When I use powdered cures such as Amerman's or Wayne Priddy's, I cure them in a jar for at least 24 hrs (flip the jar once or twice). They reabsorb all their juice. I then vacum seal in Mason jars and freeze them. This produces wet, soft eggs that I use primarily for spring Chinook. They milk out very quickly. I don't add shrimp oil until I thaw them out and get ready to use them (in April/May)

However, if I'm curing eggs for steelhead, everything is different. I generally use the brightest eggs I can get and cure them with a combination of three parts borax, two parts sugar, one part salt (non-iodized), and half a part sodium bisulfite. This cure hardens the eggs, dries them out, and preserves the existing color. It doesn't add any color, thus the need to use bright eggs. I roll them in this mixture and cure them in a plastic container. I pour off the excess juice and freeze it for later use. This produces a hard egg that is a natural color. It's great for drifting through rapids and riffles for steelhead. You need to pour off the juice if you want a hard egg.

IMO:

Soft, wet, dyed eggs = salmon

Hard, dry, natural eggs = steelhead

I'm sure I will get lots of disagreement with that......

This year, I may experiment with using pure anise oil. However, I'm not sure where to find it. Can anyone help? I can normally find commerical bait oils (Mike's, Pro-Cure, etc) with anise but it ain't like the real thing. I'm having a hard time finding it. I may post this question as a seperate thread.