46 replies to this topic

[fishing89]

Nothing beats river cured roe...all natural, no added colors or scents. Tied up some mixed bags containing between 3-8 eggs per bag, for all types of conditions.

 

How do you guys cure your roe, and tie your bags? I dont like to add any floaties, I like my bait close to the bottom at all times.

 

 

[Swing4Steel]

Shoulda slammed it with firecure!

[PUMP KNOWS]

I thought you were gonna make a video on how you cure your eggs?

[PUMP KNOWS]

How long do you let the eggs cure in the river for?

[fishing89]

Nah, I dont like the artificial colours and look. I keep it all natural, the only colour I would add is via the mesh

[troutddicted]

Curing it with something will allow the eggs to remain round, colorful and fun for steelhead.  They won't whiten as fast as uncured ( or river cured ) eggs allowing you to get more drifts in.  While I fish river cured ( I'm lazy ) egg bags on slower waters I prefer cured eggs ( I'll bum off a friend ) for faster flows.  Clear water = beads or small egg bags in white, chartreuse or pink.  Dirty water = big bags with a bead in chartreuse or pink... as a general rule.  Happy huntin'

[fishing89]

@PUMP

 

I cured them soon as I milked the hen for 10 minites in a bag filled with river water. Drained it and brought it home, put it in the firdge. Just got aroud to yting the bags a few days ago.

[fishing89]

Hmm, perhaps I can expirement with food coloring...anyone ever done that? Just toss the tied bags into some food coloring that is water resistant and see how that goes

[troutddicted]

Food coloring will whiten out pretty quick as well.  What a proper cure does is effectively slow down the... ok I'm going on memory here so I could be wrong... but it slows down the entry of water INTO the eggs via osmosis... or it may be something to do with the egg taking in something else... darn, I've got the memory of a fish

[fishing89]

I see...good old Borax then? I will try out what I have tied so far this weekend...we'll see how it goes

[CJR]

I fish Mike's (Fishhead's Roe) for the most part cause it has an nice orange colour and does not whiten out quickly.  The stuff is very hard to pop too, so it never breaks when tying up.  
 

I recently acquired some loose roe from a dead fish and I used Pautzke's BorX o Fire on it.  I use the same stuff to cure skein and the fish hammer it.  It came out looking very good.

 

[NADO]

Eggs water hardened in cold water will last quite some time before whitening out. I have only kept one hen so far this year,  cured it in the river with a strainer for about 7 or 8 minutes then I put it in a ziploc bag with a bunch of kosher salt. It sat in my backpack like that for another three or so hours before I got home and vacuum sealed the eggs. 

 

I have used them on two trips so far and I haven't been able to use a bag long enough for the eggs to whiten out. Sometimes its luck of the draw, maybe the eggs I got this year have a strong outer shell. Some eggs I have cured this way in the past do white out and some don't, but for the most part they last long enough to keep me happy.

[Paul1913]

Hmm, perhaps I can expirement with food coloring...anyone ever done that? Just toss the tied bags into some food coloring that is water resistant and see how that goes

 i read somewhere jello powder works well to add colour..

[bullshark]

I've tried water hardening and salt brines, but the eggs always popped when I was trying them or scraping them off the skeins. I recently bought some Shake'n Cure and it worked very well. 

I just followed the directions (I don't usually follow directions, just thought I'd try it for once haha), and left the eggs on the skein. Then I cut it into small pieces and tied those up. 

[LordMykiss]

I've tried water hardening and salt brines, but the eggs always popped when I was trying them or scraping them off the skeins. I recently bought some Shake'n Cure and it worked very well. 

I just followed the directions (I don't usually follow directions, just thought I'd try it for once haha), and left the eggs on the skein. Then I cut it into small pieces and tied those up. 

i used the atlas and didn't follow the direction after i followed it and didnt like the result, i just leave my eggs a a jar with atlas cure on top and leave it for few days. then the egg are really hardened but soft enough for a bite and keep their shape and size well and tying is easy. i am talking single eggs.

and it doesnt whiten even after whole day using the same sac. YES i was skunked. lol

[bullshark]

The first one time around I got the skeins outta the fish ASAP, put them in a bag, filled the bag with river water and let it all sit together for about 30 minutes.

Those eggs were terrible. Popped all the time when tying and lose their colour in no time when being fished.

Second time around I just put the skeins on ice till I got home then I put the cure on them. These eggs are way better.

I know I did something wrong with water hardening because a bunch of guys do it and their eggs are great. But the stuff works for me.

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[GoodenTight]

there are alot of factors. And the primary factor is, how mature are the eggs you are getting. If your salmon is off a boat or just entering a trib, chances are the eggs are not as mature as one holding in a pool. Simply put, more mature eggs are far stronger.

 

That could be first problem. Roe tight in skiens is not mature. The scraping that occurs to remove the skien, wears away the membrane of the eggs to become loose. When this happens, the egg doesn't have the same retention and will mush/pop easier.  Simply put, the easier eggs scrape off a skien, the more mature they are. If you find your eggs are tight in the skien, I would reccommend using a cure to harden them,

 

So, due to nature alone, you can blame the fish if your eggs are mature or not, lol.  I have some eggs I recently milked that are almost as strong as bouncy balls (ok not quite, but I have NO goop after tying and in my canister).   Just try to keep a fish with stronger more mature eggs and you will have a hand up on the results you wish to obtain.

[GoodenTight]

to illustrate. Look at the size difference in the examples. The first pic with chart bags is skien salmon eggs I scraped to single and then shook in borax. The borax helps manage the eggs shell for strength and preservation. Also note, these bags contain approx 10 eggs each.

 

now forward to more mature eggs I milked once a fish was in the system

the first pic here are the eggs dried  (air dry on a table on news paper completely natural after "water cure" for an hour)

 

and then sprinked a LITTLE bit of borax and tied into bags

Note that bags of approx equal size of green bags above, only now I was using approx 4 eggs a sack. Larger eggs = more mature eggs

 

Good eggs or not, I believe it is imperial to tie on news paper to soak up any remaining liquid the eggs fail to retain.

[GoodenTight]

these bags work for me and there are no procures or brine etc used.

[Swing4Steel]

Hmmm. I find skeined up eggs more durable than loose. The membrane is thinner to let the spermies in.