|
Get a permit and go. You will be able to get herring. If you don't get a permit, and decide to go, and then not be able to get any because you don't have a permit, well then you'll be even more bummed than sitting there waiting with all the grumps. The "adventure" and "experience" of fishing the Bourndale herring run is just that, an "adventure" and an "experience". You get a permit, get there early and wait (realize there are 2 catching "periods" during "open" days). It has been my experience that good things come to those that wait. If you want to catch a fish at the herring run, you gotta just realize that
1) Theres going to be a crowd
2) You may have to wait in a long line to get your alotment.
3) You may have to wait in a long line in line to get any herring at all (you might not even get any) or you might only get 5 or 6 (depends on how many are there, how many guys show up).
4) Even if you do get herring, you might not get a striper.
5) If you get herring, and fish them during a hard running tide,
you may (or may not) catch anything.
6) Stripers at the herring run "turn on" at slack tide. So, do you want to fish the ones you have during a "running tide" or do you want to wait to fish slack?
7) Realize that there may be 100 guys fishing around the run, and there might be 20 fish caught. Not everyone catches fish
there every time they go (some guys do though).
8) Fishing at the herring run is an "experience".
Get there early in the morning. Leave at midnight if you have to. There may be no parking spaces (thats how many persons go there).
9) Just as many persons go there to "watch" , ride bikes, hike and picknick. It is a "recreational area". If you go there on a Saturday afternoon, you will not find a parking space.
10), You will get tangled up in another persons (or 2 or 3) line. Often.
11) Go there on a weekday morning, real early. There will still be a crowd, but it will not be like a "weekend" crowd.
12) If you get 1 dozen live fish, even under the best circumstances, you will have put all that effort into geting them to fish for about an hour or so. (rotate your fish. Fish one for a cast, take it off and put another one on, in "rotation". If you just fish one fish until it "expires" you might get 3 or 4 "drifts" out of it until
it expires. If you fish them "in rotation", you might get 5 or 6 casts out of them until they croak. Hook them some where so they don't die on the first cast. Livelined herring don't last to long after they have been casted out a couple times. Stripers want a nice "lively" one most of the time. Your "live herring" will last longer and stay alive longer when fished during a "slack tide". It wont have to swim against the strong current at that point in time, and won't exhaust itself as quickly.
13) Save any dead ones, move to an area where no one else is fishing (hop in your car and go to the parking lot at the railroad bridge). find a rip, chum and fish chunks.
14) The warden will "punch your card" (permit), and that does it for your alotment for the day.
15) Your chances of catching a big fish are slim. The guys that get them fish the "prime" rips at the "prime" time. So, if you go, for the first time, and want to fish a "running tide"you won't know where the "prime" rips are (unless you know where the telephone pole numbers are that have the "productive" rips). And if you do know, then most likely, someone will already be "guarding" or fishing at that spot.
16) The fish will usually hit best "far out", Ya you can sometimes get them in close, but most of the time, they are "out there". Just don't cast your herring to hard or it will go flying off the hook and you will be "down" one herring.
17) You don't have to worry about "fishing a rip" during slack tide.
18) When the current is runnung hard, the whole canal is one big "rip". Some spots "rip" harder than others.
Have fun
|