Phase Two of Salmon-a-Palooza 2013 is now complete…I just finished up on the Sacramento River’s upper reaches and am now headed for Phase Three (more on that later!).
Here are some highlights…
How to make Spawn Sacks for Steelhead
Winter steelhead season is upon us and that means it’s time to bust out the eggs!
Regardless of the watershed you’re on, drifting eggs is very hard to beat for winter-run fish. But eggs aren’t without their inherent problems: Roe is a delicate bait and the constant casting and drifting in fast current and bouncing off rocks means your offering takes a beating. Depending on your cure and the water you’re fishing, a cluster of roe may last only one to five casts
What that means is you’re going to spend a lot of time re-baiting. And when you consider the fact that steelhead are often referred to as the “fish of a thousand casts,” time spent out of the water is time wasted. So, what’s the answer?
Spawn Sacks, of course!
Click here to read more…
How to Cure Roe the Easy Way
Okay, so curing roe is a bit of a mystery to many anglers. I feel your pain…I struggled with it for years and ruined many a good skein in the old days. Eggs that turned out rock hard or too juicy…or both at the same time…I’ve done it all!
Luckily, you don’t have to trash a bunch of eggs these days thanks to the wizardry of the mad scientists at Atlas-Mike’s. Their new Brite & Tight Cluster-Skein liquid egg cure is as easy as it gets! In a nutshell, you just marinate your roe in the liquid and it does all the work from there! Now more of that endless sprinkle-sprinkle-sprinkle, make sure you get the cure into all the folds, and then sprinkle so more. This cure is super easy and firms/dyes your eggs and adds scent. Brite & Tight is Oregon legal, too, because it is sulfite free.
Here’s a quick how-to pictorial on curing eggs with this stuff…Click here to read more…
Bait Brining Tips
Now, all we need is some wasabi!!
Pautzke Pro and one of our favorite “inmates running the asylum” that is Northwest Wild Country, Duane Inglin, dyed up these baits for an upcoming trip to Michigan. Using Pautzke Nectar and various cures, you can color and brine up all sorts of baits from herring to shad to eggs and shrimp.
For a cash course on how to make your baits taste like a Double-Double with extra cheese to the fish, click on the Fire Blog
Egg Curing: Borax vs. Boraxo
JD,
For curing roe to use as bait, where do I find borax? And how is it different from Boraxo?
–Bill E.
Bill, you get it in the laundry aisle of the grocery store…20 Mule Team Borax is the most common brand. Comes in a big ol’ box that will last you quite awhile. For egg curing, NEVER EVER use Boraxo, which is borax with laundry detergents mixed in…unless you like your eggs coming out tasting like a flowery meadow after a spring freshet :)