Northwest Fishing Reports

I was at Outdoor Emporium yesterday and got a few things to get started in salmon fishing out on the sound.
The guy who was hooking me up with stuff was talking about how "You just don't want to use frozen herring"
I was a little surprised to hear this, being that frozen herring is sold everywhere. He explained that it turns to mush. He did explain how you soak it in a salt brine, and this firms it up.
But it was sort of implied that you could buy it in some other form than frozen...
These days with all the regs regarding no use of live bait.... I am wondering if you can buy and use live herring around the Seattle area anywhere. ( I realize that the live bait restriction is certainly a freshwater reg. but where does that leave salt water and live herring rules?)

So if you can buy it live, where so?

pt defiance sells you herring that are live.

And yes the fresher the bait the better.

You can use live bait for salmon...

There is the Possession Point bait shop that also serves up live herring.

They have a cool little operation going there. They release a bunch of coho smolt right in front of their beach and then they return a few years later and just stack up at the beach looking for some way to spawn. Obviously, there is none, so they just kinda hang out in front of the bait shop. Needless to say, now there are people who fish it and they buy the fresh herring, rig it up under a bobber and fish right off the shore there...

I know Buds bait house in edmonds has live herring but they shock it before they sell it to you.

The fresher the better is right. A brine is easy and cheap and you can really tell the diffrence. If you have plans to troll with hearring you dont want it to be live (it is legal though). You want a good cut plug hearring that rolls threw the water. But if the herring is live you will pretty much just drag it through the water. And they wont last long any way the way the doger throw them around. I have only used fresh herring a few times and it didnt make a huge diffrence. But I am very picky about the frozen herring I purchase. Sometimes going to a couple stores to find what I want, it makes a huge diffrence.

Frozen bait sold today is much better than just a few years ago. Ask how the fish are prepared before freezing. Make sure your supplier starves the herring prior to shocking and flash freezing them in vacuum packaging. Although I prefer fresh to frozen, sometimes I don’t have a choice. Learn how to rig frozen herring whole – it seems to last longer. I have caught countless salmon on herring without cut plugging them. If you are not a moocher and you fish for salmon other than the prime times I suggest using artifices. But, thats another topic for another time.

Im not sure the name of the lil grocery store at the Mukilteo launch but they did sell fresh herring for a long time.I live way south of there so I dont or havent checked recently.

Joes sporting goods also sells different baits. They are all around in Washington and Oregon. Also known as G.I. Joes.

In addiction to frozen herring do you cut the head or leave it on? Ive done both and had good luck both ways but obviously when I cut the head its doesnt last nearly as long when trolling

Rabbits wrote:Joes sporting goods also sells different baits. They are all around in Washington and Oregon. Also known as G.I. Joes.

Of course, but that is frozen herring.

we use frozen,black or purple label,but we always put them into a salt brine for the day.also we use the helments,so much easyier and better to curl the herring to get the right roll.and then you can also try anchovies.which is what salmon eat in the ocean.when we fish canada,bamfield,thats all you see being used there is anchovies.but a good salt bring will keep either one nice for the day

Don't forget the artificial herring. I know the guy that invented the Bait Buster, Mel, and they work just as well as herring, no joke. I love the cop car color, along with the modified green and glow. When I fish the ocean around Quatsino Sound, bait is very hard to come by, let alone quality bait. The Bait Buster is an amazing artificial immitation of a crippled herring and we've caught fish (my family and I) that have topped 40 pounds at Blue Dot with this lure. I would highly recommend it over trying to buy quality bait and then keeping that bait in good shape. If you are going for Kings it is one of the most productive lures available. I use it exclusively, rather than herring...plus you always know the bait is in good shape (doesn't have to be replaced, obviously, from a flasher tearing it apart). You can put as much bend in it as you desire and then fish it behind a green and glow flasher. It works very well for Kings and Coho salmon alike.

Bait Buster:

http://www.baitbuster.net/what_it_is.htm

http://www.baitbuster.net/BBhow_good.htm

Kutthroat i shot u a pm reply back when u get it

fishingmachine wrote:Kutthroat i shot u a pm reply back when u get it

Got it FishingMachine...reply sent back...

Another popular way of combining bait and an artificial is taking a strip of herring and sticking that on one of your hooks under your hootchie.
Making the strips are easy. It's just like filleting the herring. Make a 1-2 inch strip and then stick that on one of your hooks. Definitely helps...

Narrows Marina use to sell live herring. I don't know if they still do or not.

Easy Limits wrote:Narrows Marina use to sell live herring. I don't know if they still do or not.

Last I heard they still do. I'd have to call and check, though.

Years ago you could buy live herring at the Edmonds marina, last dock to the south. I'm not sure if they still sell it there. We also often used a dip net when out at Possession before fishing for salmon. We would just find a herring ball, drift up on it and net what we needed for the trip. That was a long time ago, not sure if that is still done these days.

I've always like herring but so many of the places I troll now are just full of dogfish and you can't keep em off if your using herring. Even trolling real fast for silvers...

Thats why I'm using artificial lures a lot more now. Almost always...

However up north, cut plug is what we always use in Sekiu, Alaska or Canada...