How To Cut Herring Strip for Salmon Fishing The Easy Way

Vancouver Island herring (Photo: Gibran White)

Before the 1980s, bait fishermen had three options: cut plugging, mooch- ing with live herring, or trolling herring strip. Fifty years ago, strip rigging in a teaser head was extremely popular, because it was easy to use, didn’t require setting a hook into the bait, and it really caught salmon. It was a vast improvement over previous strip tactics, which consisted of hooking a rough-cut strip on a short leader behind a small dodger.

By 1960 my father, Rhys Davis, had perfected commercial strip cutting along with creating different strip designs for specific angling purposes. Large Strip was cut for slow-to-normal trolling speeds. Fast-trolled Super Strip had a snappy darting action and was intended for coho. Anglers soon figured out that slow rolling it was also deadly on Chinook. Tyee Strip was an inch longer than Regular Strip and was used for adult salmon on the final leg of migration. In Alberni Inlet, it was trolled just fast enough to produce a stop-and-start roll, providing anglers with an effective alternative to the Alaskan plug. Tiny Strip was deadly on salmon feeding on needle fish or small minnows.

The appearance of frozen anchovies in 1976, combined with increasingly expensive bulk herring processing and strip-cutting costs, signalled the eventual demise of commercially produced herring strip on this coast. But used at the right time, for the right species, and presented the right way, herring strip is still a great setup for salmon, and with practice, anglers can easily cut their own strips. All the necessary frozen whole herring sizes are available for purchase at most of your favourite local tackle shops. Some, like Pacific Net & Twine, also offer by the case.

Disclaimer: I worked in the bait and lure business for forty years, as an employee and owner. I sold the company in 2014 and have no financial interest in, or promotional obligation for, baits or bait-retaining lures.

Cutting Herring Strips

 

Step 1: Prepare The Herring

Slowly thaw your frozen herring in a refrigerator or small, well-insulated cooler until you can just bend them. Remove one herring at a time for cutting, because they thaw quickly at room temperature. Keep a cloth handy to remove any mois- ture that accumulates on the scales. Wet scales cause knife slippage with potentially nasty consequences. You cannot cut strips from soft herring.

Step 2: Pin The Herring To The Cutting Board

Secure the herring’s head to the nail with its body roughly parallel to the sides of the board.

Step 3: Cut #1 (Super Strip)

Make a diagonal cut right behind the gill-plate that matches the angle on the front of the teaser head. Make sure your cuts aren’t too deep, or you’ll ruin the opposite side of the herring.Cut #1 on the right side of the herring must be in reverse alignment to Cut #1 on the left side. Check your first right side strip for its fit in the teaser head. If the cut is misaligned you’ll understand the mistake immediately.

Step 4: Cut #2

Make a straight line cut from Cut #1 to the midpoint at the base of the tail. Go as high into the dark-coloured back as possible, bevelling the cut slightly inward.

Step 5: Cut #3

Start the belly cut at a point on Cut #1 that produces a strip that fits inside the teaser head cavity. Make a straight cut along the belly until it intersects Cut #2 at the base of the tail.

Step 6: Cut #4

Place the knife blade almost flat against the herring at least ¾” in front of Cut #1. Smoothly fillet the herring with the blade riding along the backbone, while cutting from head to tail. Practice doing this in one smooth motion. Don’t fillet with a sawing motion. This cut removes the strip from the herring.

Step 7: Check For Size

Check the fit in the teaser head, and trim the strip as needed. The strip thickness should have an even taper from head to tail. Trim any excess meat from the flesh side to create the correct taper.

Step 8: Right Side Cuts

There are two options: Make a second Super Strip by repeating steps 1-7. Or, cut a large herring strip by gradually curving Cut #2 from the head to the intersection point at the tail.

Strips can also be refrozen and will often produce more than one fish per strip. Save the trays the whole herring came on or save a few of your foam anchovy trays. Then neatly lay the strips on the trays before freezing. Once they’re frozen, bag and seal tightly. Give strip cutting a try and have some fun experimenting with your own custom cuts. Rig your strip in a plastic strip holder with a 42″ to 60″ leader behind a flasher, or suspend above a dummy flasher. It should pay off handsomely on your fishing trips.

This article appeared in Island Fisherman magazine. Never miss another issue—subscribe today!