iv been using procure for a while now with soso results. i want to try something new this time. does anyone wanna share a cure that they seem to get good results on?

i got a good method of splitting the skeins right down the middle let dry for a while.then i cut them into baits and put them in a breadsack pour some borax in the sack and lightly roll the sack around until the baits are covered then put them into containers.its quick and easy good luck.

Stay with pro-cure double redd,but try tweekin the cure a little.Good luck. STRIKE ZONE

only problem iv had with procure is i cant seem to get the eggs to 'clump' together like they should. there a ***** to cut cause they fall apart so easy.

Hey thisbudsforu eggs are my life, they are what I live for, to smell to look at and to fish. The best eggcure on the market is Proglow. The biggest trick to curing eggs is making sure they are fresh, you don't want them to get to hot and you don't want them to get to cold (never put them on ice) it breaks down the skein. Blood is the biggest issue when it comes to soft eggs. When you catch a female never kill it by hitting it on the head. Either rip its gills out and let it lay and bleed. Then when done take the eggs out and put in a plastic bag. The best thing is to keep them in a cooler at 40-45 degrees. Once you get home butterfly the eggs, rinse them in cold water removing all blood if possible, cut into chunks and put in a large jar or plastic never in metal though. Sprinkle the egg cure on the eggs as if you were heavily salting a potato. Once you've done all your eggs then put the lid on and stir and cure in the fridge for 4-5 days. Once that is done vacuum-seal the eggs in pint jars and freeze to keep the best freshness. IF THIS ISN'T THE BEST EGG CURE EVER I'LL KISS ANYBODYS FEET WHO CAN OUTFISH THEM!!!!! Email me at stlhdr1@hotmail.com if you have any more questions.

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hey, thanks for the replies, ill give em a try, looks like i gotta get some proglow to.

Not out to one up or try to get my feet kissed but I would like to add 2 cents worth of suggestions that might help curing eggs. I agree with much of what Stlhdr1 posted. Especially about quickly and properly bleeding and harvesting the eggs as fresh as possible and kept cool and clean (use gloves and plain paper towells and into a large ziplock for the cooler). Proglo is right up there a smidge above Pro-Cure and even Quick-Cure as far as OTC cures go. That is because they use the least costic dye and highest quality of sodium sulfite. Store bought cures can be improved upon with modification, or with accumilated knowledge custom scratch cures can be better than any of them. A few tips that will will help your eggs be more productive: only rinse off uncured eggs with almost frozen distilled water because the low temp will close the eggsack pores and not allow them to waste some milkout and you won't have any chlorine concern. Pad them off with non-inked plain white paper towells. Use a little less cure than the instructions call for per pound of eggs so as not too overchem them, and also to allow for modifications. For freshwater King egg fishing you will do best if you have some degree of flexibility for their moodiness. One mod is to put in 1 T. MSG (Sun Luck is best) per 10 T. cure before curing. After sprinkling on the cure it's best to leave them out in room temperature for a couple hours so that the pores will open better for thorough juicing and thus curing, rotating &/or mixing them about every half hour. Then refridgerate them for up to a few days before freezing, turning them upside down each morning and evening. Most of the egg juice will be reabsorbed back into the egg sacks within 3 days, which gives them better and longer milking ability. For some of the eggs put in fresh sardine filets in the egg juice during curing and some of that excellant baitfish oil will be absorbed into the sacks (and this will also leave you with great eggcure scented reddish sardine filets for wrapping on Kwikfish bellies -killer!). I agree with jarring the eggs for freezing without drying them if they are good tight skeins, because they will be less prone to freezer burn (overdrying) and also importantly look and feel softer and more natural to the fish; and when done properly as descirbed above will have plenty of juice to last awhile on the hook. If they are loose &/or gooey eggs then dry them out for awile and roll them in borax to toughen them. After thawing, another good mod is to put a VERY LIGHT sprinkling of food grade sodium nitrate on some of the eggs the night before fishing. Many times the Kings will want this more than without it so if your nitrate eggs are getting more strikes set the others out and sprinkle them very lightly while out on the river. For the non-nitrate eggs, that you have not overchemed during curing, they are good for trying bait oils on; such as shrimp oil and sometimes a light spray of WD40. Vary your well cured eggs when necessary and you will be in the bite (and in the ballpark with the better guides). -- As for steelhead fishing eggs, steelies don't like quite as much sodium sulfite in the cures as Kings do. However, they will take the stock OTC cured eggs well enough. I suggest either using about half the amount of cure for steelhead eggs or just use a little sugar and non-iodized salt shaken on the eggs, and then roll them in some pink colored egg curing borax; that works great for steelies. Adding a little quality shrimp oil or tuna oil are good varients to try. Be flexable with your egg cures for best success. - Good fishing. - RT




[This message has been edited by Reel Truth (edited 09-29-2000).]

This may sound crazy, but red JELLO! No kidding. Rinse and care for the eggs just like these other guys have said and pat them dry with clean white paper towels. Mix borax with enough raspberry Jello to get a pink color (personal preference and experimentation). Sprinkle the mixture over the eggs and between the layers of eggs inside the scein. Carefully shake off the excess powder and store as you like. The Jello helps stick the eggs together and hold some of the Borax on the bait longer.

I knew some guys in Eastern Washington that swore by this method... and would sooner use a closed-face spinning reel than buy a commercial egg cure. It worked really well on the White Salmon, Columbia, and some of the smaller rivers.

I clean all my fish ASAP after landing and tagging. I pull the skeins and put them on a towel or burlap and put them in the cooler. If you buy eggs from a commercial fisherman, like I did last month, watch out for the bloody eggs because they turn dark. About a third of the ones I bought turned dark. Just make sure to package these separately becuase they will spoil the good ones and turn mushy when thawed out.

Split the skeins lengthwise down the side with a knife, spread them out, and put on towels or burlap, on racks, in the refrigerator. Let dry for three days. Use 20 mule team borax laundry booster(1 cup) to 1 teaspoon non-iodized salt. Mix in a large tub or bowl. Add the skeins and mix in the cure. Hold the tough part of the skein on your fingers so the eggs spread apart, and sprinkle the borax mixture in every nook and cranny. Take a knife and cut through where the skeins were originally cut. Then you can cut in half or in bait size pieces if you prefer and add borax mixture to those areas that you cut. Add some of the borax mixture to the bottom of the container and put in a layer of eggs. Add borax on top and another layer of eggs and more borax on top. Put lid on, mark the type of eggs, e.g.,chinook, coho, and the date. Put in freezer.

My fishing buddies only cure this way and it works. Probably would be a good idea to try other cures. I've heard that guides will use several different types of cures.

Hey REEL TRUTH stlhdr1 here we should get together sometime and maybe do some fishing, theres nothing like fishing with someone who knows what they are doing and has good eggs. As far as the sodium nitrate thing I had tried that years ago and hated it. I never noticed it helping and making a better bite. IVE GOT SOME STUFF I WOULD LIKE TO SEND YOU FOR CHINOOK OR IF WE GET TOGETHER I'LL LET YOU TRY IT. I know on the Lewis and the Cowlitz there is nothing that outfishes it. Not to be egotistical but I honestly have never had any competition on the lewis or cowlitz for salmon. That's including Clancy or any of his crew now and back in the early 90's. Please email me because at 25 years of age I always want to better myself thats why I ask if anyone out there has any super SCENTS FOR CHINOOKS AND SILVERS!!!!
EMAIL AT stlhdr1@hotmail.com

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Hi St 1. I have given you a long reply under the other post thread about scents. Let me know what you think of it. - As for the sodium nitrate, give it another try on some eggs that are cured up easy (less than instructions call for) and using a high food grade quality nitrate in very light amounts. It works well when they are in a different level of sodium mood. Let me know how you used it when it wasn't effective. I'll e-mail ya. - RT

Try putting up a small batch of chum eggs with watermellon jello. The already yellowish-orange eggs takes on a beautiful lite-pinkish hue. These have worked well under clear conditions.

Sounds like a good idea Howaiian, One thing that I have noticed is bringing strains of eggs from other rivers. For instance I have caught silver and chinook eggs from the penninsula and used them in the lewis and have killed the steelhead when my best fishing buddy using the exact same cure just with eggs from the lewis catching very few. I've also noticed that Chum eggs are one of the best eggs if you can get them tight. I have a tough time getting my hands on many seeing how the closest chum run to me is the grays river and it closes to all fishing from OCT16-NOV16 that damn game department...

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Love the info guys,can anybody tell me the shelf life of these eggs.

Pennsylvania? What do you know about salmon roe in Pennsylvania? After I cure my eggs I freeze them in clumps big enough to use in a day of fishing. Then I vacuum pack them in the plastic bags that come with the vacuum packer. You must freeze them first or they will get crushed by the vacuuming process. I have eggs in my freezer that are over a year old, they work great and don't get freezer burn in those vacuum bags.Just kidding about Pennsylvania.

My favorite eggs are are fresh chum tight and right ....thats all I know

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Row Quietly and fish a Cataraft }<<(('>----<'))>>{
Release all Wild Fish

I like mine tight and right too! Same thing with eggs. Beat ya to the punch RT!

Seriously, I have my best luck on steelies with brined and boraxed chum eggs. I keep it simple by soaking them in a solution of plain salt and sugar. Then I dry them on paper towels and roll in borax. The steelies really seem to much the snot out of them and the takes feel like hard trout takes. The color is orange to begin with so they taste good(to the fish) and retain their natural color. Awesome!!

For salmon, I think the super cure has already been disclosed.

Justin
CEO, Sauk River Steelhead Ranch

So here's the recipe for the last batch I did that turned out pretty darn good:
3 tablespoons Pro-Cure Wizard double neon red
3 tablespoons Pro-Glow plain
3 tablespoons Sure-Cure rocket red
1 tablespoon MSG
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 tablespoon Pro-Glow red coloring

After shaking and mixing it well this was added sparingly (until a good juice was formed in the two quart butter tub I was using) onto two skiens of nook eggs that were quartered. After letting them juice up real good I put them into two one quart mason jars and put em' in the fridge. after a day or so thay had sucked all the juice back into the eggs. If I am going to use eggs soon I do not freeze them, to me fresh eggs out fish frozen eggs any day of the week. Used them on the Cowlitz last week and put a couple of fish in the boat with em'.
All I can add is to experiment, experiment, experiment til you find the cure that works for you.
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

Ok here goes the simple man's egg cure.

Bought some dark king eggs off the egg man on the puyallup aweek ago. Very dark but worked well fresh out and let dry in the warm day. Hooked a nice 4 lb hen silver clipped fish.

Brought them home and had no time to cure right up, so packed tight and froze.

Went to store and bought 2 packages of rasberry jello, shaker can of accent food flavor hencer(msg) and some brown sugar.
Cut eggs into strips, added jello and accent, let dry on racks of BBQ. turned over and spinkled other side, did this 3 times each side.
Cut into large bait size chunks and added to sealed bowl, Pro cure red, let juice up heavily. Froze contents after 5 hours in bath.
Thawed before going fishing last sunday. Took out of container and drain excess juice.

Nice and tight, firm egg cluster's, jello let's em milk out slowly and they hold toegther real strong.
Suprise is they now smell of fish egg's and not berries.

Take it for what you want, but the jello works as a bonding agent and a dispersent agent.

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elmtree (woody)

[This message has been edited by elmtree (edited 10-11-2000).]

All these ideas and cures are great. To steelheader 1, you obviosly like your eggs, but no one out fishes Mike Sexton with bait, the man has some mystical magical cure and just plain knows how to fish them on the rivers you mentioned. He has done some eggs for me before and I did not think that they were that much better until I was the guy catching all the fish in a crowd of fisherman getting nothing. That made me a believer so much that ever since then I have constantly been trying different things and mixtures with various cures and scents. I really like R.T's ideas.
Peace Superfly