So, the last several times I've cured eggs, they've ended up smelling funky, and I think it's because they've got fish slime, etc. from the body cavity on them.

I try remove the eggs from the hen without touching them with my skin, I don't rinse the eggs (since everyone says not too), and I do my best to squeeze any residual blood out of the veins in the skein before curing.

Since I don't rinse them, they always have some fish goo on them when I sprinkle on the Pro Glow or whatever else I'm using, and I think that's why they've ended up not smelling as good as good eggs should.

How do you guys make sure your eggs are clean or otherwise prep them for curing?

fishem! your over thinking it buddy.

Eh, I'd have more confidence fishing dick nites or something else compared to smelly eggs.

I agree, they should be fished. If you don't want them, I know someone who does

It sounds like your are setting yourself up to not fish smelly eggs and thus not catch anything in them.

I'm no egg guru but I just rip them out, butterfly the skeins, throw them in a gallon bag, and sprinkle some cure on them. Put in refrigerator and swish/flip the bags around a few times over the next couple of hours. Sometime within the week, I'll pull them out and usually air dry them for a few hours. Put in open freezer bags, freeze, then seal. Cut the bag open before thawing. Probably not "the best" eggs but they work.

Since nobody has asked the fish what they like, all we can do is present them with an opportunity and see if they are good or not. I've caught fish on old freezer burned eggs, dried out eggs, moldy eggs....you name it. I actually did OK on last year's moldy eggs on springers this year. Most of the scents and egg cures are marketing gimmicks that fool fisherman. It's what's in the egg membrane that counts.... fish em!

I do something else that others would think is a huge mistake. after curing I run all the eggs under the city tap water till cure is rinsed from the eggs. then air dry. have never noticed any ill effect in fish intrest. kings, silvers and steelhead all like city water.

I make a bigger deal out of curing my eggs to fish well. The firmness to last a bunch of casts is more valuable to me than having them juicy or smelling right. I just want to keep them in the water and not fuss around re baiting.

I eat them but after reading this thread, I'll be looking for hooks.

I lay out my eggs on cardboard in the old fridge to drain the blood overnight, then butterfly and let drain some more in the fridge. It was smellier before I had the extra fish/beverage fridge/freezer as I dried out in the garage under a fan. Borax is a fabric softener and helps deodorize besides drying them out. Stays good in the freezer and I can thaw out in a bag with salmon cure and water or fish straight up for steelhead.

I'm with Aaron. Fish em'.

Cut em' out ASAP and place unwashed into a gallon bag. Repeat catching hens until full (or not). No cutting or washing, whole skeins. Leave em' alone once out of the hen. Add seasoning of choice to bag. Turn 1 - 3 times a day for 2-3 days. Take out and dry on cookie racks. Or don't dry and leave with juice for a wet egg. IMO - I like dry eggs. Water makes them wet or so I'm told. Once dry, place 1 - 2 skeins into small tupperware containers. No lid. Freeze. Once frozen, vac pack into daily allotments. Solo days = small vac packs. Party boat = many big packs. These last 5 years in the freezer or as long as your vac pack holds out. Cut to size on the river per species.

Also Brewer is right. I've added too much seasoning in the bag and have been forced to add tap H2O to dilute and poor off. In some batches, this has made a better finished egg. Fish em'.

You can pat them off with a paper towel before curing. If you want them to smell better, add anise a couple hours after adding the cure.

My normal thing is to cut them out of the fish while gutting and gilling on the river and put in a ziplock. When I'm home, I lay them out on paper towels, butterfly, and cut into salmon bait sizes. Then I'll sprinkle on cure and put in a small mason jar. I'll keep turning and shaking them every couple hours while sitting at room temperature. After about 6 hours, I'll squirt in some anise or sandshrimp scent. After about 12 hours, I'll put them in the fridge to re-absorb. After about 4 days, they get frozen in the jar and vacuum sealed.

Hey:

Lots of good advice given......if still un-sure, go to YOUTUBE.COM.....there are LOTS of videos that take you step by step.


This is a good one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5hnkamp-9c

Good luck....

Just for fun, I'll tell you all about all the no-no's I committed while curing some eggs last week. In fact, about the only thing I did by the book was to promtly place the eggs in a ziploc bag immediately after opening up the fish. Made sure to keep the water out, too.

After that, it got a little ugly. First, I put the bag with the eggs in the cooler with the cleaned carcass (which, of course, was on ice). As all ziplocs eventually do, the bag eventually leaked, allowing one of the skeins to be completey soaked with freshwater, removing much of the natural orange color. Not a good start.

After that, I gently butterflied the skeins and set them on newspaper. Then, I added some anise scent, some salt, some sugar, and some borax and placed the eggs in front of a fan to air dry overnight. Next morning, I went to work without putting up the eggs, so they spent another day "marinating" at room temperature. When I got home, I found that the eggs had hardened up nicely and smelled, well, like fish eggs. As an added bonus, the Smelly Jelly I had used to scent the eggs, along with the brown sugar, had restored the color that had been lost in the leaky ziploc incident. Satisfied, I threw the skeins in bags and rolled them in more borax, then went straight to the freezer. Will they catch fish? We'll see....

I guess that was my long-winded way of saying "Fish 'em." Good luck. I predict fish will eat them, even if it's not the fish you are after.

Wait wait wait...FF02 uses bait...I was just about to ask you for your eggs. Guess not. lol

Bleed your fish immediately upon catching. Should remove most of the blood from the skeins.

I always rinse mine in very,very cold bottled water...then pat dry with paper towels. bleed don't bonk.............remove with rubber gloves into zip loc...........push any blood out of skein before rinsing. Good luck,

SZ

Artesian Voss water to be exact...

I always rinse mine. I either shake the water out, or might pay dry with a paper towel if I feel like it.

I used to bother taking out the blood, but don't think it matters.

I cure my eggs in glass as plastics leach nasties in the eggs. May not make a difference, but I just use gallon glass pickle jars.

Once cured, I transfer them to glass quart jars to freeze or use.