Brine herring or not

Hello all,

I was wondering if using a brine on herring makes a difference or not? I use frozen herring for bull trout and have never brined my herring and have caught many fish. I have heard a lot latley from other fisherman that I should soak them in salt and gun blue. I was told that it can make a big difference on the amount of fish caught. Does anyone have any input or suggestions about brining?

Thanks,

I was told it makes them tougher and last longer

Here we use herring for Springers and Fall fish.
I've had good luck with and without brining.

The brines were rock salt and water...they say to use river or distilled water.
And the commercial Brine-N-Brite by ProCure I think.
Mrs. Stewart's laundry bluing is used by some....never heard of gun bluing used on herring.

The brines do tighten up the scales, I believe.
You can also add scent to the brine.

I have found that using a brine, whether commercial (FireBrine or TightnBrite) or homemade (salt in water), gives the herring a brighter shine and firms them up.

I like to use fresh herring or anchovies. To make them last longer I use rock salt and ice in the bait box. I used to take the time on frozen bait to do the rock salt. Mrs Stewart's bluing, and powdered milk thing. It does give the bait a slight blue tint and firm up the fish. Just make it a point to never forget to clean out the bait box or you will be in for one smelly suprise!:yikes: Getting the bait infront of the fish is the most inportant thing.

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.

I always brine my herring for springers or fall run nooks, unless I'm too busy (then I'll just use raw plain herring). Lots of guys at Tillamook bay favor the raw baits. I've caught fish both ways, but don't have any catch per hour numbers to show for it.

Both work, but it feels good to prepare the brinned bait the night before.

Question for you, ck, where are you fishing for bulltrout and are you trolling with cut plug baits or some other method?


Best,

I am fishing lake billy chinnook for bulls. I like trolling cut plug herring the best but have also done well trolling j-plugs, and the brads cut plug lures with anchovie scent depending on the day. I was just wondering on the brine for info. I usually thaw my frozen herring in the cooler on the way to the lake. I do think I will try it because I have thawed some pretty soft herring in the past.

Gotcha ck,

What size herring do you use there? I like Blue or green label for nooks in the tidewater.

This is the recipe I use: http://www.salmonuniversity.com/ol_brining_herring.html

I scale the recipe down to prepare one gallon of brine though. It's enough to make 12-24 herring. I also use "ice cream" salt from Safeway (cheaper than other salt), and Costco bottled water.

Best luck!

I like the blue or green as well. Thankyou for the help!

Until Jan 1st of this year I owned a farm just south of Lake Billy. It was on the bench above on the Crooked River arm. We used to go up to the Metolius Arm and toss spinners for the bull trout. I used rooster tails a lot. Do you make it over to Lake Simtustus? If you do nothing else with the bait at least salt it with rock salt that should help firm it up.

I have fished the Metolius arm with buzz bombs for bull trout in the past. I normally only fish the lake by the dam from November-March and start on other lakes because of the crowds. I have not fished Simtustus, is the fishing good?

Lake Simtustus is a GEM. There is some BIG trout in there like Lake Billy. Lake S is smaller so I've always had better success. I like to go when it opens in April? So you don't have to go all that deep for the fish. I've seen some bows/browns/Dolly's all over 10lbs.

You'll get more trolling time out of your bait if you brine it. But what ever you do please don't use the gun blue. In fact kick the guy that recommended that in the junk. I don't know much about gun blue but I know enough to think it's a harsh chemical and with a quick search I found it contains Selenium which is poisonous. No need to put that kind of crap in our water let alone feed it to an endangered fish. The powdered milk, rock salt and Mrs Stewart's bluing work well. The Stewarts might not even be that great for our waters but sure is a far cry from gun blue.

I'm not going to use the gun blue at all. I think I will try the salt brine and mabe down the road try some scent in the brine. My mind told me the gun blue might be a bad idea so I called a few more people last night and they had never heard of it before.

I was just reading on the lake simtustus rv park web site that starting this January lake simtustus will be open all year for fishing.I might confirm this with odfw and start fishing it soon if it's true.

ckkoch09 said:

I was just reading on the lake simtustus rv park web site that starting this January lake simtustus will be open all year for fishing.I might confirm this with odfw and start fishing it soon if it's true.

Click to expand...

That's awesome! Keep me updated if you go out.. I didn't hit it last year and am still kicking myself.

Good luck,

Lake Simtustus is a fantastic place. Open all year that's good news. I used to fish it early in the season, but would also head back in September and October when I'd have the whole place to my self. Back in the 1990 they closed the ocean for salmon. I ended up mooring the boat up at Simtustus and having a great time. The best fishing is up past the Indian camp ground. You can drag a fly in the top water for the steelhead they put in there, toss spinners for kokes, or go deep for those big bows. The lake is narrow and deep good thing you have a boat. The speed limit in the fishing area is 10mph. Lets us know how it goes.