What is your perfered method for catching herring?

Large 2 man net? (how big?)
dip net? what kind?
cast net? (what size how big)
rod and reel? what rig?
explosion? (what magnitude)
Gill net? (ugh)

use sabaki herring rigs?

Dip net. Its the only thing you can use at most runs. As far as what kid.... Anything that works.
Macojoe

In the runs, it needs to be a dip net or in some cases a two man seine with some serious restrictions...

Once in the bigger water away from the runs you can use a Sabiki rig and possibly, just maybe depending on state (and I can be totally wrong here) a cast net.

At one of the more popular runs in Mass, you can only use a dip net, and it has to be fine meshed (less than 1/4", I think) in order not to catch them by the gills.......

you can say middleboro steve...its ok;)

JJ....you only say that cause you've been shut out.....;)....

Just kidding.....my Dad isn't gettting back from Florida for another two weeks or so, so I am too!....:(

My 1st dip net was fine mesh and it was very slow moving thru the water, but worked OK. I would say get the largest mesh that the reg's allow but not so big that the herring will slip thru.

The reason I ask is that in talking with a few different guys out here...no two guys seem to use the same style net, some even make wire baskets around a crab net to keep the drag down.
I have caught a lot of bait but I have never scooped them out in a "run" before so this is new to me. Sorry for the novice question... (Thats why I am here...to learn from you guys stuff I don't know)
I also have to go back and get the regs...they sold me a permit and did not give me the rules. I walk in and look like I know what I am doing, but I am a newbe at herring stuff. :rolleyes: I have used the bait before but its usually frozen.

Originally posted by STEVE IN MASS
JJ....you only say that cause you've been shut out.....;)....

Just kidding.....my Dad isn't gettting back from Florida for another two weeks or so, so I am too!....:(

not true...non-res. permit #50...i'm thinking of putting it up for bid on ebay...whatdya think its worth:confused: ;)

believe me, middleboro is the worst kept secret in eastern mass...

JJ....my mistake.....:eek: :smash: ......I thought I read earlier in the year that you got shut out.......maybe that was the Thomas clan......:confused:

I'm sure shad is a relative of the herring family and there are shad artificials on the market. Does chunked or live-lined shad make a striper bait equal to what I've read about herring?

I don't think so,herring and menhaden have a much higher oil content than shad so they a much better to chunk with. But if in the summer if you have alot of shad like we do up here in certain ponds, they make very good live baits,and chum and chunk.

Hickory shad work live....absolutely they do

Naw, live lining shad don't work...unless you count the time I saw a guy live line about a 14" one off a bridge in Duxbury, and the result was seeing nothing but the tail sticking out of Mrs. moby striper's mouth....;) :D

I think that fish went some 40 odd pounds......

But live shad don't work.....;)

up till last year my biggest bass (29lbs) came on a livelined hick shad off the plymouth jetty...i lost a better fish the week earlier (on a shad) and my buddies best fish (26lbs) came from the same place on the same bait...but they don't work...;)

i'd still take a basket of live pogies any day though:(

how do you guys rig up a live bait?

if the state requires a person to use a dip net to catch herrings, but can it also allow any of us to use a rod, line, reel, and a sabaki rig? i don't want to use the dip net because it's a lot of hassle for me now. but i will until i get my own car. so is it possible for anyone to use a rod/reel and a sabaki rig?

another question, what is the difference between blue herrings and atlantic herrings? would either of them be used for chunking? i don't think it matters, right?

oh, herring runs. i have seen once in rockport. maybe it's not a run, i don't know. but i have seen them travel in the school and make a lot of sparking splashes on the water and caused me to think that it was a striper feeding on the top. and a tourist tried to tell me that they are herrings, but i didnt understand him. i am deaf, u know? then i realized that i was being an idiot. a school of herrings run in hot summer in rockport. you might see them once a week or two.

Notoro. See the little button that says search on it. Click on it then type in herring, or line or blue back or atlantic or what gear do you bring or where is the canal or can I swim the canal. There is a wealth of information under that button. Check it out;)

duke, it doesnt allow me to type a word bec it isn't there.

bec?

To catch Herring in the runs, I made up a net out of rabbit wire shaped like a cylinder. It works awesome. Learned it from an old timer.

Notaro

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a stick of TNT

A story on hickory shad from a amateur myself. About 2-3 years ago I was fishing the "soft side" of someplace in Charlestown, there didn't seem to be much bass action so I decided to gear down and play with shad. I caught a few and was just tossing them back, when one of the more colorful characters of the Charlestown 4x4 crowd asked me for my latest catch. It was about a 13"-14" Shad. He hooked it through the nose and cast it into the outflow and bam within 2-mins he had a beautiful bass. From that point on I learned to keep my shad......:)