Techniques i have never used ... how about you ?

[bassinbrian]

Would like to hear from anybody who has used/uses some different techniques (with Herring that is) out of the normal ... i know of a few that i have never tried, how about y'all ?

Never tried these ...
-Ballon rig
-Free lining the herring, no weight or anything



Thanks
BB

[Reel Force]

Only seen a few boats on the upper Hudson ballooning - one was "Reel Adventures" the charter boat.

Tried free-lining once - herring swam up river and wrapped up in my anchor line

[petejunipero]

I freeline a majority of the time once the water gets a little warmer. There is nothing like watching a herring trying to get away from a big striper.

[tomcat]

I am a bit curious too- has anyone used big slider float (the kind with the littel bead) with herring? I gues it's much like the baloon rig. Mostly I use 2 or 3 oz sinker.

[StriperHyper]

Originally Posted by bassinbrian

-Free lining the herring, no weight or anything Thanks
BB

I use this method when fishing the marina in South Portland and I can tell ya it's a whole 'notha ball of wax. A drive into downtown Portland where the lobsterman unload usually produces plenty of herring for the day (couple/few apiece depending how many guys are fishing). Make the quick trip over to the docks in SoPo to get them back in the water as quickly as possible, tie the bucket off and use as needed. No weight, no slider, no leader (well sometimes I use one but not necessary), no balloon no nothing!!! I usually rig the herring up with two 7/0 "J" hooks (1 in the front 1 towards the back) to keep him swimming straight, throw him over the docks and let him do the rest only letting out enough line to get him under the docks but not so much that he'll wrap around the pylons. Strap my rod to the dock (horizontally) with a bungee chord and wait for the magic to happen. Cool thing about this method is you can see and feel when your offering is about to get devoured as the herring will start swimming eratically and frantically trying to get away from whatever's lurking beneath him. And since the fish aren't swimming at great depths, more just around and around in circels a few feet deep, a lot of time you can look over and actually see the bass slurp him up.

StriperHyper ~ Will

[True Grit]

EXPLOSIVES

Back in the early eighties I worked as a licensed powder carrier in Local 29 the Blasters & Drillers Union (like Sandhogs) anyway on Friday afternoons whatever powder was left at the end of the day 3PM by the way, had to be destroyed as it couldn't be secured on site or returned to the company As I was working the 63rd street cross town tunnel that went under the east river, our hole was right at the shore line so we would go out in a 20 ft skiff wire up the Semtex on a 300 foot lead drop it over the side run the skiff up current and KABOOM. All kinds of stuff would come topside belly up, and if by chance it was a stripper it was fish for dinner!

[ckoch78]

I have uses a balloon rig last year during slack tide we caught one decent one it seemed to work pretty good when the current was not to strong I will prob. try it again this year.

[StriperHyper]

Originally Posted by True Grit

EXPLOSIVES

Back in the early eighties I worked as a licensed powder carrier in Local 29 the Blasters & Drillers Union (like Sandhogs) anyway on Friday afternoons whatever powder was left at the end of the day 3PM by the way, had to be destroyed as it couldn't be secured on site or returned to the company As I was working the 63rd street cross town tunnel that went under the east river, our hole was right at the shore line so we would go out in a 20 ft skiff wire up the Semtex on a 300 foot lead drop it over the side run the skiff up current and KABOOM. All kinds of stuff would come topside belly up, and if by chance it was a stripper it was fish for dinner!

Oh no, sadly I have a feeling you are not kidding about this either!!!!

StriperHyper ~ Will

[NYJer]

I've never tried this out myself but here's a pretty awesome video of the surf rocket in action. This is either pure genius or completely absurd and i can't figure out which it is:

http://www.surfrocketfishing.com/surfrocket2.swf
http://www.chocodog.com/chocodog/btfsVI.wmv

[cesarcap]

One time (at band camp) I filleted both sides of a herring--making 2 nice long strips of bait which didn't catch anything.

But not wanting to waste bait, I used the skeleton of the herring/entrails and hooked it through the nostrils. I cast it about 30-40 feet behind the boat w/o any sinker in about 7 feet of water on a moving tide (we were not anchored).

But while I was casting a swim shad, a big gull/bird dove under and almost swam away with the carcass. Thankfully, I pulled it away in time before it got hooked.

I then added a 1oz sinker to it--and kept drifting. About 10 minutes later, we caught what I presume was bass. Line kept peeling out and I directed my 6 year old son to grab the rod, after I set the hook. He was fighting the fish for a minute or two, but then the fish swam towards us--and dropped.

Before I get flamed, I haved used this technique on bunker--but mostly in the Sound or in the Ocean while chumming/chunking. So no real success--but I will try it again if SOP (standard operating procedure) ain't working.

[Finny]

Try a rubber at nite with a glowstick in it so you can see it. Don't blow it to much or the bass can't suck it under.