What do herring feed on in the wild?

 Just wanting to know what do herring prey or feed on so i can match the hatch with lures. thanks

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 Dream fish to catch:

Giant herring.

Cobia.


Auslobster's picture

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Date Joined: 03/05/08

Anything that will fit into their mouths!

Mon, 2015-11-30 12:32

  Normally don't have to "match the hatch"...have got onto 'em with 2" placcies while they were feeding on nearly microscopic plankton..good luck matching THAT!

Uluabuster's picture

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 They hit pretty much

Mon, 2015-11-30 13:45

 They hit pretty much anything including lures bigger than themselves.

 Plastic jerkbaits fished aggressively tends to get their attention.

 

sea-kem's picture

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Date Joined: 30/11/09

 They love the larvae looking

Mon, 2015-11-30 13:49

 They love the larvae looking plastics, son had a great session on them recently and was getting Skippy and Tailor in the mix. Just need to berley a little.

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Love the West!

fishinguy's picture

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Date Joined: 16/06/15

 whats the brand of it?

Mon, 2015-11-30 20:43

 whats the brand of it?

____________________________________________________________________________

 Dream fish to catch:

Giant herring.

Cobia.

crasny1's picture

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Date Joined: 16/10/08

Yip

Mon, 2015-11-30 13:50

As Auslobster said they are garbage guts, from tiny fish to prawns to maggots. On the feed they will go for anything. Targetting tailor with Smiling Jack lures caught more than a few herring that would only be twice the size of the lure. A simple goto lure is a twisty, or even better a Crazy charlie fly behind a blob on a spin outfit, or the same lure on a fly rod.

The Crazy Charlie would be my top lure now for hezza's but it has draw back as it has nil casting weight, so need a blob etc to make it work.

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"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk

Boydy's picture

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Halco Twisty

Mon, 2015-11-30 13:56

Small twisty's work a treat in the sizes 10-15gram.
Plus great for casting.

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Date Joined: 03/04/10

 Not vey conventional, but

Mon, 2015-11-30 14:44

 Not vey conventional, but using a baitchaser with 3 droppers on a paternoster style rig (20g weight on the end or whatever suits your style of fishing)

and just a simple cast and retreive will get you a lot of them in a heartbeat. 

 

 

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 Subway cookie is the best burley

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Date Joined: 07/05/12

Berkley Scumdog is cheap and

Mon, 2015-11-30 14:59

Berkley Scumdog is cheap and slays them and had some great sessions on grug style placcies. Apart from that any good surface walker, popper and even shallow divers will do well when they are feeding and I've had days when they are hitting berley and won't touch anything except a bit of prawn

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Honourary Pies member for a while

uncle's picture

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They love (wogs)maggots from the rotting seaweed

Mon, 2015-11-30 15:09

 And very small minnow fish, when they are around they will eat anything.if you wont to see action sprinkle rice bubbles on the water

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all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs

Hutch's picture

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 As mentioned before,

Mon, 2015-11-30 15:10

 As mentioned before, anything kills them on the right day but best I have found are small metal slices and 3 inch minnows on a 1/8 jig head.

Quite a few of the ones I've caught have coughed up small 5cm whitebait

Swompa's picture

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Halco Twisties, 10g I

Mon, 2015-11-30 15:19

Halco Twisties, 10g I think.

We just putt them around after a dive to get a feed of herring.

Willlo's picture

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 A piece of red straw and

Mon, 2015-11-30 16:28

 A piece of red straw and burly of the beach and small halco slices from the boat  as Andy said above those soft plastics that look like maggots work well. 

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rob90's picture

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 They are the same as a

Mon, 2015-11-30 16:59

 They are the same as a salmon, people caught them on toy cars. Herring if they are burleyed up or just schooling they'll eat anything that is moving. Mulies, prawns hard bodies and metals as stated above even the old green straw pulled behing a float.

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 Hi my name is rob............. and I'm a........... fishaholic

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 They love maggots

Mon, 2015-11-30 17:43

 They love maggots

Rene80's picture

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Ive caught a few on that

Mon, 2015-11-30 19:35

 2-3" minnows on 1/8 jighead


Ive caught a few on that

opsrey's picture

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McDonalds straws

Tue, 2015-12-01 07:29

 They are like most kids, they fight over McDonalds 

Cut McDonalds straws into quarters. Feed straw up line and tie on a size one hook, feed straw down onto hook and trawl behind boat/kayak. On shore put a blob float one meter above hook/straw cast and retrieve.

i have tried other straws but find the Maca straws the best.

crasny1's picture

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LOL. Fight over maccas

Tue, 2015-12-01 07:56

LOL. Fight over maccas

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"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk

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Try using

Tue, 2015-12-01 08:01

 Try using white plastic wall plugs as a lure. They work very well

 

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 I use surface lures or

Tue, 2015-12-01 16:56

 I use surface lures or sinking stick baits, it's pretty fun watching them smash the surface

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Date Joined: 22/06/13

 I used Soft plastics on 2

Wed, 2015-12-02 00:07

 I used Soft plastics on 2 inch grub paddle tail, nuclear chicken. of course fishing at night is best on jetty or else blowies will devour them.

1/16 jig.

 

Glenn Moore's picture

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Generalists

Wed, 2015-12-02 13:13

It's been pretty much covered by others above.  However from a biological, rather than a fishing, persepective - adult herring are generalists feeding on small inshore fish such as blue sprat (sardines) and sandy sprat (whitebait), and their diet also commonly includes bivalves, amphipods, shrimps and crabs, as well as insects and maggots washed from the shore.

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Glenn Moore

Curator of Fishes

Western Australian Museum

twitter @WestOzFish

 

 

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Date Joined: 11/11/15

 Two weeks ago the herring

Wed, 2015-12-02 14:00

 Two weeks ago the herring were thick at a local reef. We were trolling in the tinny with straw on hooks. We put them in a bucket of water and found a heap of worms floating around in the water and hanging out of the fishes mouths. Was a bit grossed out by it and thought that the worms were actually feeding on the herring. Later found when cleaning the fish that their stomachs were full of these worms. So maybe the worms were spawning and floating on the surface, not sure. But any worm or worm looking lure will catch them..Cheapest option as said above, pieces of straw.