I am a determined but mostly unsuccessful salmon fisherman with a question about the use of mesh to hold salmon eggs on the hook when bobber or drift fishing for salmon. I know the method of wrapping cured eggs in nylon mesh to avoid loss in the water is in use by some, and i would like to know if it has been found to be successful through experience. The price of good cured salmon eggs is rapidly outdistancing my budget, and i am tired of rebaiting every 2 casts. I tried fine nylon mesh and the eggs stay on real well, but i am wondering if this makes the bait less attractive to the fish. Any information will be appreciated. thanx.

Mesh works great on loose eggs, and is used very widely in the Midwest. There aren't a lot of guys here who fish skein for steelies or chinook in the Midwest. There are a couple of reasons for this.

1. Our fish can be very finicky, and at times, only take eggs the size of a dime or smaller. It is really hard to fish skein this small.

2. Lots of the spawn water is in heavy water or eddy current, and it destroys the skein very quickly. The fact that the temps are in the 30's and low 40's with snow makes it even less enticing to handle wet eggs.

3. There is a theory that the mesh hangs up in the fishes teeth a little bit, and gives you a little more time to set the hook.

4. You can cast many times while your bag still milks out, and saves the hassle of re-baiting our hook constantly.

You can buy commercially made mesh for tying bags, or go to a craft shop and experiment with bridle veil. Blue egg sacks are a big hit in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Cerise and chartreuse bags are big in Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Seems like the North Shore Minnesota and Wisconsin Lake Superior steelies favor the orange mesh, and white can also be very good at times.

You can use your loose chem or borax cured eggs in mesh, and another favorite is to use loose eggs fresh from the fish without any treatment. I generally use loose fresh eggs, tie up the bags, and sprinkle lightly with borax. Some guys will soak their mesh in vanilla extract, or anise extract to add a little scent to the bags. Bags are tied in sizes from almost the size of a quarter, all the way down to 4 individual steelie eggs. It all depends on the fishes attitude, water clarity, temp, and flow. We run them under floats in the middle of winter (plain, or tipped on a jig), and drift fish them in the faster water in spring.

Another thing that guys do, is to wrap their bags individually in aluminum foil, put in a jar, and vacuum pack. It cuts down on freezer burn, and you can just pour out the number of bags you need to fish, then leave the rest in the jar, and put them back in the freezer. Without the foil, all of the bags would be in one solid frozen mass, and you would freeze, thaw them all each time you took them out. Brown trout eggs, are the best for using in the winter, and there are lots available, as wee get pretty good runs of planted browns that run all the way up to the mid twenty pound range.

If you need a tackle dealer to get some mesh, let em know, and I'll try and hook you up. Peace

My sincere thanks; this is great information that is much appreciated. I fish more for fall run chinook in the coastal rivers of Oregon and Washington than i do for steelhead, so i use larger gobs of eggs. A friend gave me some eggs that were apparently too mature because they fell apart easily, so i tried red fine nylon mesh from a sewing center type store. It seems to work OK in the Columbia but i havent tried it in Sculpin Heaven (Tillamook Bay rivers) yet so dont know how it will do with those little buggers chewing on it. Thanx again for the info. rar

Have used mesh in a local tidewater slough for kings in August--seemed to keep some of the sculpin from ripping apart the eggs but occasionally one (or two) would actually get their teeth stuck in the stuff. Makes your eggs last longer...particularly with runny bait. They're also a pain in neck to tie up, of course...

Thanks "T Hawk" ,

I have always had a good fupply of egg clusters to use so I haven't given these a good try. With the increased bullhead population I think it's high time I do.

As for those super low water lures you sent to try, I didn't get to last season - but when we cycle low again sometime this season I will give them a try. Those little egg bead mini-clusters look good.

RT