Frozen Herring - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

Duke41 · 05-28-2002, 03:06 PM

I was at Sandy Point over the weekend drifting frozen herring chunks on a hook with a fishinfinder and about 10 oz of lead to get it in the bottom. I saw fish on the finder and watch a couple of guys reel in fish after fish using live herring. I got 1 fish. Some one told me you have to debone the herring and cut a strip in the tail so it looks real. I kinda doubt this. The question is, did I miss something is there a proven method of fishing with frozen herring?

bloocrab · 05-28-2002, 03:58 PM

...I've never heard of "deboning" bait...

...Duke....YA JUST CAN'T BEAT LIVE BAIT!!.....

.....if I'm fishing a current/rip...I'll hook the frozen/thawed herring thru the nose (whole), drift them out and twitch them from time to time... Reason -1 - to try and add some life to them, and possibly entice the Predators into striking...-2- to keep it off the bottom from my uncle spidey...

someone showed me another trick too....put some slices in the rear half to "liven" your offering up abit... (I've inserted a mouse-pic)....

....If I'm chunking Herring, I chum the waters I plan on fishing....very small chum bits...and my bait doesn't end up being too much bigger than the chummed pieces...

......but the best thing, of course.......is LIVE BAIT!!

JohnR · 05-29-2002, 01:26 PM

Duke - there was an article in last months SWS that had someone cutting off the dorsal to provide better motion to dead baits and another idea was to partially filett from the back to the front on each side so that large flaps of meat would be hanging off the sides....

Saltheart · 05-30-2002, 06:41 PM

I'm assuming its fresh frozen or just forget it this time of year. A great trick is something i call helicopter herring. Cut the herring with one long diagonal cut from just behind the head to the blow hole. Hook them and cast out. As they sink , the odd shape (one end a head or tail and the other end to a point) makes the bait spiral down spinning (helicopter). This pecular action attracts fish.

Of course I seldom chuck bait but its not really bait ch#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g if you use a clever trick like this.