Herring lures

 I sold my boat about a year ago and have switched to land based fishing. I've had some success catching whiting and flathead off the beach at Silver Sands with ZX lures,                                           all small fish but lots of fun with lures and light spin gear. Soft plastic minnows work great also and the last couple of days I've caught a few herring on them.                                                           Problem is, the bloody blowies snip the tails off soft plastics and I have to constantly replace them on the jig head, so i think I'll give up on that idea.

 Can i have a few suggestions please, for light lures for herring off the beach? I know they bite on just about anything when they're really hungry                                                                               but what works best, casts well and doesnt get damaged by blowies?   


Bradmac73's picture

Posts: 201

Date Joined: 22/03/17

almost anything

Tue, 2024-02-13 11:31

 

I've found just about anythung works on herring.  As a kid it was always the piece of green straw on a hook!  The smallest halco twisties are my fav, but small minnows also work well in my experience. 

Browndog's picture

Posts: 582

Date Joined: 10/04/12

+ 1 Green Straw

Tue, 2024-02-13 18:12

Green straw for me, on the troll we normally run one long shank hook with some green straw on the shank off one side, and a small gold twisty off the other.

Green straw always outfishes the twisty. Always.

Cheers,

BD.

Posts: 311

Date Joined: 03/08/19

Keep it simple

Tue, 2024-02-13 19:47

 As everyone says, simplegreen straw  over a longshank works as well or better. I play around with trollling tiny minnows (50-70mm) etc and herring love them, but if I want a few quickly then green straw or twisty for casting. If you are landbased and casting, then I've found using a smaller plastic blob, size 1 rr 2 to a swivel, then 1-1.2m 10lb trace casts OK and works well. Can troll that as well. If you want to get fancy then I have substituted the green strawn after the blob with a saltwater fly. Works well but can attract tailor and  may end in a bite off.

Jackfrost80's picture

Posts: 8141

Date Joined: 07/05/12

Good cheaper lures are the

Wed, 2024-02-14 12:18

Good cheaper lures are the Berkley range and they smash the Scumdog which is a surface walker and the Popdog is also a herring favourite and casts a bit further. I prefer surface lures due to excitement factor in watching them get smashed.

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Officially off the Pies bandwagon

Faulkner Family's picture

Posts: 18026

Date Joined: 11/03/08

I used similar set up to

Wed, 2024-02-14 13:02

I used similar set up to reefsta but instead of straw on a lot of occasions a wall plug weather it be red, green or white with a long shank hook or a jag hook . With the wall plugs you could adjust how much of the hook got exposed. Can't get them now but the old hj straws were the killer

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RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together

Da pirate's picture

Posts: 1561

Date Joined: 03/05/15

Halco .

Wed, 2024-02-14 21:11

I use little halco metals . Seem too stay connected 

more with a treble.. but burley and piece of prawn

just bait holders are fine ! Good luck 

cheers pirate 

 

Posts: 75

Date Joined: 26/11/12

 Casts well, good for

Thu, 2024-02-15 08:27

 Casts well, good for herring, and not damaged by blowies: 5-15g metals, also larger herring will hit 8-10cm xraps/similar lures.

Of course, you can also catch herring on 150mm surface lures (so the fish is similar in size to the lure), but it's definitely more of a challenge.

Posts: 345

Date Joined: 04/01/12

Thanks all

Fri, 2024-02-16 15:05

 Thank You for the replies. Some good suggestions to look at. 

Pete F's picture

Posts: 310

Date Joined: 07/01/18

I have been killing it lately

Fri, 2024-02-16 17:04

I have been killing it lately on herring and dart with the 'CID iron candy couta casting 25g' they have a great hookup and not so many of those lost fish on the retrieve. Herring are great at throwing a lure on the retrieve. Extra long casting to, good for passing bonito schools. I am using the pilchard colour. 

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 Cheers