Northwest Fishing Reports

I am hoping to start a thread for us all to share our egg curing recipes. We all have them, we all use different ones, and we all like to experiment, so why not share some ideas! Brian tried to start this thread up about a month ago but it died, so I am trying again to generate some recipes.

Just put up a huge batch of eggs today, 18 skeins. I like to brine my eggs in a liquid brine, although I have done them in just dry borax before as well. Generally, I like to brine them fresh within 48 hours of coming out of the fish, but this batch was a bunch of coho and chum eggs I have been saving up for steelhead and they were all previously frozen. I have found that freezing eggs prior to curing is OK, but there are a few rules to follow. First, make sure they are really dry before you freeze them, and wrap the clean/dry skeins in paper towels before sticking them in the freezer. The MOST IMPORTANT part about using frozen eggs is to thaw them SLOWLY. The refrigerator is best, and it should take about 2 days for them to become completely thawed. If you thaw them on the counter or at room temp they instantly go to mush and you ruin your bait. The brine recipe that I use is simple, and very effective.

WEAR LATEX OR NYLON GLOVES WHEN HANDLING YOUR BAIT!

1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Non-Iodized Salt
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
4 Cups of Water (I use distilled, but tap water is fine)
And optionally you can use bait dye, Kool-Aid, or Food coloring to add color. I generally go with Bright Red or Fluorescent Pink, but green can be killer sometimes. For this batch I used a pro-cure product called "Bad Azz Bait Dye" it is a product enhanced with UV and I am excited to try it out, I used about 2 good squirts of the liquid and it dyed the eggs nicely.

Start by butterflying your eggs down the middle, but don't cut through the membrane on the other side. I cut the skeins into a few pieces, and wait to cut them into bait sized chunks after they are dried. Mix all of those ingredients in a pot, and bring them to a boil stirring frequently to dissolve the granulated ingredients, I use a whisk and stir almost continuously until it boils. Remove the pot from heat and allow it to cool to room temp. Add your eggs and soak for 15-30 minutes, I generally do about 25 minutes and stir the batch about every 5 minutes. Strain them out, and place on newspaper to dry. Drying time varies to your liking and is between 8 to 24 hours. After drying roll them in dry borax for ease of handling. The loose eggs left over are great for spawn sacs and the loose eggs will REALLY take the color from the dye I have found.

Does anyone else have a cure they would like to share? Assuming its not a super secret kept under lock and key :safe:

Before Cure:


After Cure and 6 hours of drying:

Well kinda same process with the way you cut your skiens up. I go with chunks between usually 1-2 inches. I use to use procure and borax. But I started using pautzke's. Just take my bait size chunks toss em in a ziplock. Pour in some pautzke's boraxofire and shake em up a bit. let them sit for 24 hours and they are ready to go. They have a variety of colors pink red orange natural. They might have more but this is what I seen. The more you use the drier the eggs will be. So wet eggs not so much or toss it on and dry em out. We seen the videos this cure is the truth. But I really hardly fish with eggs. Just when Im board.

Thanks for reviving this Matt. Hope to see some good info on this thread. I've only cured eggs once, which Curado gave me some basic info for curing. Similar to yours, but I didn't add any coloring. They turned out ok, but I have yet to catch a fish on them. I think I let the skeins sit in the fridge too long before I cured them (I hear fresher is better). I did go and pick up some pro-cure that I plan to try on some prawns for my next trip out. There are so many options in the curing isle at the Outdoor Emporium that it makes your head spin.
One of the more recommended recipes when I was looking was this:
Steelhead University egg curing instructions.

Remember this guys, the more eggs you keep, the more you get to experiment thus being one step closer to a great batch of eggs.i used to throw out eggs when I had enough to fish, now I keep just to see how great of a cure I can come up with!!! Matt, thanks for bringing this back up, down to the same title lol:cheers:

Got any recipes you'd care to share Brian? In regards to the shrimp Guitarfisher from this site cured some tails up with Pautzke's Fire Cure and they looked pretty darn good. I bet if you let the shrimp air dry like you do eggs it will toughen them up as well and make them more apt to stay on the hook longer.

Thanks for sharing Matt.

I'm still learning this art, I've screwed up and burned too many eggs with procure, pauztke seems the easiest to use. They look pretty nice. I haven't used them yet, just put them in the freezer, saving them for rainy days.

Any tips on storing these eggs guys? I froze them and vacuum sealed the next day.

Vacuum sealing is ideal, but if you cover them completely in borax, squeeze the air out of the bag and freeze them they won't freezer burn. I think the best way is to make little "one day" packages with enough eggs for one outing and vacuum seal them on a "low/gentle" setting, if you do it at full power it can crush the eggs. Cured eggs can last MONTHS in the refrigerator so ideally you don't even need to freeze them if you plan to use them in a reasonable amount of time. Frozen eggs have an incredibly long shelf life as well, I have used eggs over a year old and caught fish with them. Some people prefer using tupperware containers or glass jars to store their eggs and those work also. I prefer using plastic bags so that they can be easily carried in my vest when hiking although I find tupperware ideal when fishing from a boat.

Give that liquid brine a shot Kzoo, the fish love the sugar and the eggs come out very evenly cured and supple.

The last batch I did up was with pro-glo, the red kind. It was really a nice cure, I just followed the instructions. I've caught about ten fish on it, so it works. the eggs stayed on the hook nicely, kept well and I have no complaints.

Back when I first started fishing for salmon/steelhead I used to just sprinkle a little salt on them and leave them till I like the texture and place in a bag with borax.
Since that time I have tried several of the pro-cures, but was not satisfied with the time of processing or the results.
So I have kind of gone full circle.
Being a simple man I have gone to the path of least resistance and now I just lay my butterflied skeins on paper towels.
Sprinkle with salt and sugar. Leave them like that until they are almost at the desired texture. Then sprinkle some colored borax on for one night (or so) to put some of the color back in the eggs and finish the toughening process. Then vacuum pack.
And they work great.
Went for steelhead yesterday.
Had 4 bumps, put two on the beach - life is good.

i like to add anise & sandshrimp oil to my batches (saves time addin a bunch of stink on'em riverside). also if you run outta of eggs or just prefer to buy them from the store. i found out when i was fishing for springers that if i took those store bought tubs and squirted a good amount of pro-cure butt juice on'em they fished a lot better (got a 18lb plus native on butt juiced eggs threw her back of course).

I am a stickler of bleeding my Hens immediately. I have been experiementing with 3 different cures, but frustrated because I cured them all up for Salmon and none for Steelies. For Steelhead I am going to use the simple borax, salt and sugar cure and another zipperlip one...

So youre telling me that ones that are cured for steelhead dont work for salmon and the ones cured for salmon dont work for steelhead? Man Thats what I did wrong I musta bought the steelhead kind when it was salmon season cause I didnt get any. Im all set now for steelies then lol. See ya in a bit Jens. OH I have to call lami still.

I like brineing my eggs in luke warm water, 2 cups of salt, 1 cup sugar, and orange food coloring for about 6-8 hours.....then I cut them into bait size pieces and air dry on wax paper.....I use a fan and turn them every 3-4 hours or so, and do this for 12-18 hours......these eggs will turn rubbery and almost bounce when you throw them on the ground, but milk out real nice......

P.S. I have had success with adding lime green jello for color and they work great for non biting silvers[thumbup]

flinginpooh wrote:So youre telling me that ones that are cured for steelhead dont work for salmon and the ones cured for salmon dont work for steelhead? Man Thats what I did wrong I musta bought the steelhead kind when it was salmon season cause I didnt get any. Im all set now for steelies then lol. See ya in a bit Jens. OH I have to call lami still.

Maybe someone else can chime in, Steelies like a sweeter, firmer egg. Today must be my lucky day! I just received 2 Certified Pros and an Xmg50! Woo hoo! Thanks Pooh, Uncle Ben and Billy!

I agree that steelhead like the sweet eggs. I have also heard of some people using brown sugar instead of regular granulated sugar. I have never tried it myself, but I could see it working. It probably makes the eggs really sticky though.

Matt wrote:I agree that steelhead like the sweet eggs. I have also heard of some people using brown sugar instead of regular granulated sugar. I have never tried it myself, but I could see it working. It probably makes the eggs really sticky though.

Ray's Baits puts out a brown sugar batch, I used it. It works.

jens wrote:

flinginpooh wrote:So youre telling me that ones that are cured for steelhead dont work for salmon and the ones cured for salmon dont work for steelhead? Man Thats what I did wrong I musta bought the steelhead kind when it was salmon season cause I didnt get any. Im all set now for steelies then lol. See ya in a bit Jens. OH I have to call lami still.

Maybe someone else can chime in, Steelies like a sweeter, firmer egg. Today must be my lucky day! I just received 2 Certified Pros and an Xmg50! Woo hoo! Thanks Pooh, Uncle Ben and Billy!

I fish the XMG, I love it.

For a natural cure I really like just plain borax. seems to make the eggs really firm and juicy. I also use fire cure. Before I cure I always make sure to fold my skeins inside out, then cut them into chunks. I feel like this looks more natural in the water. basically, I start by sprinkling the cure onto each skein, making sure not to add too much to "scorch" the eggs. I do this, put em in a jar overnight, and in the morning they're nicely colored and look great. i drain the juice then store them in the freezer in a ziploc bag with borax.. My favorite cures/colors are fire cure in flourescent orange as well as pro cure tillamook blend.

steelhead love sweet roe AKA CANDIED ROE. i use cures designed for steelhead and add jello and some other things to it, to sweeten them up. i made up a cure that i have used all summer and that is cure x it works on steelhead because it is sweeter then just a steelhead cure. salty cures work to but they catch more natives due to the sodium smell it puts off.

bringin this one back for all the eggers. also its pink season