The Ultimate Herring Thread

[bassmaster]

Your wrecking Me
U make me mental with those things
Ya killin Me

[bassmaster]

i cant take it no more

[Mr. Kav]

i guess i will add my two cents in on this. last year i had quite a bit of good luck with the herring that were schooled up off squantum yacht club on Wallaston beach. There were thousands of them and with those sabaki rigs it made so easy to catch them in good shape. i have a live well on the boat and a hook up through the mouth and out the nostril with a 50 # leader and a barrel swivel is all i used to land fish. i am not a big fan of allot of terminal tackle so i try and keep it simple.

[Mr. Kav]

Yes Mike, I have tried circles and now use them as well. those gamakatsu hooks sure are sharp, I swear by them chunking for tuna. This year I am plannning on running a couple of herring from my new homemade downriggers. I took a window sash weight and welded a nut to the end of it. then i took a downrigger release clip and secured to the nut. I tied rope to the end and I have the rope marked off with knots at certain lengths and that will allow me to lower the weight to the desired depth. I tested it out at the end of last year. I was worried that the release clip was going to stick when a fish hit it but it worked great. I can't wait to see what is waiting around this big boulder i know of in about 50-60ft near one of my favorite spots. I know there is a big fish lurking around the vicinity.

[Fishpart]

I've only had the opportunity to liveline buckeyes once and let me tell you it was fun. It was tough there for a while, John and Clamdigger bailing fish and I couldn't buy a bump I started getting hits I was throwing them out there live and dead and havin a good ol' time.

I like the olive Mambo Minnow with the nice gold belly and big eyyes.

[Fishpart]

I'm hoping to paint a couple of metal lipped swimmers with the left over paint from my car and throwing a little olive paint on the back.

[jettyjockey18]

slipknot...my buddy left me a voicemail yesterday...said he stopped down to the run and there wer at least 20 cars parked at wareham street for "opening day"...is it may yet

[JohnR]

Got Herring? Got Hook? Got Sturdy Reel? Got Bass? Got Drag?


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZIIINNNNNNG GGGG!!!!!

[JohnR]

I'm big on circle hooks with cut bait but jury is still out for me on live bait like eels, macs, & buckies

One thing I picked up last year that really help keep my herring alive was to put that ammo-carb ammonia pellets in the livewell. The water quality stayed good for much longer and little to no die-offs in the tank overnight...

[JohnR]

GB - the keepalive infusor might be the best out there, there are a couple models to choose from...

They won't significantly heat up the water, not a bad idea to use ice in a bag to keep the water cool though. The ammonia chips can be found at most pet stores/aquarium shops. It is specifically used for keeping the ammonia level down if fish tanks but works wonders in livewells...

[JohnR]

Hush about the Olive Mambo Minnow !!!


All I can say was there was not one to be found in the town of Warwick and it's immediate surroundings during the month of May and early June ...

[JohnR]

They were gone because I bought them! I worked up a nice little trick for a particular spot, the water was so skinny they couldn't dive so they danced on the surface like tarpon & blues. It's pretty amazing seeing 20# bass spending more time out of the water than in but it was rough on the Mambos

[JohnR]

most are back now - I have to finnish restoring some older parts of the site...

[mikecc]

GB
we do have the Keep Alive systems in stock along with all the chemicals , Infusors,Super Filters & Regulators.

http://www.capecodtackle.com/Merchan...de=Specials+42

[nightfighter]

How about an ultimate terminal tackle/knots and leader thread?

[redcrbbr]

this will be my first year using live herring. mike thank-you for an incredible amount of info. heck till recently i thought a herring was a herring. last year i went out a grabbed some and iced them. when i was done, i took em home and vacum packed em. they lasted me quite a while, and had good results chunking them.

[Saltheart]

Scotch , you need a pump. Either you need to keep oxygenating the water in the tank or you need to keep pumping in new fresh water as they do on many boat livewells. Just a big tank with no way to airate the water will not keep them live at all.

I have a Keep Alive system. It works great. A little ice now and then to keep the water cool. The keep Alive pump pumps the air down rather than the water up. It airates better and a battery lasts a lot longer. This year I want to try the ammonia tablets.

[SeaWolf]

but, herring don't catch fish...

now, barnicles on the other hand, they are killer on bass! a few of them on a gold hook, ohh, man!

[Slipknot]

I hooked a herring in the nose and cast it out and caught a striper once. Wasn't too difficult. I've drifted in a boat while dropping a herring down with a rubber core sinker on the line and caught bass that way too. Herring are very fragile bait, and are pressured too much lately in my opinion.

I plan to toss plugs and rubba this year and stand next to BM and catch fish while he tosses out herring til he can't take it anymore. I still have some in the freezer I can use for chum.

Lots of info here Mike, nice post.

[Slipknot]

Before I hit the sack tonight ,I'll pop in the video and listen for the "I've died and gone to heaven" comment.

The color I would guess if it was morning would be yellow because of the low angle of the sun may cause it to sillohette more than other colors. I don't know could be pink or white for all I know. But I will look at the video to see.

I have a bunch of Habs poppers, good stuff.

You are right , there is alot of excitement to see a bass clobber a live herring with reckless abandon.

[Slipknot]

You lucky dog you Mike!
Enjoy yourself down there and catch a fish for us will you.

I think it's great that alot of conservation is being done to help the herring populations It's just that with so many more people fishing for stripers it is getting harder to get them, the lines are long and so forth.
I love yellow too. I watched the video and noticed the popper looked like an off-white pale color on film, hard to tell on a small tv. John and Ron sure know how to fish.

I love that big herring fly!

Hey GBOUTDOORS, you got a live well on the boat of yours? well in May fill it up and head over to Quicks and drop a few down and see what happens

[Slipknot]

I had to get this back to the first page.
yesterday was the first day you could scoop herring in Middleboro.
Won't be much longer now till we need a livewell

[Slipknot]

JJ, alot of folks freeve them for bait later or chum
Also believe it or not some people eat them

March 27th is the last Wednesday of the month and usually the first day they allow taking herring. You won't see any live wells anytime soon. But I know bassmaster wants to do some kind of mad trip to Montauk and bring along a gazillion live herring, since I have 2- 55 gal. live wells and he has 2 also.

I was there today testing pikes and tuning them. Lots of herring coming up the shoot.

[TheSpecialist]

GB, Saltheart, the amonia remover I used with my saltwater tanks can be bought at a pet store. The brand is Aquaclear, the stuff is ammocarb, it is in a mesh bag. Remove the bag from the box, and rinse it under running cool water for a minute to remove the fine dust, then drop it in the tank. Another thing we used to use was a stress remover. It was great for the fish when adding them to the tank. It would add to the protective slime on the fish, I am going to use it this year wuth the herring.

[Striper1]

I get my Herring from around docks and from open water.
I don't get any herring from the runs or close to freshwater.

SB If you look for them you can get them all summer long around here anyway.

This text file has some good info on river Herring and spawning.

I hope this works

Bloo I would also like to know the regs. for taken Herring in "open water"

[Tattoo]

Here's another tip;

Poke out one eye with the hook. This makes the guy swim in circles.....giving Mr. Striper an easy ambush.

[Fish_Eye]

Now that the herring are amongst us...why don't we start the ultimate herring thread.

I'll get the ball rolling with some pictures and a few questions along the way.

Perhaps we can share some of our experiences with these chrome-plated, bass candies and help educate some of the newcomers to the exciting world of live-lining.

We might even discuss alternatives for those who prefer to imitate alewives by way of lures, plugs, spoons, or flies.

Here's a look at these little beauties in all their splendor:



Notice how prominent the eyes are.
Do you think lures with big eyes are a plus?



These were fresh out of the water and the photo was taken at first light.
What color lures or flies do you like to use when the herring are running? Do you change these colors at different times of the day or night?

Note the large spot and the gold flecks on the pearl colored scales.


Let's make this the most informative post we can.

[Fish_Eye]

FACTS ABOUT HERRING

These migrating fish have provided a bountiful source of food to humans, first Native Americans and then to European settlers, for centuries. The alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) has many, many common names - branch, blear-eyed, big-eyed, wall-eyed, freshwater, glut, gray, or spring herring; the golden or green shad; the bang, ellwife, gaspereau, grayback, kiak, kiack, kyak, mulhaden, racer, sawbelly, seth, skipjack, and spreau. The fact that it has so many names attests to its importance to people along the Atlantic coast from South Carolina to Newfoundland. Seabirds such as gulls, herons, hawks and cormorants as well as larger fish, especially striped bass and bluefish, also forage aggressively on alewives.

The alewife is difficult to distinguish from its close relative the blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) when sighted in the water. The alewife, however, arrives earlier in the spring and migrates much further up river to breed in headwater ponds while the bluebacks arrive later and breed in the river current.

They spend their adult lives at sea and return only to freshwater areas to spawn in the spring. Both alewife and blueback herring are silvery in color and have a series of scutes (modified scales that are spiny and keeled) along their belly; however, the dorsal area of alewife are bronze in color whereas blueback herring are deep bluish green. Alewife are more strongly compressed, deep, their body is less elongated and they have a much larger eye than blueback herring. However, the most distinguishing characteristic of these species is the color of their peritoneum or the lining of the abdominal cavity. An alewife's peritoneum is pale with dusky spots, whereas a blueback herring's is black to dusky in color. Alewife and blueback herring are so difficult to distinguish from each other, in most instances, they are collectively termed "river herring".

Alewife spawn in rivers and tributaries from northeastern Newfoundland to South Carolina, but are most abundant in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern states. Blueback herring spawn from Nova Scotia to northern Florida, but are most numerous in warmer waters from Chesapeake Bay south. In the mid-Atlantic region, both alewife and blueback herring are found in Chesapeake Bay and in virtually all its' tributaries. Alewife spawn from late February through April, whereas blueback herring spawn from late March through mid-May. Females from both species usually reach 100% maturity by age 5 and produce from 60,000 - 103,000 eggs, whereas males of both species generally mature at an earlier age (ages 3-4) and smaller size than females.
Alewife spawn in a diversity of habitats that includes large rivers, small streams, ponds, and large lakes over a wide range of substrates such as gravel, sand, detritus, and submerged vegetation. In areas where alewife and blueback herring co-exist, blueback herring will exhibit more of a variety in their spawning sites including shallow areas covered with vegetation, in ricefields, in swampy areas, and in small tributaries upstream from the tidal zone. Mature river herring broadcast their eggs and sperm simultaneously into the water and over the substrate. Immediately after spawning, adults migrate rapidly downstream. Juveniles will remain in freshwater nursery areas in spring and summer, feeding mainly on zooplankton. As water temperatures decline in the fall, most juveniles move downstream to more saline waters, eventually to the sea; however, some will remain in deeper waters of the Bay and its tributaries for their first winter. Little information is available on the life history of subadult and adult river herring after they emigrate to the sea as juveniles, and before they mature and return to freshwater to spawn. Various studies have determined that river herring are capable of migrating long distance (over 1200 miles) in ocean waters of the Atlantic seaboard, and that patterns of river herring migration may be similar to those of American shad.

Adults overwinter at sea in the George's Bank, Gulf of Maine or Nantucket Shoals. Alewives can live at least 10 years.

In 1931, over 25 million pounds of river herring were harvested making ranking them 2nd in quantity and 5th in value of all Chesapeake finfish, and 1st in quantity and 4th in value of all finfish landed in Maryland.

Maximum length of a river herring is approximately 15 inches.

Alewife and blueback herring, like other alosine species (American shad and hickory shad) lay down spawning marks on their scales so that the number of times an individual fish has spawned in its lifetime is recorded on it's scale. Blueback herring (age 10) have been seen with as many as 5 and/or 6 spawning marks!

Despite the many thousands of eggs laid by spawning alewife, very few offspring actually survive. In some populations, as few as three young-of-the-year fish migrate downstream for each female that spawned.

[Fish_Eye]

HERE IS A LOOK AT ONE OF THE MANY "BUCKIE" RUNS IN RI

When early spring comes to Narragansett Bay and the shad bushes bloom, the alewives arrive and move up the small tributary streams to spawn. The thick-bodied herring, called "buckies" by some Rhode Islanders, used to be accompanied by big, female shad laden with roe, but in recent years the shad are less numerous. The water temperature has to be about 58° F for the alewives to move in from the sea. Although the size of the herring runs fluctuate, there are still good locations for them, such as Gilbert Stuart Brook, at the head of the Pettaquamscutt River in North Kingstown; Buckle Brook in Warwick; and the Palmer River in Barrington.

Gilbert Stuart Birthplace & Museum


815 Gilbert Stuart Road
saunderstown, Rhode Island

You probably have an example of America's most famous 18th century portrait painter in your wallet! He painted the image of George Washington that has appeared on the one dollar bill for over a 100 years.

When they open the flood gates next to the old snuff mill, the water gushes down this stream and encourages the herring to push upstream.




The runoff from Carr Pond funnels through this "Alaskan Steep Pass" fish ladder. When a herring exits the funnel, they break an electronic beam and are counted. Last year over 300,000 herring made this journey.



The water flows into the Mettatuset stream and eventually into the Narrow River. http://www.narrowriver.org/



The mouth of the Narrow River in Narragansett, RI is among the very best spots to fish for trophy stripers in the state.

As of yesterday there were no less than 50 herring waiting to be netted. Make sure you have a RI freshwater license and you abide by the limit of 24 herring in any one day. There is no taking of herring on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Mike

[Fish_Eye]

How do you like to rig your herring?

What's the most imortant factor in keeping them alive?

How do you keep your herring stash fresh & frisky?