Herring anyone?

[Widgeon11]

Curious if anyone has been out jigging for herring lately? Feel like the spawn should be on…

[Sundance]

I went for a morning in February, it was hard to find them and stay on them. We caught a couple pounds is all, need to get out there again to restock the bait supply.

[Angry Perch]

I really want to learn to catch herring. I have a an abundance of Sabiki rigs and a complete lack of knowledge.
Help!

[CP]

I really want to learn to catch herring. I have a an abundance of Sabiki rigs and a complete lack of knowledge.
Help!

Pretty easy once you find the herring.   Just slowly drift your rig into the school, slowly work it up and down.  When you feel the tap, tap, tap … don’t react (let more take the lures) … keep it slow or still until the taps increase in frequency (multiple fish on), then smoothly bring it in. 

 Slowly and smoothly are the key.  Jerk the jig and will lose fish.  React too quickly and you will catch one or two, or no herring.
 

[Feathernfurr]

Is salt herring popular here?

[Sundance]

We only fish them for bait, but on a good day we can catch 2-3 gallons in a 20 minutes. I've never worried about exceeding the 10lbs per person per day, what we catch on a good day lasts us months for the bait supply.

[metlhead]

As a kid we would dip net them off the marina docks in west Oly. Winter time? Not sure if one can still do it. Easy to get a year supply

[Angry Perch]

We only fish them for bait, but on a good day we can catch 2-3 gallons in a 20 minutes. I've never worried about exceeding the 10lbs per person per day, what we catch on a good day lasts us months for the bait supply.

Any details to get me started? I usually keep Sabiki rigged up and give it ago when I mark a lot of bait, but no success as of yet. I'm in MA6 out of Sequim if that matters.

[Feathernfurr]

Pretty interesting stuff. Never thought to fish for them. Just remember my grandmother salt brining them and then frying them up for breakfast. No way it was healthy but man was it good.

[Sundance]

We only fish them for bait, but on a good day we can catch 2-3 gallons in a 20 minutes. I've never worried about exceeding the 10lbs per person per day, what we catch on a good day lasts us months for the bait supply.

Any details to get me started? I usually keep Sabiki rigged up and give it ago when I mark a lot of bait, but no success as of yet. I'm in MA6 out of Sequim if that matters.

I have Sabiki rigs I bought off amazon, #6 hooks. I put a 4-6oz ball on the bottom and look for bait that's 20-40' deep from the bottom up, usually on the same shelfs where I salmon fish. I try to hold the boat over the top of the bait and drop down to the bottom, then reel up a few cranks. I then just hold the rod still and you feel them hitting. After 15-30 seconds reel up at a consistent pace then raise the whole thing into the boat, it's about 5' tall with the hooks and weight. When we get on a big ball at slack tide i have both kids set up and I can barely keep up with removing herring to get them back in the water, we've loaded up small buckets doing this.

This is usually done once we limit on our target catch and are just going for bonus bait. At home I pack a dozen in a vacuum bag and seal it up and in the freezer, $20 worth of Sabiki rigs has caught me hundreds of dollars of bait if I'd bought it from the store. I sort the bait by size when I'm freezing, we fish whole brined herring for salmon, lings, rocks, and buts. I know you can catch them all with lures, spoons and plastics, but the kids like catching the bait and I enjoy fishing natural bait.

[Kola16]

There's a handful of good videos on YouTube of how to do it.

[Jake Dogfish]

If you do this often, you can get a pole that the line goes inside.  Then you can reel in all the rigs and put it away with no mess.

[bigdub257]

If you do this often, you can get a pole that the line goes inside.  Then you can reel in all the rigs and put it away with no mess.

Just looked those up.  Brilliant idea!  Thanks for posting.

[pd]

I have Sabiki rigs I bought off amazon, #6 hooks. I put a 4-6oz ball on the bottom and look for bait that's 20-40' deep from the bottom up, usually on the same shelfs where I salmon fish. I try to hold the boat over the top of the bait and drop down to the bottom, then reel up a few cranks. I then just hold the rod still and you feel them hitting. After 15-30 seconds reel up at a consistent pace then raise the whole thing into the boat, it's about 5' tall with the hooks and weight. When we get on a big ball at slack tide i have both kids set up and I can barely keep up with removing herring to get them back in the water, we've loaded up small buckets doing this.

This is usually done once we limit on our target catch and are just going for bonus bait. At home I pack a dozen in a vacuum bag and seal it up and in the freezer, $20 worth of Sabiki rigs has caught me hundreds of dollars of bait if I'd bought it from the store. I sort the bait by size when I'm freezing, we fish whole brined herring for salmon, lings, rocks, and buts. I know you can catch them all with lures, spoons and plastics, but the kids like catching the bait and I enjoy fishing natural bait.

Bait fish?!?!  You guys are barbarians.  Herring, fresh from the boat are delicious.

I need to get me a boat and do this myself.  (I have have original Sabiki sets that are probably 30 years old.)

[BigGoonTuna]

I've only tried jigging for them a couple times, and did pretty well around the mouth of the Nisqually.  There can be massive schools of them out there.

Although I'd only used them for bait in the past, I've got a renewed interest since I've discovered that picked herring are delicious and might want to try my hand at doing it at home, since the good stuff is $10 a pint at Haggen's