I've never had much success jigging for herring from the docks, so I was wondering if anyone could give any tips? I've used one of those herring jigs, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong, because I have yet to catch a single herring. All I seem to get is pogeys. Do herring hang out near the surface, down deep, or do you just have to find them?

Once I get some herring, what's the best way to keep them for future use? I fish from piers and use mainly bait, so it goes fast. So far I've been driving down to the boathouse at Pt. Defiance to buy fresh herring, but that gets to be a pain to drive all the way down there from Federal Way. If I'm not successful getting herring on my own, I figure I can buy a few dozen at once and cure them so they'll keep and toughen up a bit.

Like any other fish, you have to fish where the herring are. This means either chasing bait balls with a boat, or waiting for them to show up in spawning areas - Westport in March is where I usually get them. When you do get into them, mix up salt, water, and ice in a bucket and kill them in that. Keep them in the ice brine for a few hours (add salt and ice) until they start to get stiff, then lay them out on a cookie sheet, put them in the freezer for a couple of hours until they are hard, pack them in vacuum bags, and vacpac them. They need to be hard frozen before you apply vacuum or they will crush. If you never let them thaw out and get warm except right before you use them they will be the best baits you ever used.

Should they be brined before or after I plug cut them?

Ark, I think you need to starve them first.
I have tried use fresh caught Herring before but it never turned out right.

I personnaly hate the mess, all the scales.
Goto Ballard Bait and get the goods.

Starving them first is the ultimate way to freeze them whole, without starving they get soft real easy when thawed. I have had good success plug cutting them first and then freezing them, you can brine them in a solution of pickling salt and powdered milk when taking them out to use this will help keep them shiny and tough.

I never plug cut mine first anymore - tried it a couple of times and they simply don't work, probably because they lose that fresh scent and also because they crush when you vappac them and don't spin properly.

I should have made it more obvious that what I am preserving is SPAWNING herring. Like salmon or steelhead, spawners quit eating, likely because they can't as their belly cavity is too full of eggs and sperm and their stomach shrinks to compensate. Therefore they are already "starved". You all are right, freezing feeder herring or anchovies (which I've also tried) doesn't work as they belly burn, but freezing spawners certainly does. I've even got herring left from 2001 that I just thawed out and used down at B10, 3 hooked, 2 to the boat, 8 lb marked silver and 24 pound hen king. Yeah man, they work

Well, I don't have a vacpacker, so I will be freezing them in ziploc baggies lightly covered in the brine itself. Herring from the boathouse should probably be safe. I doubt they feed them when they have them stored in that enormous tank to sell. If I should get any fresh herring from the pier, I'll make sure and plug it before I brine it, then.

Has anyone ever used that Brine'n'Bite stuff from Pro-Cure? How does it work? I searched the archives, and someone said it dyed the fish blue, but the bag of it I saw didn't look like it had any coloring in it. I'll be dying the herring green anyway.