# egg cure process



## ballast (Sep 15, 2011)

I have been blessed with the coveted brown trout eggs, I'm picking them up in the morning. 
Q: how much time do I have to cure them ( I have to order the "fire cure")?
Q: can I freeze them before curing?


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## steelstalker (Nov 29, 2013)

do not freeze,do not cure,best used fresh,tie small spawn bags and keep in jar in the fridge.


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## Archer4life (Apr 16, 2013)

If its skein and you dont want to cure. Rinse them. Dry them off Wrap them in some paper towel and put them in a zip lock. Squeeze the air out of the bag. The paper towel will keep the ice crystals off the eggs. Done without the eggs will be a runny mess when you thaw them and cut them in bag size chunks. they will milk out quicker. the ice crystals puncture the egg membranes hence the runny eggs. If they are singles fill a bucket with water and enough kosher salt to float a egg. Add loose eggs and refrigerate over night. You will have beautiful bright eggs. Tie them in sacks and freeze them the same as the skein . If you want to use cure use x cure. Erie outfitters sells it and it is awesome. Eggs come out looking and smelling like they just came out of the fish. Works well on skein and loose eggs. Just my 2 cents.


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## master of steel (Oct 12, 2008)

I fish with uncured eggs most of the time and what I don't use gets cured with Flashcure. I dry my eggs before putting in them in tupperware containers. I'll let them freeze overnight and the next day I pop them out and use my vacuum food sealer. I have eggs from last year that I used recently and caught a lot of fish.


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## ballast (Sep 15, 2011)

The eggs look real good, singles I believe. I'm gona use um uncured tomorrow morning and the cure doesn't come till the 17th. It's. Two fish full!! That's enough to keep me fishing the next two years. So I'll do um a few different way but I gata keep um preserved.


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## MadMax1 (Aug 27, 2012)

I always go brown sugar, canning salt, borax laundry booster. Heavy solution for 10 min, let dry till tacky. Always works great for me. However, my uncle has brought me king & coho eggs from MI each fall that he uses fire cure or something similar. It makes my hands and vest pink, and my wife yells at me when they spatter around and stain stuff when I'm hastily tying in my kitchen at 5am... Some days they work great, and other days not. My home cure seems to work more consistently. One other downside to the cures w dye in it - it will dye the spawn mesh. I like using white spawn mesh often, but it all just ends up pink... If you can used uncured eggs before they go south, that is best IMO!


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## ballast (Sep 15, 2011)

I'm new to steelhead fishing and have been skunked on my home cure the last 7 times out, they looked an smelled good to me. I'm getting desperate at this point. The first few fish I got came on what I call "membrane" because there wasn't many actual eggs in it. Basically someone's scraps from a harvest, and you wanna talk runny me vest is still stained!! I'm a little overwhelmed by the feed back so far. But I got enough to do some different things so please keep the feed back coming


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## salmonsteel97 (Dec 26, 2013)

[ame]http://youtu.be/yPsryzBUUpk[/ame]

I've been doing this cure for a while and it's my favorite by far. In the end it pretty much is the most natural when everything is said and done and last for a while in the freezer.


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## MadMax1 (Aug 27, 2012)

ballast said:


> I'm new to steelhead fishing and have been skunked on my home cure the last 7 times out, they looked an smelled good to me. I'm getting desperate at this point. The first few fish I got came on what I call "membrane" because there wasn't many actual eggs in it. Basically someone's scraps from a harvest, and you wanna talk runny me vest is still stained!! I'm a little overwhelmed buy the feed back so far. But I got enough to do some different things so please keep the feed back coming



If you're a newbie, I'd look more into your rig / presentation. I catch a bunch each season on yarn flies (just a puff of yarn tied to a hook). If it looks like food and is drifted right, a steelhead will pick it up for a taste. I believe a better cure will bring more success but it's only a piece of a detailed process... That being said - buy some store bought spawn sacks. The ones you can buy at Erie outfitters or Rod maker shop have brought me many fish in the past. Then you know your drift looks right, then you can dial in your cure.


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## lowhole4trowt (Feb 1, 2014)

^^agreed. cures don't matter if it ain't in the zone.


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## ballast (Sep 15, 2011)

I've been changing up things, every few drifts. Every week I get discouraged and every week I go back for more.


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## ballast (Sep 15, 2011)

Tomorrow being lowish flow will probably cause me a problem too.


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## lowhole4trowt (Feb 1, 2014)

don't rule out other options...live minnows under a float or throwing spinners, spoons, or plugs can be good in the froggy stuff.


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## ballast (Sep 15, 2011)

Word, ironically all week at work I've plan to fish a new area (newto me) with a spinner and crankbait until I found driftable holes. I only really know spots that ppl pound and u gotta be there an hour before daylight, only to watch a local guy catch my active fish.... I say my active fish because I'm selfish, LOL


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## ChromeBone (Oct 3, 2011)

Im leaving around 2:30 am to go fish the beaches with spoons close to PA from Cbus, hopefully the conditions are good, a buddy and I are bringing some extra gear also to stop at one of the tribs on the way back. I just use a fly rod, but I cure eggs for my friends who come. I actually caught exactly the same amount of fish in the past with jig/grub. minnow, spawn. Its all about the presentation, you need to get your bait to cruise right across the bottom in the most natural look as possible. I cure my eggs with Fire cure, pink or orange, but I flash cook my eggs for 30 sec in hot water first before I cure them. Makes the skin like rubber(eggs bounce when you drop them after cured) and I have eggs from 3 years ago that still look good in the freezer.


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## ballast (Sep 15, 2011)

The eggs didn't produce, but a spoon did. I took some natural with me and some different kinds of old cured eggs I had in the fridge. Low n clear conditions, I was happy I have some rubbery singles. But I'm not sure if they were real or fake eggs. 

Q: if I flash boil some eggs can I but a hook right through them?

I took a handful and did the YouTube method in this post, I think I washed the sank off of um? But I'm not sure.


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## baby blue (Sep 8, 2005)

Don't cure them! You'll catch way ore fish with natural uncured eggs. 
Been at this a very long time. Trust me 
BB


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## ballast (Sep 15, 2011)

I kept a season worth uncured. Ima officially stocked till 2016! I would like to get my hands on some salmon eggs though. I'd like to post some pictures but my windows phone makes it impossible. I keep putting the mobile app on my girlfriends iPhone and she keeps deleting it. So I just don't share pics anymore


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## surewoodys (Jun 24, 2008)

how long will fresh skein keep in the fridge, what is the best way to store and get the longest time out of it.


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## salmonsteel97 (Dec 26, 2013)

surewoodys said:


> how long will fresh skein keep in the fridge, what is the best way to store and get the longest time out of it.



Fresh eggs won't last to long, in the fridge the best way to keep them is freeze them and when you want to fish thaw it out it only takes about 1 1/2 maybe 2 to thaw.


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## MadMax1 (Aug 27, 2012)

ballast said:


> I kept a season worth uncured. Ima officially stocked till 2016! I would like to get my hands on some salmon eggs though. I'd like to post some pictures but my windows phone makes it impossible. I keep putting the mobile app on my girlfriends iPhone and she keeps deleting it. So I just don't share pics anymore



Ballast, I assume you froze your uncured for longevity? 


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