Looking to firm up herring strips?

[slickwater]

I filleted green label herring on one side and left the other with the back bone still in it. Both sides are not very firm and on occasion the strip will rip out of the meathead. I started out fishing with pre cut strips and there are nice and firm. I've even caught more than one salmon on a strip.

I'm wanting to know if there is any way to firm and toughen these strips? I have them in a salt,borax water brine.

I tried to get some answers on another message board but no one could answer my question.

[Gnarf]

Brine should firm them up. Were they thawed and refrozen a lot?

[Dave Mull]

I've had pretty good luck just rolling fillets in dry, uniodized salt (I use canning salt). A product I really like is the Pautzke Fire Brine. Firms 'em up and gives them you choice of several colors. This stuff is especially good at plumping up fillets that have dried out in the freezer.

Your fillets might have gotten warm in shipping? I've gotten a few packs that you just couldn't do anything to save.

[slickwater]

I don't know. Both packs came from the same place and I asked about them and they said they received them packed in dry ice. The herring I have is a little firmer and tougher than when it went in the brine.

Do you think if I were to take them out of the brine and cover with pickling salt until they firm up? But do I put them back in the brine or do I need to freeze them. And then I would have to refreeze them after the day of fishing. I have done that with the pre cut strips I've got from the bait shop.

[mayvillemark]

If the strip is firmer before brine, brine is not strong enough and your never gonna be able to use homemade strips for more than one fish. store bought strips are basically jerky they are salted so heavily, but that process also absorbs alot of the smell.

[slickwater]

If the strip is firmer before brine, brine is not strong enough and your never gonna be able to use homemade strips for more than one fish. store bought strips are basically jerky they are salted so heavily, but that process also absorbs alot of the smell.

I'm not worried about getting more than one fish on a strip just that when I don't get bit or do get bit and miss that they don't come out of the head.

[Justtrollin]

I have noticed they are firmer when u fillet them when they are half frozen then put them in brine overnight. My buddy do our last batch and they were not as firm.

[slickwater]

I have noticed they are firmer when u fillet them when they are half frozen then put them in brine overnight. My buddy do our last batch and they were not as firm.

They're already filleted. But some have been in brine for almost a month and the others in a different jar for a couple weeks. But they are just as soft ad they were when I put them in the brine. I went ahead and salted some of my homemade fillets for a few hours and they seem to be firmer and a little tougher. So maybe they are going to work. I will just keep them frozen until I need them and then put back in the freezer the ones I don't use.

[Cork Dust]

Two options, actually three; make your own brine solution to toughen and brighten strips in the interval before immediate use, buy Big Weenie brine bags and/or Pautzke colored brine bottled in various shades. Pautzke also makes a product called nectar that colors brine. I perfer Mrs. Stewarts bluing added to Big Weenie's brine, but, that's just my opinion.

Take the "B" side strips without tails and brine them as well to use as inerts in Brad's Cut Plugs. Rubber band them into the plug bodies to stick out the tail-end enought to reach as far back as your treble ( I set mine with the eye just at the tail-end of the plug body, so the spinning plug doesn't interfere with the fish's ability to strike and get a good hook-up). I suspect this also masks the treble when a fish hits(watch a go-pro camera setup on a 'rigger ball, note how the fish reacts when he taps a hard bait or hook and it doesn't "stick").