how's the size of the herring anything over 7" showing up?

Rookie here, couple questions.....

1) how long will they be in the area? French Creek.

2) can you catch from shore?

3) if not from shore, in front of creek, or suggestions (i have boat).

4) what do you use to catch'm.

I live in Qualicum, been fishing the outside for 3 years now, and would like some herring for bottom fishing. Any suggestions would be great. Also have a my daughter (6 yrs old) that would probably love to join me for some fun.

Chuck,
By no means an expert myself, I catch them from shore this time of year when they are getting ready to spawn. Buy a herring rig, a string with 4-6 hooks on it decorated with feather or beads. Tie a weight on the end and pitch it out there. I got a few off rocky point on sunday. If you are near the boats, keep a bucket or two handy and a couple beer and you may be in for some fish. I have heard about raking them, but never seen it done. Hammond Bay and Neck Point are a couple other spots where I know they fish off shore.
If all else fails and you need a bunch, go to Hub City Fish plant in Nanaimo, you can buy a box of individually frozen whole herring. About 50 lbs for $35. Excellent deal and a hell of a lot cheaper than Rys Davies at 6-8 bucks for 8.

I've seen guys fishing from shore using steelhead flots above their jigs, this way they can leave it out there and fill up the rig. In my experience once you hook one, the extra flash will attract others.

What I also do is attach an old tom mack spoon with no hook to the bottom of the rig, adds some extra weight so I can cast the rig and the extra flash brings them in to take a look.


On another note, I took a quick look down here in the Saanich inlet and i didn't see much sign of them yet. I think last year we were a week or two behind the nanaimo area herring.

I was walking at Neck Point and there was a school so thick I could see it moving around from shore.

Cheers All,

I was out on a charter on Tuesday (first time ever where the charter was specifically for herring) and we slayed. Two full limits in about 2 1/2 hours as well as full limit for this Guide who now has all his herring for the year.

While we were out I had a chance to talk briefly with a commercial fisherman harvesting close by. He mentioned that it was awesome this year and that they would be finished their quota way before they could have hoped. He also mentioned that the price was way up and they were getting about $4,000.00/ton.

Oh...and it was an awesome sunny day on the water too! Does it get any better.

right on gerry - any big magnum sized herring?

Did you ask the commercial boat if they got enough to whipe out the strait for another year? I dont understand how that fishery is allowed to continue.

Cheers All,

The herring sizes were all over the map from small 4" all the way up to some that were 8". Think they averaged 6-7" but I did get enough big ones for my halibut bait this summer. The larger ones were spitting distance from shore while the average and smaller ones were out 300 yards from shore.

As for whether or not the commercials will leave any is a valid question. It always facinates me to watch how efficiently they harvest and just how quickly they can load a herring skiff and then waddle back to the mainship to offload.
I believe part of the problem with declining stocks in ECVI can be attributed to the lack of significant herring. Taking a look at a herriing skiff that is loaded to the gunnels with tons of herring that will be used mostly for the eggs and as pet food/fish food seems wrong.

It was interesting to chat with the commercials for a few minutes as they were very excited about how much they were finding. Perhaps with this abundance DFO may have under-guess-timated the mass available and the end result will be that more will be left for our salmon and nature. One can only hope.

took a drive down to a spot on the saanich inlet where herring spawn and nothing on the beach yet. I did see a good whack of birds off land a bit so I'm thinking they are getting ready to come in close to do the nasty real soon.