I have used herring jigs that have 8-10 small hooks with little pieces of paper or plastic wings that are very effiective. I tie a 1-2 oz weight on the bottom of the jig set and cast out into the balls or thick herring schools and come up with 4-6 Herring per cast. They attack it...you're not snagging them. You can catch a days worth of bait in 5-10 minutes. They have the sets at Outdoor Emporium wound on cards for around $5. Sure makes a diffence fishing fresh herring.....it's Coho candy!