Herring gurus out there?
Submitted by timboon on Sat, 2020-04-18 19:46
Crew,
The big bull Herring are now in down in the SW and plenty around at the moment.
Caught a couple of dozen today and noticed every fish was full of Roe.
Does that mean its only the females that are here at the moment?
Seems like an obvious question/answer if they are full of Roe but if it is only the ladies here then where are the boys?
Also it seems to me they might be a month early with their spawning from previous years so i assume thats a Leeuwin current thing.
Is there anyone here that can shed some light on the above?
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18026
Date Joined: 11/03/08
Same thing happens with
Same thing happens with other species around the world. The females will gather for their spawning when the conditions are right . The males tend to stay off shore during this process.
Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the limit of herring only 12 or was that just metro
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
SeperateKnob
Posts: 668
Date Joined: 28/11/16
Yes limit is 12
Yes limit is 12
timboon
Posts: 2957
Date Joined: 14/11/10
No you are right the bag
No you are right the bag limit is 12.
Pescatore70
Posts: 183
Date Joined: 03/12/19
Almost seems like yesterday
Almost seems like yesterday you'd see some old timer filling up a 20ltr white bucket with them....every session.
Now we have a limit of 12
timboon
Posts: 2957
Date Joined: 14/11/10
Yep certainly does. Bag
Yep certainly does.
Bag limits are a hard one.
A bloke in a 7m boat that gets out weekly will have spots dialed in where he can get his 2 x Dhu every trip ( virtually ) yet the bloke that goes out in his 3.7m tinny 3 times a year when he can score the conditions has the same bag. I'm certainly not suggesting bag limits should be boat dependat but you could pehaps have a different method for dimersals anyway.
I understand you have to make rules for the old bloke that fills his white bucket 3 times a week etc but seems like a bit out of whack.
hezzy
Posts: 1521
Date Joined: 27/11/09
20 herring per bag would have
20 herring per bag would have been a better outcome imo
OFW 11
evil flourishes when good men do nothing
Da pirate
Posts: 1561
Date Joined: 03/05/15
Bag limits are a hard one ?
Bit confused Boony ?? Couple dozen and
they all had roe ?
timboon
Posts: 2957
Date Joined: 14/11/10
Not sure what your question
Not sure what your question is Pirate...
timboon
Posts: 2957
Date Joined: 14/11/10
Doesn't seem like anyone can
Doesn't seem like anyone can answer the original questions...
Where are the boys?
A month early this year?
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18026
Date Joined: 11/03/08
Have a read of my first
Have a read of my first comment. The boys hang back and come in after. Timing comes down to the conditions like moon phase and water temps
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
Moking
Posts: 1252
Date Joined: 30/05/12
Roe- Coat it with
Roe- Coat it with flour/salt/pepper and cook it in a hot Pan with butter.
Try it.....
My Dad taught me how to Fish-Thanks Dad.(RIP)
timboon
Posts: 2957
Date Joined: 14/11/10
I will do Moking, there was
I will do Moking, there was certainly enough for a decent entre...
The batch that was cleaned yesterday will hopefully turn into some Pink fillets after this week of shit weather...
timboon
Posts: 2957
Date Joined: 14/11/10
While i'm not discounting
While i'm not discounting that as a possibility Russ I'd like to know a little more about this..
I've never seen a herring "offshore" , I've never heard of a herring being caught "offshore"....
Perhaps there is not many males required to service the gals?
Apparently each lady Herring produces 100,000 egss...
I might go and catch another couple of dozen and look for a bloke...
donnyboat
Posts: 51
Date Joined: 16/09/17
Herring gurus out there
They catch plenty of herring around Rotnest Island, is that not of shore, cheers Don.
Brock O
Posts: 3224
Date Joined: 11/01/08
(No subject)
timboon
Posts: 2957
Date Joined: 14/11/10
Cheers Brock, Good reading
Cheers Brock, Good reading but again a little vague. Doesn't mention the boys.
Don nope i'd call Rottnest an island and I'd personally call "offshore" open ocean waters with no protection from predators.
I wouldn't think too many folk would burley up between Perth n Rotto casting blobs with a straw hoping for a feed of Hezza, that being offshore.
When Russ states that his guess is that they move Offshore while the females remain Inshore I assume he's talking about open ocean well away from land in deeper waters which i've never heard of previously.
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18026
Date Joined: 11/03/08
No I didn't mean open ocean
No I didn't mean open ocean .
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
timboon
Posts: 2957
Date Joined: 14/11/10
What depths would you guess
What depths would you guess the boys would be in Russ?
Daniel Westerduin
Posts: 429
Date Joined: 30/10/06
I'm an anchor and berley
I'm an anchor and berley type fisherman and frequently get Herring in 40m+ in the Metro area and down Albany have caught them in 70m+. I assume they could be in 70m and more Metro too. Another Species I haven't seen in close to shore in big numbers is the Slimy Blue Mackerel. Well I fished in a mates boat drift fishing the other day and saw big schools of baitfish between 100m of water and also again in 130m and they were in both locations on the bottom. Slimy Blue Mackerel. I got a couple on a jig (A big jig for big fish) and my mate scored a couple jagged on his big bait hook.
carnarvonite
Posts: 8667
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Blue Mackkeral
The slimy blue mackeral and the one you buy for craybait are one and the same fish, caught mid ocean all the way round the world. Most of the stuff bought here comes from Sanfords freezer plants in Auckland NZ. When bring our boat over from NZ we passed on of their trawlers workin 600nm offshore so would expect they only spend a very short time of their lives close inshore.
timboon
Posts: 2957
Date Joined: 14/11/10
Interesting stuff Cheers
Interesting stuff Cheers fellas.
I have seen mackerel out wide.
Mackerel, pilchards ( mulies ), anchovies etc etc but never herring.
piscetor
Posts: 185
Date Joined: 13/05/16
herring
You got to remember boys, they are not herring but tommy ruffs related to our australian salom. They make good snapper bait. we used to net them off of safety bay the crayfisher men used them as craybait. thats when they used to have cray boats in safety bay before all the sand moved in. where the pond is now was 15 foot of water full of cobbler and occy. Sold them for smoke money and to pay going to the pictures.The original jetty at safety bay was a great place to catch herring ( bull herring ) and by the bucket full. Theres a lot of history to our small section of coast line with some huge changes as to how it looks now.
By offshore he probably means in a boat. Coventy reef is offshore and you get shit loads there.
Filletmaster
Pescatore70
Posts: 183
Date Joined: 03/12/19
Great post.W things if add
Great post.
W things if add is
Firstly, They are a top shelf cray bait and far better than most other things rec crayfishermen use.
And with the ridiculously small bag limit I'd be more inclined to buy a few cray pots and spend my off season catching herring to use in them.
davmor
Posts: 248
Date Joined: 29/11/11
I'm just south nof Bunbury
I'm just south of Bunbury and last week a lot of the herring where milky and the females just starting to show signs of roe. This week, no milk but all the bigger fish had roe. I'm thinking maybe they are schooling as per thier sex and will come together at just the right time ( like a bachelor and spinsters ball )
Belly Fish
Posts: 499
Date Joined: 09/03/12
Got Herring in 37 metres
Got them a couple of times on a patch in 37 metres off Ocean Reef...they are not always there though