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:
