I need a brine to toughen frozen herring for the upcoming blackmouth season

get a plastic tupperware container. put rock salt in there good amount with water. throw in your herring let them thaw. then pre plug them and keep them refrigerated cut plugged. I keep any where from 3-4 dozed pre plugged in the big container. then I have a little one that I use for the day I'm going fishing. use the same brine but add powdered milk to the one your gonna be using. do it the night before it keeps the flash. fresh herring plugged and thrown in brine is best

Mix whole herring in a tupperware filled with water. Mix in about 1 cup rock salt, one cup borax and one cup powdered milk and I think you will be pleasently surprised.

what does the borax do? does pwdered milk make the brine go bad thats why I dont keep it in the big container just the small one I'm going to use that day? Ben

I used the rocksalt recipe this last year and was quite successful. Of course, I think that anything, even bare hooks, worked this year.

We plug cut the herring while still a bit frozen, cleaned out the guts, rinsed, then added about 1/2 gallon of water to a 1 gallon jug and dropped in a cup of either rock slat or canning salt.

I always cut my bait the evening before.

Never tried the bluing, powdered milk, or borax cause mine seemed to work just fine. Maybe I'll try it this year.

280 salmon to the boat this year, so they must have liked something about the bait.

Using borax toughens the bait just like it does with egg skiens and also seems to brighten the hearing.!I sometimes just use borax solutions.

Powdered milk has lactic acid in it, I believe. I've used it w/ success in addition to the rock salt. The powdered milk either brightens it or firms up the plug cut herring. Works best on fresh. I've got some in the herring in the fridge that I prepped in June, still looks good and bright. There's probably a few Norwegians out there that would love to eat them.....