With the summer ocean salmon season about here (and the fall bay fishing soon after) an ifisher posted a herring thread. After it was mentioned that brining them in distilled water with rock salt, Stewart's bluing, and a little powdered milk (not fresh milk), a guy asked me what else I do for herring enhancement; and that got me off on one of my long rambles. For whatever it's worth to you here it is:

Mr. F, allow me to mention a couple suggestions before I answer your Q. If you can't get fresh herring, use a quality vacuum packed frozen product such as Ballard brand. And before you remove the frozen plastic immerse the pack in cool water for a few seconds first so as to remove the plastic wrap's adhesion to the herring; then poke a few small holes in it to slowly release the vacumm pressure before removing the bait - doing both of these things will keep the most scales intact for a better flashing herring. I also agree about using distilled water for the brine. Another recommnedation is to brine your herring or anchovies whole, because some of the natural scent and oil will dilute into the brine water if you plug cut them first. I only brine herring from 1 to 3 hours, depending on salinity, and not overnight. As for brine additives/attractants, most of the things commonly put in them have been mentioned above. There are some less common things you can try. One proven attractant is to add a few tablespoons of liquid vanilla extract to a rock salt based brine. Another is adding a very small amount, about a single rounded teaspoon, of Spice Islands white garlic powder stirred in very thoroughtly before putting in your bait (this is one of the purest yet strongest of the garlic powders, so use it sparingly; and it mixes into water much better than garlic oils). Some add other bait oils to brines but in my opinion that wastes quit a bit of the expensive stuff because it doesn't mix very well in saltwater (not at all in plain water). Better to inject a small amount directly into the herring before dunking it in the ocean. Be sure to slightly dull the needles on syringes, or even a Gilly injector bottle, so you reduce the depth you stick the thing into your hand . A very good oil to to inject directly into herring or anchovies is Pro-Cure squid oil. Salmon just love it! And you can inject more of it into the herring than I would inject strong smelling sardine oil - which can be productive in small amounts - thus leaving a bigger oil 'slick' attractant trailing the bait. A quality herring oil (Pro-Cure or Mike's, etc.) can be good to inject also; either by itself or in combo with the other oils. As with colors Chinooks seem to like scents in combos - such as the tried and true eggs and shrimp river combo - and the scent of sodium. So I make a custom oil for injecting into herring, approximately as follows: 10 T. squid oil, 10 T. herring oil, 2 T. sardine oil, 1/2 t. sodium sulfite, and 1/2 t. MSG. ... However, I recommend not getting too carried away with the injected oils or WD40, at least at first. Sometimes the salmon prefer just plain herring. I do recommend either lightly spraying your hooks, line, and rigging with WD40 or wipe them off with an anise soaked paper towell before baiting up. If you have 4 rods out, fish 2 with plain herring and 2 with brined herring (have plenty of both along). If you are in an area that hookups are occuring and getting your share or better then don't fix what doesn't need it. And assuming you are reasonably dialed into the proper rigging, depths, bait sizes/actions, and trolling speed, which often takes awhile to attain, and are not getting your share of hookups I would then spray 2 of them with WD40 and inject the oil combo into the other 2 (lightly at first and then go ahead and juice it up real good). If there are biting salmon around it won't take you long to dial into what they are most in the mood for. ... Here's another trick attractant/bite stimulator I have come up with - using home made flickers (keep in mind what Marty mentioned about chartreuse color). Buy some sheets of stick on lure tape in chartreuse, flame red, and chrome prism. After washing the oils out of your hands, press together 2 sheets of chartreuse then stick together one of red to one of chrome prism. Now cut small torpedo shaped pieces approximately an 1 1/4" by 1/3". After rigging your herring on the hooks poke one end of the 'flicker' onto the lower trailing hook. This will flicker around as the herring rolls - and sometimes not very well but still is a great attractor/stimulator with the added color near the tail end of the bait, and both colors work well. (BTW, these 'flickers' are a good thing to add to the hook after baiting up with sandshrimp and/or eggs for backbouncing in rivers with). Feesh on!

RT

Can someone post when the various ocean seasons are? I don't have the regulations right now. Thanks.
Frog

[ 10-24-2001: Message edited by: Frogwater ]

frog,

Area 1 (Ilwaco)-July 1 opener Sun-Thurs. 2 fish, 1 chinook

Area 2 (Westport)-July 1 opener Sun-Thurs 2 fish, 1 chinook

Area 3 La Push, Area 4 Neah Bay, and Area 5 Sekiu/Pillar Point all open July 1. 2 fish, 1 chinook.

Bouy 10 area of the Columbia - Aug. 1 opener. 2 fish, 1 chinook.

You're on your own for the rest of the marine area regs, you can find them at: http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/

[ 06-18-2001: Message edited by: Dan S. ]