Need roe advice

[AaronKrick]

Hello everyone,

This season I am planning on not buying any roe, but to instead get my own. I will be doing lots of spoon chucking off of piers, but I don't think I will be able to catch a hen with loose eggs, since she would still be in the staging or lake phase. So here are my questions.:

1) Have you caught any loose hens off of piers? If so, are they boots?
2) What is the legality of slitting a fish? Is it okay to take the eggs and give the rest of the fish to someone who wants the salmon for food?
3) How do you "scrape" the eggs off of the skeins so that you can tie them into sacs?
4) How do you know that a hens eggs are mature, so that I don't open one up to find eggs the size of bow eggs?
5) Finally, do you have success with chunks of skein in the tribs during the salmon run?

Thanks to anyone that can give me a little advice, and hopefully the replies can help others too.

Cat

 

[BASSMASTER19]

1) I've never caught any and i only manage to catch mostly boots anyway and a few chromeish ones
2) as far as i know you can do that as long as you don't kill the fish and discard the meat
3) no idea, never done it check youtube
4) again not too sure but id think the darker the fish is the more mature the eggs would be
5) yes if you bottom bounce you can catch lots of salmon possibly some steelhead and a very likely change at a brown

 

[NADO]

If the fish is staging around the mouth the eggs should be mature. There are lots of guys who prefer scraped eggs from fresh hens over loose in the river. The general practice is to use a spoon to scrape the eggs off the skien but I prefer pulling the eggs off of the skien with my fingers, it takes me hours though.

 

[cptpronin]

Tons of videos on harvesting roe can be found on Youtube without much digging. All your questions will be answered young Catfish.

 

[Shmogley]

just scrape the skein with a spoon as said above. but dont be shy about curing whole chunks of skein with eggs attached about the size of a loonie. that works great as bait too and as a bonus you dont need to worry about tying bags

the eggs of the pier fish are good to go so dont worry about that.

and a tip that hasnt done me any wrong, try a bit of brown sugar in one of your batches cure mix.

 

[AaronKrick]

Thanks guys! Will check out a few vids too.

@Shmog: Will definitely try the brown sugar! Would that be for, chocolate milk, or just any conditions?

 

[Shmogley]

either or. they jus seem to like it. especially when theres a bunch of people tossing regular stuff

 

[instapump416]

Most times I get lazy and just cut the skeins into little chunks. I still bag them up and they work just as good or even better then my loose eggs.

I also use brown sugar in my cure

 

[Tacklelogic]

1) Have you caught any loose hens off of piers? If so, are they boots?

I have caught the odd loose hen but mostly still tight in the skein.

2) What is the legality of slitting a fish? Is it okay to take the eggs and give the rest of the fish to someone who wants the salmon for food?

Yes, this is legal, however the fish you harvested for eggs, still counts towards your daily possession limit.

3) How do you "scrape" the eggs off of the skeins so that you can tie them into sacs?

I use a tennis racket, open the skien, put egg side down and then apply pressure to scrubing action.

4) How do you know that a hens eggs are mature, so that I don't open one up to find eggs the size of bow eggs?

Generally, salmon eggs are mature enough from the 1st of August on.

5) Finally, do you have success with chunks of skein in the tribs during the salmon run?

Yes, all the time for salmon.

 

[AaronKrick]

One more question, trebles or siwash on my spoons? Other than the possibility of taking a hen, I'm all C&R, so getting the fish back quickly and safely is important to me.

 

[Shmogley]

that tennis racket method for removing from the skein sounds pretty good, ill have to try that!

 

[Shmogley]

One more question, trebles or siwash on my spoons? Other than the possibility of taking a hen, I'm all C&R, so getting the fish back quickly and safely is important to me.

if you want to be pro conservation go single. treble should only really be used with the intention of keeping.

not that im a saint, i use trebles on my spoons sometimes. but if i had a choice between the two id always pick single

 

[classic drifter]

Salt cure works for me! As mentioned above watch a few vids on how to scrape roe from skeins, then cure, tie and fish basically

 

[Fishheads]

Best way to get roe off a skein is a perforated Teflon pizza pan. flip the pan upside down over a lg mixing bowl and rub egg side down. Had an old friend pass this on to me years ago. Strip a skein in 10 mins its the best. haven't used it since i started the store and cant find my pizza pan to post a picture. make sure the holes are big enough for the salmon eggs to pop through

 

[AaronKrick]

Thanks for the help everyone! Gonna use 1 skein for loose eggs and the other for chunks. Natural cure + brown sugar, off we go! I was also thinking about doing the single egg boiling cure for small presentation in gin clear water, but I'll probably just do all sorts of bag sizes instead.

 

[brownhunter]

One more question, trebles or siwash on my spoons? Other than the possibility of taking a hen, I'm all C&R, so getting the fish back quickly and safely is important to me.

I use barbless siwosh on my spoons get nothing but solid hook sets and quick releases I generally loose less fish with the single hook

 

[AaronKrick]

I use barbless siwosh on my spoons get nothing but solid hook sets and quick releases I generally loose less fish with the single hook

Where do you get your siwash hooks?

 

[brownhunter]

Bills bait and tackle (total name drop)

 

[AaronKrick]

Bills bait and tackle (total name drop)

LOL I go there pretty much every week and I haven't seen em, too many hooks on the wall, my mind gets sidetracked. Oh I need this one, oh and this one. Then I forget about the siwash lol.

 

[Giuga10]

Do you guys have much luck using Salmon roe? I've heard from most that it isn't nearly as effective as Rainbow roe.