Herring gurus out there?

 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's picture

Posts: 17835

Date Joined: 11/03/08

 Same thing happens with

Sat, 2020-04-18 20:06

 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

Posts: 660

Date Joined: 28/11/16

Yes limit is 12 

Sat, 2020-04-18 21:02

Yes limit is 12 

timboon's picture

Posts: 2924

Date Joined: 14/11/10

 No you are right the bag

Sat, 2020-04-18 20:11

 No you are right the bag limit is 12.

 

 

Pescatore70's picture

Posts: 183

Date Joined: 03/12/19

 Almost seems like yesterday

Sun, 2020-04-19 07:23

 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's picture

Posts: 2924

Date Joined: 14/11/10

 Yep certainly does. Bag

Sun, 2020-04-19 09:41

 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's picture

Posts: 1519

Date Joined: 27/11/09

20 herring per bag would have

Sun, 2020-04-19 09:49

20 herring per bag would have been a better outcome imo

____________________________________________________________________________

OFW 11

evil flourishes when good men do nothing

 

Da pirate's picture

Posts: 1511

Date Joined: 03/05/15

Bag limits are a hard one ?

Sun, 2020-04-19 09:51

Bit confused Boony ?? Couple dozen and

they all had roe ?  

timboon's picture

Posts: 2924

Date Joined: 14/11/10

 Not sure what your question

Sun, 2020-04-19 09:56

 Not sure what your question is Pirate...

timboon's picture

Posts: 2924

Date Joined: 14/11/10

 Doesn't seem like anyone can

Sun, 2020-04-19 09:57

 Doesn't seem like anyone can answer the original questions...

 

Where are the boys?

 

A month early this year?

Faulkner Family's picture

Posts: 17835

Date Joined: 11/03/08

 Have a read of my first

Sun, 2020-04-19 12:49

 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's picture

Posts: 1252

Date Joined: 30/05/12

 Roe- Coat it with

Sun, 2020-04-19 12:14

 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's picture

Posts: 2924

Date Joined: 14/11/10

 I will do Moking, there was

Sun, 2020-04-19 12:42

 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's picture

Posts: 2924

Date Joined: 14/11/10

 While i'm not discounting

Sun, 2020-04-19 12:59

 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...

Posts: 51

Date Joined: 16/09/17

Herring gurus out there

Sun, 2020-04-19 14:14

 They catch plenty of herring around Rotnest Island, is that not of shore, cheers Don.

Brock O's picture

Posts: 3160

Date Joined: 11/01/08

(No subject)

Sun, 2020-04-19 14:30

timboon's picture

Posts: 2924

Date Joined: 14/11/10

 Cheers Brock, Good reading

Sun, 2020-04-19 14:59

 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's picture

Posts: 17835

Date Joined: 11/03/08

 No I didn't mean open ocean

Sun, 2020-04-19 15:15

 No I didn't mean open ocean . 

____________________________________________________________________________

RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together

timboon's picture

Posts: 2924

Date Joined: 14/11/10

 What depths would you guess

Sun, 2020-04-19 18:39

 What depths would you guess the boys would be in Russ?

 

 

Daniel Westerduin's picture

Posts: 417

Date Joined: 30/10/06

 I'm an anchor and berley

Sun, 2020-04-19 20:56

 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's picture

Posts: 8622

Date Joined: 24/07/07

Blue Mackkeral

Mon, 2020-04-20 06:56

 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's picture

Posts: 2924

Date Joined: 14/11/10

 Interesting stuff Cheers

Mon, 2020-04-20 07:12

 Interesting stuff Cheers fellas.

 

I have seen mackerel out wide.

 

Mackerel, pilchards ( mulies ), anchovies etc etc but never herring.

Posts: 149

Date Joined: 13/05/16

herring

Mon, 2020-04-20 19:24

 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's picture

Posts: 183

Date Joined: 03/12/19

 Great post.W things if add

Tue, 2020-04-21 16:50

 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's picture

Posts: 248

Date Joined: 29/11/11

I'm just south nof Bunbury

Tue, 2020-04-21 10:01

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's picture

Posts: 499

Date Joined: 09/03/12

Got Herring in 37 metres

Tue, 2020-04-21 14:17

 Got them a couple of times on a patch in 37 metres off Ocean Reef...they are not always there though