Disolve as much borax as you can into enough water to cover your hearing.I like to warm the water on the stove if I have time and let it cool before adding herring.I would keep my bait in this solution on ice while fishing.If I ended up with enough left over to make it worth my time I would vacuum pack them with my sealameal when I got home and then freeze them untill next weekend or whatever.When you pack them spread them out so that they do not touch.The big trick is to NOT LET THEM GET WARM.If they get warm you will find the belly flaps blow out when plug cut and trolled.They are not as good as fresh or the flash frozen but they were still fishable.You can play with the brine by adding salt,scents etc.You will find that borax acts like powdered milk and brightens the bait up and toughens them up with out the shrinkage that I have expierinced with salt brines.I have forgoten them in the boat for a spell and when found they would not smell anything like herring in a regular brine or left in the package.alot fresher.

I can not even find herring over here in b-town right now so you are going to want to get and hold onto everything you can!

good luck

P.S river rat is what my fishing buddys nick named my fishing buggy.It is a 84 subaru wagon 4 wheel drive.They are always amazed the spots that it could get into so they nick named the river rat.