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Only few sportsfishermen know how to fish Baltic herrings with reel and rod. This silvery delicacy of the sea is one of the most versatile fish-species to preparate food of. You can cook, fry, smoke, grill, salt and make different pickles out of baltic herrings.

Some of sportfishermen perhaps think: Fishing with plain hooks cannot be any kind of sport. The idea of shiny, silver or golden, hooks is, that they remind the natural food of herrings = amphipods. Of course, when 5-8 herring are hooked on the rig and they all are swimming criss cross around, it is possible thet in large school of fishes some of them can be hooked somewhere else as in the mouth.

The schools of herrings come to the inner archipelago in spring and autumn time. In the outer parts of archipelago You can find herrings even in the middle of summer. Ask Your holiday-village hosts, where to try to catch herrings.

The baltic herring bites plain hooks.

To keep Your catch fresh and tasty You need a bucket or a plastic box. Sheath the bucket or the box with a plastic bag. Every five or six pounds change anew bag, this way the fishes stay in delicate form, because they do not press too much. In the springtime You have to remember Your limits: Take only the mount of fishes You know You can eat. Basic idea in sportfishing is: All the catch must be exploited usefully as food. Your hands and fishing equipments stay nice and clean, when You use a towel to dry and clean Your hands. The scales of baltic herring loose so easily, that You can wash them away. Nice silvery rod can look out beautiful, but in some warm days You can even in darkness to smell where Your rod is. A net is good to have with, because there are other predators hunting herrings as You, too. It can happen that a hungry pike hits on the herrings swimming in Your rig.

The rigs You have to have with You more than one. Apike can cut Your rig in pieces or You loose Your rig to Mother Earth, when the hook catch bottom. These rigs with many hooks stay in order, when You tie them on some cushion like a piece of a camping mattress made of foam. Pack every rig in their own plastic bags like mini grips. This way You prevent the terrible mess which is possible, if You store Your rigs loose.

When the seasons is at its hotest, the fishing of herrings
is a social happening. Picture from a Parainen bridge.

In the springtime the herrings do not hesitate with their hits. They take hooks of almost all colours. The most popular is still silver hooks in sizes 2-6. In autumntime herring can be more selective. Then the popular colour is golden, and small hitting points of red or orange colour can be added on the hook. The sizes of the hooks are a bit smaller 6-8. The hook must swimm freely, that is why they are tied in a non-slipping loop-knot about one inch long. To change the rig is easier when in the main line You have a split ring or a ball-ring swivel.

These two herrings caught near Jurmo island are
almost the size their relatives in oceans.

When a fish hits the bait, usually thes begings the fight and the landing of the fish. When You are doing the baltic herring project, there is valid the rules alike in transportation business: The freight is expensive. When You feel the first fish hanging on the rig, do not begin the reeling up. Herrings move in large schools, and the first one has a lot of friends with him. Hold the rig in the hitting depth and more and more fishes will come to Your hook-elevator. Important is that the main line stays all the time tight, otherwise the fishes have possibility to swim all sround and You will catch a cristmas tree of herrings. The mess can be even worse than the knot of Gordion.

A successful fishing trip has, of course, a consequence: The smell of frying baltic herrings spread in Your kitchen and increase Your appetite on top level.