacuum sealed them on old herring trays with my crappy food saver. Works well.

This also works well with salmon btw. Freeze it first real quick, then vacuum seal it. Bit of a pain because of an extra step and near impossible if you did well and have lots of salmon to process, but vacuum sealing a frozen fillet leaves zero air pockets and no moisture issues with your sealer.

 

[BarryA]

My idea is to fill a 5 gal bucket with sea water and a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol or something that will accelerate death but not leave a scent, drop bait in straight from the net then wait for all bait to die and then add ice to firm them up for ride home. I would hold off on the ice so it doesn't freak out the bait or rub off their scales. Then lay bait on cookie sheets and freeze then vac seal.

Haven't tried this but want to.

-Barry

 

[Bordeau]

I read an article that suggests to cut them in filets and cover them with salt to make them tough. The author specifically says not to add any water, just salt. When you guys talk about a brine solution, what is it exactly?

 

[leaseman]

I read an article that suggests to cut them in filets and cover them with salt to make them tough. The author specifically says not to add any water, just salt. When you guys talk about a brine solution, what is it exactly?

Straight salt......

 

[crab bait]

I have jigged a bunch during the herring spawn a couple of times. This is what worked well for me;

A large white fish cooler (1/3 full) with lots of ice (4 or 5 store bagsof cubes), salt water (5 gallon bucket+) and a box + of table salt. Stir it up.

When you jig the herring, don't touch them, just grab the jig hook and shake them straight into the cooler. The bait hit the slurry, swim 4 inches and stop. The cold seems to paralyzes them, and they don't thrash and lose scales.

I left them in this mix overnight, then sorted out the nice cut plug ones, and froze them flat on wax paper covered cookie trays (when the wife was out of the house). After they were frozen flat, I ziplocked 8-10 per bag. Half of them were too big to cut plug (maybe not in River's Inlet, but around here anyway). Some went to my old Danish neighbor for pickling, some went straight into ziplocks for Hali bait (10 per bag).

The flat froze ones kept all their scales, and were pretty tough when thawed. I cut them before the days fishing and put them in a brine the night before.

Take the kids herring jigging, it's a blast. **Damn jig hooks are like razors when unhooking, a pair of needle nose pliers in a sheath on your belt will save your fingers, and you won't have to handle the herring (Keeps the scales on!). **