Moderator: donal domeney
. Pretty much useless as anything else in my books. I was thinking as much. I'll chance them on a second rod for dogs and congers. Got a few feathering for mackerel bait so i thought I might as well try themSlackLiner wrote:Great cheap conger bait and rubby dubby filler
Cheers.
Cheers for that tangleratTanglerat wrote:Used to use fresh herring chunks as bait for Thornies over in the Thames estuary. Some fantastic results on it.
Would you reckon you would have had any success on that session with thawed Herring or is it beyond usefulness when frozen ?
Nice one Albyalby wrote:Was fishing a competition in cork before and was having limited success on lug, mac & eel, switched to tipping with herring and stsrted burying big whiting in 2's & 3's while those around me struggled!
Interesting that the Whiting were taking it, I might not give up on it just yet.....
Couldn't agree more, its a major prey item and we see lots of them in cod and pollock - the only issue being using it successfully as bait. Its very soft unless totally fresh and other baits are much more user friendly, and more readily available. That said if a few fresh ones where to come on the boat they'd be going straight down again!robbiekennedy wrote:i work on a commercial boat and ill tell you everything that swims would be stuffed with herring especially cod hake and the big whiting i know the shoals of herring come close to shore on the south east coast in november and december also good whiting be there too my theory is they follow them for feed so maybe that time of year would be a time to use it as bait
Thats interesting Robbie, Thanks for that. I think I'll keep my few Herring for the Winter so to target cod Whiting and maybe Bass at close rangerobbiekennedy wrote:i work on a commercial boat and ill tell you everything that swims would be stuffed with herring especially cod hake and the big whiting i know the shoals of herring come close to shore on the south east coast in november and december also good whiting be there too my theory is they follow them for feed so maybe that time of year would be a time to use it as bait
Rampent Wreckfish wrote:Herring is an excellent bait. The only reason it does not get used more is that is is not as versatile as mac because of its softer flesh. Lots of oil and lots of scent, it will catch plenty of fish.
Due to the softer flesh, I think I'll be using them for close range or dinghy work . The only time I ever used before was at a rock mark which has deep water at my feet so losing the bait during casting was not an issue. As far as I remember, a ballan took a Herring/lug cocktail that evening, memory not being my strongest attribute 
!Rampent Wreckfish wrote:Herring is an excellent bait. The only reason it does not get used more is that is is not as versatile as mac because of its softer flesh. Lots of oil and lots of scent, it will catch plenty of fish.