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[Animal Chin]

I bonked a female chum, and I swear at the time it was very chrome with a spotless white belly. However, when I took it home and cleaned it, the belly wasn't so white and the skeins were deteriorated with many loose single eggs.

I should've done my research but it was late and I was lazy so I just dissolved/saturated some distilled water with coarse (pickling) salt and put eggs in a jar. It's been in the fridge for about two weeks now in saturated solution.

The eggs looks nice. They were a nice uniform orange color, now they're clear with an orange dot. They're firm to the touch, but if I apply pressure with thumb and forefinger they burst. I can bounce them on the counter though.

Think they'll work tied in a sac?

[zap brannigan]

sound just fine, tie them up in sacs.

[CoastRider]

Yeah they will still work, sometimes the eggs just dont work out perfectly. Might have needed a little more salt, but either way they will work, I know people that dont even cure their singles

[Gooey]

i ran into the same thing...i split the batch in 2 and put a table spoon of natural procure in one and a table spoon of double red in the other...they look great, I cant see any reason they wouldnt fish well.

So do I leave them in the fridge all season or freeze them now?

[Animal Chin]

Guess my question was, is this the proper way to do harden the eggs. I couldn't remember if I read it, or someone told me this was how to do it.

I dissolved salt in water until it wouldn't dissolve additional salt. I hope they don't burst when I try to tie into sacs. I was hoping they'd be slightly more resistant to pressure so I could tie nice solid sacks.

Finding steelhead being difficult as it is, just wanted confirmation that I didn't screw up bait. Thanks. I'll give it a go.

RE: freezing.. you may want to wait for an answer from someone knowledgeable, but if you just cured the single eggs without them being in water (I tried it last year), they'll be impossible to tie into sacks. Turned to mush immediately when I did it, I had frozen them first. I believe if you store them in a salt saturated solution, you can keep them in refrigerator (unfrozen) for a very long time. A couple of years I think I read.. 

[mvelasco]

freeze the single eggs in borax and it will make them durable if you didnt water harden them. ive done the same and cut up little dime sized chunks ans even tied those into sacks right after curing. put them borax, froze em and used them the next day. by the time I got to the river they were fine.

[Fish Assassin]

They will definitely catch fish.

[CoastRider]

Freezing them can often lead to the shell of the egg breaking, I would just take them out of the solution you cured them in, and place them in jars or tupperware with super-saturated saltwater and they will be fine for at least the season!

Animal Chin, yes you did it correctly, I personally like to add tons of salt, so there is excess in the ziploc I cure them in, and they usually turn out pretty well, and have always caught fish 

[blaydRnr]

Do Not Freeze your water hardened eggs! the salt in them can still crystallize and burst the membrane...if you keep them in a salt brine they can easily last up to two years in the refrigerator...my last batch of single spring roe lasted me three and a half years...the secret is to change the salt brine once a year with a new solution.

i like dividing mine up too...some i procure or food colour, but mostly i like leaving them natural.

[rustybee]

Do Not Freeze your water hardened eggs! the salt in them can still crystallize and burst the membrane...if you keep them in a salt brine they can easily last up to two years in the refrigerator...my last batch of single spring roe lasted me three and a half years...the secret is to change the salt brine once a year with a new solution.

i like dividing mine up too...some i procure or food colour, but mostly i like leaving them natural.

Good to know. Will try your method next time. Thanks!

[Spawn Sack]

I've had two attempts at making my own salt water hardened eggs sacks. Last year I used chum eggs from a nice doe I caught. I scraped the eggs off the skien with a spoon (they won't break) then hardened them in a saturated salt brine. They looekd awesome when done, but popped pretty easily if you squeezed them. I tied up a butt load of sacks with them and  (foolishly!) froze them (didn't know better). Well, most of them burst! Of the ones that didn't burst, they were not that durable and broke easily when fishing them.

After that learned online (a lot on this site) that you want MATURE eggs, pretty much from a fish that is ready to spawn. Apparently the eggs are much fuller and the membrane is much tougher.

This year/try #2. I kept some chum for smoking, but none had eggs that were that mature. So I just bought some single chum eggs from Fred's. Not terribly cheap but you can tell they are NICE mature eggs. They were pretty durable the way they were, but I wanted them extra tough, so I did up a saturated salt brine and left them in there overnight. The result was a super plum and tough egg. I'd have to squeeze one very hard to get it to pop. I tied some smaller sacks for clear water or to put on the back of a jig, and some bigger sacks for fishing ona bare hook. I've stored them in the FRIDGE this time, out of the salt sollution, just in mason jars. I'm sure they would keep longer in salt water but I plan to use them up over the winter.

[steelheaderpin]

After curing your single eggs and have them tied in roe bags should they be stored in the fridge or freezer? I have been told 2 different things thanks guys.

[zap brannigan]

Fridge if you plan on using them, freezer if you want a bag of goo.

[Spawn Sack]

The staff where I bought my single eggs said they were ok to put in the freezer. However after my experience last year with the majority of my eggs bursting in the freezer I plan to keep mine in the fridge in a mason jar. I have been as long as the air doesn't get to them they will be fine. IMO skien roe is better for catching coho in the warmer months. It's so much work making sacks I only bother with them for steelhead as they last WAY longer than skien roe and I hate farting around with messy skien roe with cold hands, dye gets on my gloves, etc.

[blaydRnr]

i store my roe sacks in the same brine that i store my single eggs in, but like mentioned, if you plan on using them regularly they can be refrigerated without the brine...they will after awhile deflate, but will also get back to their full shape after a few casts.