Curing Eggs

New to curing eggs. Got a 10 pound hen on the nooch yesterday and i am curious what everyone does to cure the eggs. Any ideas would be appreciated.

# 1..... Why was it important that you mentioned a "beat on, over worked" river ??? Do you think, eggs from that river, cure different from any other river????

# 2..... If you can post, then you can do a search, try it !!!

Old saying "God helps those, that help themselves", try using search you'll be surprised at the information available.

Thanks for the info fishstickk! appreciate it. And yes, a ton of pressure for sure but it seems like all rivers are getting that way.

No kidding, funny coming from the guy posting directions and updates to the 7400 after it reopened.

For steelhead, I've had good results with the cure Bob has in the tips section on this website. I haven't tried it for salmon and use cures with more chemicals.

Curing eggs can seem daunting due to all the different commercial cures out there but, to be honest, you cannot go wrong with any of them you choose.

The two types that most people use are:

Sulfite based (Pro Cure, Pautzke Fire Cure)
Borax (Borx-O-Fire made my Pautzke or your own home made cure).

There are a ton of videos on youtube with great examples of all of these types of cures. It's good watching if you have time.

Basics are: Salmon - Go with sulfite based cures. Steelhead - borax based cures.

There are always exceptions to the rules and you can mix and match your own recipes but that's part of the fun of this whole game.

You caught a fish on the Wynoochee?!

I'm hopping in my truck and have my 21x86 Pavati in tow right now! It must be on FIRE!

Good advice already on here. Bleed and ice your fish. Keep the eggs dry and clean.

I like Pautzke fire cure for a general cure. I've caught salmon and steelhead with it.

Butterfly out the eggs, sprinkle cure, toss them in a bag or jar and keep turning them for the next 2 days. Put them in the fridge for a day. Juices should absorb back up and then you can throw them in the freezer.

If I were to pick my favorite all around cure, it would be Pautzke Borx o Fire.

It's super easy and you get a really nice result. Its a great cure for both salmon and steelhead. I really like it because you dont have to worry about using too much cure.

Here are some of my favorite videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqAWCQz7jEY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cooUbxtEhQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1glVNCHyAKE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8aLV_N6yOc

Hope that helps buddy. Good to have a discussion about fishing.

LOL

Only the ones that are open any more.

i like fire cure, BoF is great too, but i have better results with FC... the purple one...

as FS said, bleed your fish immediately, i tend to just lighly whack them on the head with my pliers and cut the gills, so they are still alive and pump the blood out on their own...

i dont remove the eggs at the river, but you must keep the fish cool, absolutely must....

when i get home, i take the eggs out and lay them on paper towels for a bit to drain some of the moisture, but not too long, 10-20 minutes or so...

i then butterfly them like everyone else, lightly sprinkle on the non membrane (center of skein) side, and throw them in a jar with a good lid... then lightly sprinkle some in the jar on top of the skein side, and keep layering till you get about 3/4 of the way full, add just a tad more, close the lid, and swirl the eggs and cure around to get all of it coated...

stick them on the counter for 24 hours, swirling every couple hours, turn upside down, let sit, swirl, ect... do that till they suck up the juice...

i then take them out after about 2 days, and air dry them for about an hour or so, till they get slightly tacky, not hard, pay attention to that part....

i then take a bag and put some borax on the bottom of it, and throw a skein in, roll around, little more borax, repeat, ect, till you are done... you can then either bring the whole bag with you, or put in tupperware containers and bring them...

thats one way i do it... then theres also liquid cures, but thats another story....

I like this cure,when I don't feel like the 3 part borax 2 part granulated sugar 1 part non iodized salt cure,which I sprinkle on the eggs,and shake off,set in a ziploc baggie in the fridge for 3 days and then fish. If I want eggs I can fish next day I do 1 quarts of water to 1 cup borax 1 cup sugar 1 cup non iodized salt. Mix all that in a blow and submerge the eggs. I use Rogue red fire cure in it for color,and I use a tablespoon no more. Mix the eggs gently in the brine and agitate the cure,it doesnt dissolve so you gotta swish all that crap around. After an hour and 20 minutes or so I pull the eggs out,dry them on paper towels over newspaper overnight,and either freeze or fish. Great cure but messier than 3-2-1 and sometimes they need to be dried out. But hey I caught [Bleeeeep!] tons of steelhead on just straight boraxed eggs,where you cut the roe up into bite sized pieces,let stand for a while till tacky,roll in borax ,and layer in containers,borax,eggs until COMPLETELY covered in borax,another layer of eggs,borax(make sure you can't see the eggs),borax,eggs,etc until the top is near full,cover with borax until you can't see the eggs,and fish em. I let them sit in a fridge for a couple days before I freeze. Salmon cures are another ball of wax.


Hey Drifter I'm booking a flight tomorrow to fish the Nooch from central cali. I'm gonna fish black creek or whatever that spot was I checked out years ago because hey,that river is a fkn zipperlip. So secret in fact,that I ,a guy from Monterey,has fished it. AMAZING what the internet can do! Either that or some of us get off our asses and actually explore. Betcha never heard of the Salmonberry,Naselle,and Pistol and Mattole rivers either huh. It cracks me up because while there may be more info out there I saw pictures from the 60's on one of the zipperlip rivers near me (the San Lorenzo) where there were like 1000 people down there catching cohos,which are now all but extinct. Hmmm,pre internet. There is always the pendulum effect where there is too much sharing to where no one wants to share,and hopefully the pendulum swings back to a happy medium. I hope the same happens in the political climate as well,you know,where we all love each other and work together for a common goal? Good luck...


My name is Robert Ford,and I approve of this amazing post!!

butterfly skeins, place in a quart jar or gallon ziploc, cover with pro core liquid brine. let them sit in the cure 48 hours moving them around in the container the first 2 hours then flipping after the 1st 24hrs. after 48hrs pull out to air dry depending on preference. for side drifting, back bouncing, plunking or diver fishing a longer dry time is preferred for a more durable egg.

what's a wynoochee?

A wynoochee is a large boat with little water surrounding it and few fish.

small water and a few fish? sounds like the place to be. directions please, also include GPS coordinates to the best holes.

Dammit, you made me spit my Cheerios out.

I cannot believe people actually fish clusters of potential fish embryos just to catch another fish and fish more clusters of potential fish embryos.

No wonder we don't have any fish.

I'm more concerned about the sand shrimp population. Savage.

Wrong, its a drift boat river, where "bumper boats is the norm", a river where a winter time 5 a m put in is "necessary" to get the jump on other drift boats, so you "row/float" down the river......then wait until its light to be able to fish......then always looking up river to make sure your "being first" is not being jeopardized......and hoping no one has "cut you off"

Bumper boats was fun when I was 7 down in long beach on family vacation but, with a little homework and some bushwackin you can get on some fish in an area with little to no pressure. It's a lot of work, time and money. It's just a better way to enjoy our outdoors and even if the fishing is slow, it still beats playing bumper boats and MAYBE picking up a fish. Some of my best days fishing have been with 1 person to nobody in sight, always rewarding to get some fish to bite that have not been pressured and pounded on. Makes it all worth it.

This. I put a couple thoughts in red. Just thoughts and no one egg cure method is better than others.

Can't go wrong with what FishStickk posted.

Variety is the key most of the time. I got to witness this first hand years ago on a coastal river for fall salmon. 4 boats anchored in a row, everybody throwing eggs and no catching to be had, fish all over the place. It was then a drift boat came down with some clients, anchored above us and put the smackdown on 3 chinook with the quickness using eggs as well. There's always that one potion that will get inhaled. That was the last time I left the house with 1 type of cured eggs.