A gentleman walked up to me on the gravel yesterday and said he would give me the eggs from his just landed silver if I would show him how to harvest them without mutilating the skeins. "SURE," I said.

This got me thinking about all the questions on the subject here on the forum as of late, so I snapped a couple of photos last night when I put them up. Here is the run-down on producing high-quality steelhead bait.

First, bleed before bonking. Getting the blood out of the fish is important. Rinse your skeins under clean tap water and drain. Lay them out on newspaper with the skein side up. They will form an upside down "vee" with a ridge running down the middle when positioned properly.



Next, split them down the middle with a sharp fillet knife so each skein becomes two completly different halves.



The next thing you want to do is roll each of these over your fingers exposing the gaps in the fleshy folds. Sprinkle your cure liberally into each and every fold, then lay them down and sprinke cure on the skein side itself. When you're done they should look like this.



Then put them in bags or jars labeled with the date for curing.



You can do this at room temperature or in the fridge depending on the type of cure or personal preference. The key is to let the eggs dehydrate to the extent that they are going to, and keep turning them over so the cure now in solution becomes homogenous throughout the eggs. At some point they will begin to re-absorb the fluid back through the egg membranes. This can take 24 hours to several days depending on the temperature. at this point they are done. You can freeze them or refridgerate. If the cure you are using is high in sulfate, freezing is best because it stops the cure. Otherwise, such eggs will often become hard and waxy (not good).

This is just tha basics folks. You can go as deep into this subject as you like. The literature is out there. And I am by no means a "pro." Like Parker, I am just an "egg whore" that will deviate from my cure or curing routine at the drop of a hat if I see something that works better (success is an evolutionary process ).

When you are ready to fish, cut the cured skein into one or two-fold sized pieces, depending on the size of bait you want. If you've done everything correctly, it should look like this.



Hope this helps and good luck to all.