Here's one for the saltchuck's on the BB. I would like to hear from both moochers and trollers about their style of cut plugging.

I'm interested in things like how you make your knife cuts, how many and what size hooks, how the hooks are threaded and what kind of action you get with the different styles that you do.

Any Biters?

First fill a bucket with sea water and a hand full of rock salt. No more or you will have herring jerky. The salt will not only toughen the herring but help them last longer. Laying the herring down belly towards you, tail on your left side I cut behind the gill plate, knife close to 45 degree angle and blade straight up and down until you reach the spine. Then blade layed over and towards the tail for the rest of the cut. Always clean any remaining guts.
I use 3/o 4/o most of the time. The trailing hook I hook inside the cavity then out the side and let it dangle/trail. The front hook inside the cavity through the side and sink into the back near the dorsel. The perfect look to me is a herring that will swim and flop in a big slow circle. Looks like a wounded fish trying to swim.
Sometimes you need to readjust the front hook to get it to swim right even maybe leaving the front hook dangling as well.
Oh and the salt brine you can either cut em before you put them in or after but this brine will keep herring even into the next day most of the time.

To clarify...When you lay the blade over angle it at about 45 degrees (knife at 45 and blade now at 45) and cut back towards the tail through the spine and rest of herring.
One other plus the bucket of brine has....it's a really good detector of cuts on your hands. LOL.

I went and built a miter board for my filet knife to get the 45/45 cut dead on. I also use a different hook technique that and old salt taought me. I thread both hooks through the lower (most rearward) part of the cut and wrap the most forward hook over the back and insert it just behinhd the dorsal fin on the side. Then I take the most rearwrd hook and wrap it back over and stick it in the herring just opposite of hte other hook. I end up with a herring wwith 2 hooks sticking out of either side in the same spot. The old salt (who fished for many years in Puget Sound and also guided in Alaska predominately mooching) swore that this was the best technique. I have noticed that the strike to hook up ratio was better.

I use the pink folbe cutter on the chinook side and solid tie double hook set up.Hollow out gut's put the top hook which is a 5/0 through the toppart of the cut plug,and let the 4/0 trailer dangle 1 to 1.5 inches behind tail this is my trolling way of hooking up herring.I use rock salt brine on fresh herring and brine and bite on frozen. STRIKE ZONE

Interesting thread... I've found that there are about as many ways to cut and hook herring as there are fishermen. I use several depending upon how I want the bait to fish. I tend to prefer a cut leaning more to the perpendicular. I like about a 30 degree cut both vertically and horizontally because of where I fish and how I fish. More angle and the bait tends to pull off.

I will say that on a slow drift in slow water, the big, wide circle seems to be better for kings, but if I'm doing that, I'll cut a spinner instead. For plug cut herring, I like a tighter roll, and yes, this does catch a lot of kings.

For hook ups, I like to run both hooks through the shorter side in the upper corner of the bait all the way through. Then, if I'm fishing kings, I hook both hooks into the bait on the long side. If I'm fishing for blackmouth, I tend to let the tail hook fly. I feel like I get more hook-ups that way as smaller fish tend to be on the move, but kings are more deliberate.

Hook size depends on bait size. 2/0 and 1/0 are pretty standard unless I'm using larger bait at which point I will use 4s and 3s or 3s and 2s. For the quick-and-dirty charterboat hook-up. I would use the larger hooks. For winter fishing, I tend to fish 1/0 as the largest. The winter before last I used only #1 Gamakatsus.

The rock salt is a good idea, but lately I've been adding Alpo . I'm going to look into the Pro-Cure additives as the frozen bait I've seen around here is pretty poor quality, and the stuff I net is still too small.

Hi guys,

Thanks all for the replies.

Stlhead, I like that tip on the cut, keeping the bevel straight half way through the cut and then angle it at 45 the rest of the way through. I'm going to give that a try tomorrow...

Eric, your tip is similar to how I rig when I'm using 2 hooks and both are set in the fish. The difference being my hooks are offset about an inch or so from each other on opposite sides. But I'm going to give your method a try tomorrow too...

I do the 45/45 cut by hand and always clean out the cavity. With 1 hook it depends on the size of bait but the hook size is anywhere from a 1/0 to 5/0, usually a 3/0 threaded through the front of the cut just above and to the right of the spine and out the long side. Then threaded a second time into the long side even with the dorsal. Great action when the hook is matched to the size of the bait. Usually a nice looping roll with a little twitch or kick is what I get. If it isn't twitching I'll give it about 10 minutes in the water then and I'll do another. I really like the twitchers!

When I use a trailer I try to get the trailer hook shank even with the tail and the point just behind. I also use a chrome front hook and a black trailer. Really matches the herring colors well, you can hardly see the hooks at all in the water. When I use two hooks, I like smaller ones, like 1/0 and 2/0. Helps to keep the bait action lively.

When I run two rods, I rig one of each of the different hook setups. They both have a distinct action that is different. I usually get a tighter roll with two hooks.

Does anybody rig whole herring?

Hi Keith,

You're right about the different ways and the number of fisherman. But I've noticed that some cut-pluggers just do it better and consistently get fish when others around them do not. I've probably cut plugged 500 dozen herring over the years and am still looking at it as a learning process. I learned a couple of tricks from this thread.

If I want guaranteed success tomorrow I guess maybe I should stop off at Albertsons and get some Alpo for scent, whadya think?

Seacat;
I have a page from Ballard Bait that shows about 4 or 5 different ways to hook up herring. It includes that "spinner" referred to above.I will scan it and send it to any who may wish to see it. (it's in my tackle on the boat, so monday soonest!) Maybe someone can post it here.

We have been fishing Jeffhead with a mix of hootchies, herring and plugs, and will be back out tonight and hopefully this weekend!

Good Luck
Jeff "Fishguts"