Catching herring?????

[mu fish]

i have never caught my own herring. can i get a little help on this please. and is keeping them alive for any extended period of time plausable. i am willing to do an extensive set up at home to keep them going. i keep shad alive last year for almost a month. can this be done with herring. when i ask for help catching herring im talking about locations, tecs., ect. the whole nine. txs.

[Bass Chaser's Charters]

I take them home from the river, About a 15 min drive and put them in my pool for early morning fresh bait. They seem to live fine for me. One thing I will tell you is they die from not the lack of oxygen but from there on output from there body's. Change the water or get ammonia lock. It neutralizes some of the toxic stuff they release.


Catch them is easy once you find them. Gold hooks were the way when i was young now it is sabki rigs.( remember only three hooks)
Location just south of the train bridge in trenton. or drift and cast until you find them. I have found large numbers that no one else where on like this. They seem to hold in this holes you find every year.


Jr
Bass Chaser's
www.delawareriverbass.com

[PeterT65]

Originally Posted by mu fish

i have never caught my own herring. can i get a little help on this please. and is keeping them alive for any extended period of time plausable. i am willing to do an extensive set up at home to keep them going. i keep shad alive last year for almost a month. can this be done with herring. when i ask for help catching herring im talking about locations, tecs., ect. the whole nine. txs.

[PeterT65]

Mu if you have a fish finder they are easy to find, you just troll around until you find a cloud of small dots on the fish finder, then anchor on top and jig down with some sabeki rigs with enough weight to keep you on the bottom. the fish finder allows you to find your own school away from all the other boats, and you can fill up pretty fast before the other boats move in. I use a medium action rig with 6 to 8 lb. test shimano 2000 to 2500.(they are my smallie rigs). they work fine.

[Bass Chaser's Charters]

Catching herring?
Well you jig up and down with a sabiki rig.
Best place to catch them I know is to pile up with all the boats and anchor below the train bridge at trenton. Don;t crowd people and don't blast in there with you boat then drop off the throttle and throw a hell wake. Set up and jig 2-4 ounces, remember on three hooks. They are everywhere come May.

[mu fish]

Thanks guys much apreciated may huh which are first shad or herring?

[Atomic Rooster]

Only three hooks? Here in NY we can have up to five on our rigs. I fish the upper Hudson River during the Spring spawning run. Early in the season we net our herring in the feeder creeks. Then jig them in the river near the mouths of the feeder creeks. Soon they are just about everywhere and we jig 'em right from our spot. I find that the herring will not hit a rig until daybreak. Defiantly; 2 - 3 oz. of weight so the rig is straight up in the water column w/ the weight bouncing off the bottom. Remove the darts near the top of the rig so you have hooks close to the bottom. I don't know if this really works or not but; bringing the rig to the surface every now and again; we believe, charges up the glow in the dark properties of the darts. They are hitting on sight so every little bit helps, especially when fishing not so pristine waters.

good luck this year

[Bass Chaser's Charters]

Shad normally, they stay around during herring season. Most do go north but you might even hook one on sabiki rig jig for herring same goes for stergons. I don't think they hit I think you lift them. They do go in feeder creeks for sure but to limit out on them find there holes where they stack up.

[Seds]

I'm not from that area but we use 4x4 scap nets and go to the first set of falls they can't swim past...but you can do it in the main river (for me the hudson) and sit at the mouth of any small, constant flow stream or runoff and catch them there in fewer numbers. We dock our boat for the striper season and I've seen everything from 55 gallon plast drums with holes drilled in it, couple of nice rocks inside it and one of those noodle things the kids use in the pools on the top edge to keep it floating, to extravagant 8'L x 6'H x 3'D built out of pvc with the plastic deer fencing wrapped around it and a door on the top, same thing with the noodle around the top edge, that is what we use, tie it off at the dock and lock the top door shut, I'll fill it with 200-250 fish by end april and they last about three or four weeks, depending on the water temp., Main thing is depth for that, keep them down in cooler water is essential. oh and don't by one of those stupid 36" scap nets they sell at gander mtn., the holes are too small, and you can't pull the net fast enough, If you want a good one shoot me a pm and we'll get one down to you.

[mu fish]

Suds I'm liking that idea ur demensions hold that many fish huh? 4 weeks? Nothing holds them longer?

[liposuctionguide]

I've yet to catch a skipjack in my castnet here in SEMO. Shad and goldeye are the only baitfish I've caught. Do they run in this part of the Miss? They catch them all the time with jigs at the dam at Kentucky lake.

[Seds]

Originally Posted by mu fish

Suds I'm liking that idea ur demensions hold that many fish huh? 4 weeks? Nothing holds them longer?

the later in the season it gets the harder it is to keep them alive. I find the deeper the cage, then better. If the cage isn't deep enough the surface temp gets too warm for them.

[freddie the j]

The above posts are all good as far as catching them, but you should also be aware that to keep them alive in a live well or bait tank, in addition to keeping the water clean, you cannot use a tank with square corners. They have a tendency to go into a corner and die for some reason. To counter this in my live well I took an old plastic barrel and cut a strip from it, then formed an oval and bolted the two ends together. Punched a lot of holes in it with a drill, and then put it in the live well. Has to be low enough so the top to the livewell closes, the holes are to allow a good flow of water. Since its oval, it prevents them from going into a corner and dying.
Good luck!

[Seds]

that is correct...mine are both oval, also if you do build a cage don't use that deer netting, it's very thin and herring are delicate they run alon it, bump into it (like the corners) and lose scales because of it, cause slow painful death, not like when we pull them out, jab a hook through their back and make em swim until some bigger fish comes and eats them...then we top it off with ripping the hook out of the back. Nice guys!!!