Yaquina Bay herring run 2021

Confirmed this evening: they're in  .

Do you have to prep them before you freeze or just vac sealing enough? Any salting or scent if using for bait later?

I used to prep them with the salt bath and then vac seal, but now I just toss em into Ziplock freezer bags straight from the cooler. They give off a pretty strong aroma by themselves, especially after they've "discharged" all their gonads everywhere  .

Most of the herring yesterday were purple- to black-label size. The smallest ones were blue-label size.

is it worth it to crab right now? with the tide exchange between high and low of around 6 foot difference ( is that about average for yaquina?) if i were to drop in the morning with the tide exchange....be ok to leave it?, take off for herring somewhere for a few hours??  also with the winds forecast( 15-25 Friday, Saturday 10 to 15) doable??

Some guys catching herring next to me yesterday said the crabbing's been decent lately, they're still getting limits. As for the currents, it depends where you put your pots...if you put em right off the NOAA pier, be prepared for a lot of current. The outgoing was pushing pretty good last night, borderline pulling crab buoys underwater.

anywhere to get away from that current?? that spot u spoke of is where i usually do crab. i launch in there too.  " the guys next to u"?? were/r u anchored up?? thanks  btw 

thanks clayman, zach too.

anywhere to get away from that current?? that spot u spoke of is where i usually do crab. i launch in there too.  " the guys next to u"?? were/r u anchored up?? thanks  btw

They tied their boat up to a dock when fishing for herring. Really, if you have access to the embarcadero docks, fishing off them would be far and away the easiest way to get the herring.

You might get out of the main current a bit by heading up by the LNG tank, or putting your traps on the channel margins instead of right in the middle of the channel. The closer to go towards the bridge, the faster the current is going to be. I dunno, I don't really crab much in Yaquina.

just got back, yesterday was a no go, today was good tho, after a couple hours i got about 5 inches of herring in a 5 gallon bucket. great to finally pop my herring cherry!

I have a buddy who got 300 today. That is all I know other than he said they are BIG!

They're still in there. Friend and I spent a little time around the harbor yesterday afternoon and kept about a hundred herring apiece. Left them biting. Seemed to be more green- and blue-label sized herring this time around, not as many of the blacks and purples as there were last week.

the ones i caught saturday were huge.