me either, waste of time and another overkill useless procedure.

I've noticed there seems to guys like to put themselves into elite status and share their overkill procedures. then they share it on BBs. then others think that's "new" rule.


speaking of another "urban legend" it's a huge mistake to lay eggs on newspaper.... come on really?! this again falls under insecurity. for 50 years the old timers(vedder) ALL used newspaper! my fatherinlaw to this day has never used a chem cure for eggs. he only uses non iodized salt/borax... dries his eggs on what? newspaper.

fish are quite stupid creatures, never let them out think you

People still have newspapers?

Good question, Swifty. I live in East Grays Harbor County, which means I get a copy of the East County News weekly. More fit as an egg drying medium than a newspaper, but it's printed on newsprint, so I guess that makes it a newspaper....

newspaper recycling bins are a gold mine!

Well heck I guess I'll fish 'em. I think I'll rinse the next skein I get too before curing and see if that makes a difference.

I generally do my best to transfer straight eggs to bag. I have also salvaged skeins in the river from snaggers. honestly have witnessed no poor effects from them.


I once had a deep freezer go a month unplugged. everything was lost. my entire egg supply was vacuumed packed. I was very certain the eggs were ruined sitting a month warm.... I kept them any ways. all jars when opened had a fishy funk to them. caught kings on every jar!!!

fishy funk can be good...

Smells like fish "It's a dish" Smells like "Cologne" leave it it alone..........Good luck,

SZ

I just realized I never posted my process. I am no expert and I cured my first eggs 5 years ago and only fished my friend's or store bought eggs before that. The mention of overkill procedures made me want to post this because I was reluctant to try curing eggs after hearing about all the steps and dos and don't and the whole process seemed like it would take a while to get right. So here is my process and it is based on the fact that I fish eggs 1/4 of the time for a lot of different species in many different fishing environments. If I fished eggs a lot more I would probably go deeper but at this point I do as well as anyone I see fishing the places I fish and to blame my eggs for some guy getting lucking on back to back casts or whatever is definitely a stretch.

1. Sulfate cures catch salmon and non sulfate borax based stuff catches salmon in a lot of circumstances but definitely is the main choice for steelhead.

2. An undyed and borax cured egg can be made into a dyed and a sulfate laced milky egg on the day of fishing with the addition of "juice" like fluids. I add these to the eggs at the river sometimes, sometimes the night before. So borax cured eggs are always more versatile which is a valuable feature

3. When fish is caught I bleed at river on leash while it is alive by cutting the gill in just one side of fish and "take the dog for a walk".

4. Once fish is bled you have a choice. If and only if I have a clean ziplock bag do I carefully cut eggs from body at the river and put them in the bag minimizing contact with anything including fish's bodily fluids and river water. Ideally scein should look kinda dry in the ziplock and enclosed by membrane. If I don't have a ziplock I keep the fish cool and leave body in tact. With proper bleeding and chill the eggs should be safe inside the fish. If the eggs are loose when I cut open the fish I don't bother, I hate dealing with loose eggs and would only do this in an absolutely need to basis which hasn't happened yet.

5. Sceins are butterfly cut as said before in this thread, and sprinkled for a minimal coating of borax or borax o fire type stuff. If eggs are wet a while later I rotate more and maybe add more borax and repeat if still super wet. Better eggs for me offer durability while fishing and are often less wet after the addition of cures in my experience.

6. In the end you should have a nice gooey product that can be used any time anywhere, altered to be a springer catcher or left alone to catch those picky low water winter steelhead. It shouldn't smell really bad, if that is the case I would check your fishing handling and egg handling procedures.

And again, I am no expert but that is my current system.

All you ever need to know about curing eggs.

If it looks like bait and smells like bait, it's bait and fish will eat it, salmon and steelhead alike.

Slow water and fishing stationary bait on anchor are two possible exceptions where scent plays perhaps a more significant role than appearance, and in those instances one formula can certainly out-perform another.

My experience would seem to say that as long as you do a half decent job of curing bait and do the same half decent job of putting it in front of fish, you'll catch a few.

Too bad sthlhdr1 stopped selling the "ultimate egg cure" a few years back. It truly was the ultimate. These days I buy Pautzkes in pink, orange, and red.

Just added some bottom of the bags tuna oil/juice/blood to a quart jar of berries being cured up. These will be smelly and fishy.............Lol. Good luck,

SZ

that will be a funky mess! expect some major success.

I have one gallon bag of UEC left. I'm not parting with it. This is the "old school" recipe that was made before Stldr1 had something similar bottled up for a while. Also only have 2 quarts of frozen UEC eggs in the ready. One will get used up next week.

This cure is flat out money on salmon. Sometimes.

I've seen those cured eggs shine in places that were awfully dark and gloomy....and I've seen them go cold as ice when good old ProGlow/ProCure eggs lit up the place.

For salmon, it's always a good idea to have more than one type of cured eggs on hand.

For steelhead - as long as your bait is red or pink, don't think it matters too much. Just put it in front of their face and they will bite it.

Agreed.Good luck,

SZ

just in case you didn't read between the lines:


paker doesn't catch enough fish to actually have eggs to cure, but, if you take him out in your boat and he reels in a fish, he'll cure the eggs and bring them the next time you take him out on your boat. you might get to use them, or not...

Now that the divorce is nearly final and the youngen has turned 3, I'm going to get back into the egg cure world... Looking to launch a 2nd recipe as well, one that I've held tightly too for my own use..

As to the smell of the eggs in this post, how long were the eggs out of the fish before cured? How many days did they cure? What temp did they cure at?

My guess is you've got a good batch going, that smell of "snake-piss" can't be beat in the egg world, the kings go nuts over it!

Keith

I'm down to my last 1/2 bottle of UEC so this is great news. Let us know when it becomes available again!

Let me know when you are back in business Keith and put me down for a case

For sure. I'll put a post up on the board here when the day comes... Plus email/call the hundreds that have requested it over the last few years...

Keith

I'll +1 on some of that UEC when it's available.

two words 20 mule team & smell is your friend