Artificial Roe?

[schu7498]

x factor eggs produced well for me on the skokomish last year during the king run.

[Bobberdownchromer]

Last saturday I had a ton of bobber downs with the xfactor eggs on the wallace.

[drysuperfly52]

okay, time to look into Xfactor eggs

[Bobberdownchromer]

yeah also I tried drifting their shrimp tails just for the heck of it and hooked a nice silver but lost it. So they seem to work pretty good.

[FishingThePacNW]

Well i got the large egg clusters, 3" miracle worms and the red shrimp tail teasers!

[Bobberdownchromer]

Nice, the egg cluster really hold on good. Im going to hit the wallace on saturday and try the egg clusters again.

[doubleo6point9]

Curious, are any of you doing anything else with the xfactor eggs or just fishing them as is? Just wondering if I should maybe soak mine in some stuff before trying them out.

[Bobberdownchromer]

I will probaly soak them in the left over egg juice once I run out of real eggs.

[doubleo6point9]

Cool thanks for the tip.

[Live2Fish4Life]

Great topic guys! I have been fishing with the xfactor baits for over a year and I can tell you they definitely catch fish. Pretty cool to see my video get put on here I have done really well float fishing the large hot red clusters, bobber dogging them, as well as drift fishing them. A little trick to point out is how absorbant the plastic is on the baits. When I got low on my egg stash I was throwing the clusters in the left over egg juice and they worked really well. Great tip bobberdown! You just have to be careful as to what scents you use. Some are not plastic friendly and can dry up and discolor the baits. There is some scent in the works coming that I can't wait to test out that will be more like a marinade that will soak into the baits.

The shrimp tails work great on a jig head for steelhead and silvers. You can also drift fish them very effectivly as well. I would definitely suggest investing in some of the bait button disks. These will help keep the bait from sliding on the hook. With the clusters you can use a puff ball to the same effect.

The 3" miracle worms and the teaser minnows have gained a special place in my box. The small slender profiles work great for tipping jigs and they are killer for twitching! It's up to your imagination on what you can create.

The xfactor website has some great articles as well if your interested on reading up on the baits. I would be happy to share any info that may help.

Tight lines!

Rick D

[Bobberdownchromer]

Hey live2fish4life, I absoluty love your videos and have been inspired in your fishing and great job representing the lord.And I love xfactor tackle and learned about them through your videos.Thanks again

[doubleo6point9]

Great topic guys! I have been fishing with the xfactor baits for over a year and I can tell you they definitely catch fish. Pretty cool to see my video get put on here I have done really well float fishing the large hot red clusters, bobber dogging them, as well as drift fishing them. A little trick to point out is how absorbant the plastic is on the baits. When I got low on my egg stash I was throwing the clusters in the left over egg juice and they worked really well. Great tip bobberdown! You just have to be careful as to what scents you use. Some are not plastic friendly and can dry up and discolor the baits. There is some scent in the works coming that I can't wait to test out that will be more like a marinade that will soak into the baits.

The shrimp tails work great on a jig head for steelhead and silvers. You can also drift fish them very effectivly as well. I would definitely suggest investing in some of the bait button disks. These will help keep the bait from sliding on the hook. With the clusters you can use a puff ball to the same effect.

The 3" miracle worms and the teaser minnows have gained a special place in my box. The small slender profiles work great for tipping jigs and they are killer for twitching! It's up to your imagination on what you can create.

The xfactor website has some great articles as well if your interested on reading up on the baits. I would be happy to share any info that may help.

Tight lines!

Rick D

Thanks for chiming in! Do you happen to have a list of scents that would ruin the roe/shrimp/plastics? Or is there some ingredient we should be aware of that does this?

[Brat Bonker]

prawn tipped jigs work good for silvers as well (sorry fishenfreak secrets out) we had a lot of bobber downs on them the other day but missed them due to bad hooks. Yeah I really like those x factor shrimp tails, I haven't tried them yet but they look great. oh yeah and nice vids Rick D!

[Bmastro777]

So apparently I really suck at curing eggs. I follow the instructions to a T and used Borxofire on the first few batches I ruined (too mushy). So I switched to pautzkes fire cure and tried a batch that didn't cure at all really. I butterflied skeins and sprinked fire cure on both sides and put in zip lock and rolled every 20 min for the first couple hours. then put in fridge and the juice began so I said "this could work!" The juices soaked back in by morning, so I left them there for 2 more days rolling every 12 hours. The end result was basically a raw egg. Nodda cure. As I'm about to give up, Anyone know of a good site where I can buy some good cured eggs in bulk?

[BentRod]

So apparently I really suck at curing eggs. I follow the instructions to a T and used Borxofire on the first few batches I ruined (too mushy). So I switched to pautzkes fire cure and tried a batch that didn't cure at all really. I butterflied skeins and sprinked fire cure on both sides and put in zip lock and rolled every 20 min for the first couple hours. then put in fridge and the juice began so I said "this could work!" The juices soaked back in by morning, so I left them there for 2 more days rolling every 12 hours. The end result was basically a raw egg. Nodda cure. As I'm about to give up, Anyone know of a good site where I can buy some good cured eggs in bulk?

Most of the time the end product will be a very wet egg that will not be very hearty, meaning they'll fall apart after only a few casts. After finishing the curing instructions, try pulling them out and letting them air dry for a bit to toughen them up. A little borax added after the fact when they're placed back in the bag can help too, but not always necessary. My last batch using ProCure looked beautiful, but would disintegrate on the first or second cast. Those that I let sit to air dry overnight last season and have been in the freezer for the last year are holding up quite well, but don't milk near as well. Still a newbie to egg curing myself, but have learned that much so far. Don't toss the eggs you've already tried curing without trying to dry them out some first.

[strider43]

I don’t know where to buy eggs, but I know how to cures them. Use a mixture of Borax, Sugar (I use brown) and salt. mix it 3 parts borax, 2 parts sugar and 1 part salt after the about 24 hours when the juice is back in the eggs dry them on a rack for a day or until they are tough enough to stay on the hook. Dry the eggs you have and they might still be OK. The store bought cure is crap; the eggs melt if you don’t dry them or fish them the next day. I do use a little borax o fire for color.

[doubleo6point9]

I'm new at curing eggs also so I went with a wet technique that I found here on this blog: http://www.theoutdoorline.com/blog/tag/fire-brine/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and modified it for salmon vs steelhead for my salmon cure. I'm sure everyone has their secrets but a wet brine seemed hard to screw up for a newbie and I have gotten hookups with the eggs so they seem to work well enough.

[HillbillyGeek]

EZ eggs work great on jig heads when you want a small presentation. I like a black head + two green eggs.
Styrofoam drift balls also work but they don't stay on the hook as well as EZ eggs.

[Bmastro777]

Ok, pretty sure I nailed this last batch. Red FireCure rolled in bags for first hour every 10min. Then put in fridge and there was a nice juice by this time. Woke up and the eggs were nice and plumped up and soaked in most of the juice. So I flipped the bag this morning and will to the same morning and night until Thursday afternoon when they'll be ready. They are looking gooooood! Yummy

[Live2Fish4Life]

Doubleo6point9,

Sorry it took me a few days to get back to ya. I talked with Jeff at Xfactor and was able to pick his brain a little in regards to scents and xfactor baits. Here's what he said,

" Amino acids will dry up the baits & make them hard as a rock. The other thing though is that the Xfactor plastic will actually soak up anything you put it in, even water. Because it soaks up anything & never stops, too much of anything will change the properties of the bait. We recommend using our zip bags & adding 20-30 drops of scent for a guide pack, then let them sit for a week or so & they will soak it up

The scent has to be 100% natural, no additives. The other thing is that some companies use mineral oil as a base because it's cheap...mineral oil, even in small amounts will dry up plastic baits.

Pro cure might have some without amino acids but I'm not sure. The thing is, most of the scent companies over look soft plastics so this issue has never really been addressed with any real research or testing."

He had some great insight on the topic. Now this is not to say that you can't use scent with xfactor baits, heck I do quite often. But if you plan on soaking baits over night lets say then you may run into what Jeff described. If im running clusters or say a shrimp tail I'll add a little extra scent to the bait I am using and leave the rest in the pack.

There is some good stuff in the works

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Rick D