Post by: Widgeon11 on April 06, 2025, 05:46:19 PM
Post by: Sundance on April 06, 2025, 05:49:40 PM
Post by: Angry Perch on April 07, 2025, 08:15:46 AM
Help!
Post by: CP on April 07, 2025, 08:34:34 AM
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.
:twocents:
Post by: Feathernfurr on April 07, 2025, 09:02:34 AM
Post by: Sundance on April 07, 2025, 09:42:34 AM
Post by: metlhead on April 07, 2025, 10:32:23 AM
Post by: Angry Perch on April 07, 2025, 10:38:09 AM
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.
Post by: Feathernfurr on April 07, 2025, 10:39:43 AM
Post by: Sundance on April 07, 2025, 02:55:03 PM
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.
Post by: Kola16 on April 07, 2025, 04:20:43 PM
Post by: Jake Dogfish on April 07, 2025, 04:31:35 PM
Post by: bigdub257 on April 07, 2025, 06:46:53 PM
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.
Post by: pd on April 07, 2025, 08:43:44 PM
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.)
Post by: BigGoonTuna on April 11, 2025, 04:14:00 AM
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 :chuckle:
Post by: Encore 280 on April 11, 2025, 08:38:58 AM