herring

I fish the Two Harbors area pretty hard thru the summer months and understand the waters around there pretty good. The one puzzle that gets me are the herring I catch. They don’t seem to have any order to when they will appear in the ore harbor where I usually catch them.

I normally fish from late March thru the end of the lake trout season and spen quite a bit of time on the breakwater at TH. I have yet to catch a herring on the outside of the wall, but have had them chase a bait out there. Every herring that has come to the net has come from the inside of the wall, from the dogleg to the end. All have come on spinners [#2 and 3 Mepps, plain hooks, gold] and fairly high up in the water. All of these fish are caught during August and September. Some years I see them, others I do not.

If the netters are getting herring just a ways up the shore, why are they such a short-term visitor to the harbor area? Are they a fall spawner or are they driven by warm water? Are they only there for food reasons?

These are great eating fish and smoke up nicely too. And the pickled ones…..darned tasty. But they are a riot on a line too and I’d like to know more about the dudes. Anyone?

Haven’t heard too much about anyone fishing them, haven’t done it myself but am eager to see what info this post generates.

Sorry I can’t help.

CT

Herring are neat little critters and as you have found, are great table fare. Do not do much fishing for them in the open water, but I usually come across quite a few while out on the ice…

These fish are fall spawners, and are the last to spawn for the year. Water temps in the 40 degree or less range peak the interest of the herring and the flood to shallow areas, void of obstructions to spawn. They like semi-gravelly areas that have no leaf or other litter on the substrate.

Right now, the commercial boys on my side of the lake are doing their annual herring catch. Something that my area, Bayfield, was known for in the early into the mid 1900’s, before the population crash. Each fall the herring boats would take off on daily basis, to come back with boat loads of these fishes. And I mean boat loads!!! All the kids of these days (like my mother) would gather at the local beaches after school to pick the herring from the net, where they were then processed at the local cannery and then shipped off. Now days, the population is quite good, and the fishing has improved greatly. The big thing now, is the caviar from the herring. It is collected and put through a series of refining techniques and shipped heavily to european countries (for some pretty good jing).

But the increase in the herring population and the decrease in smelt populations is looked as a good thing to the local fish managers. As herring has a lot more benefit to the cold water species of Lake Superior then the smelt.

They are pretty temperature related and are also seen as a indicator specie to the overall welfare of a fishery.

Through the ice, they are pretty neat to see, as the come through in huge schools, feet underneath the ice. Putting down a small jigging spoon or small jig, you can keep them swarming your hole for sometime and catch a few as they pass. But again, never had much luck on the open water…