Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Blood_Orange]

I went fishing for chum for the first time this past weekend at the Stave. Wound up with a bunch of eggs after cleaning the fish but have never dealt with roe before. Hoping to use it for steelhead fishing later this winter. Used some powdered pro-cure stuff from the store and the eggs are chilling in the fridge right now. I'm following the "cure eggs in a jar" directions by powdering them, draining after an hour, then leaving them for two days in the fridge, turning once per day. I've got a bunch of questions, feel free to throw in any advice if I've missed something obvious.

1. Does chum roe work for curing for bait? Does all roe work, or do you need something specific?
2. Should I freeze it all in one big chunk, or separate it somehow before freezing?
3. When I've bought it at the store, it's come wrapped in a meshy cloth. Is that necessary and/or recommended? Do you bother with it? If so, do you wrap it before or after freezing?
4. I froze a chunk of roe (a skein?) without curing it because I didn't have enough room in the jars. Are there other ways to turn it into useful bait, other than curing?

Thanks for the help!

[Spawn Sack]

I am not a roe expert but I'll offer my 2 cents. It is worth mentioning that if you search for something like "roe" in general discussion on this site you will find a few good threads from past years. Lots of good info. Also look at buying the book "egg cures." It covers most of what you asked.

My answers would be:

1- Yes chum roe works fine. In fact it is considered by many to be the "best" roe. My fav is chum roe. I like the way it looks (size and appearance of eggs) and it seems to fish well. And yes all roe does in theory work. Coho, spring, pink, steelhead, and so on. I've never had much luck on pink roe. I like spring or chum, but that's just me.

2- Best to cure it THEN freeze. Uncured roe is likely to burst in the freezer. Cured roe will not burst BUT, you need to make sure it does not get freezer burned. If you are not going to fish your cured roe right away put it in a container, roll it in borax, and make sure there is a good layer of borax on top of the roe. Use lots! It is cheap and effective. Some guys will vacuum seal jars, or vac seal in bags, and so on. Many diff methods! Id say keep it simple and freeze coated in borax with a layer of borax on top.

3- The meshy cloth is roe sack cloth. Just a different way to fish roe. Most ppl will tell you "loose" roe, like what you have, will catch more fish, but you go through a lot more roe as it falls off the hoo more easily. Whereas in the sack it says on much longer. But tying up the sacks takes a fair bit of time/effort. Personally I like sacks for steelhead as I don't need to rebait very often. If fishing for fall salmon I don't bother with sacks, I just use loose roe and cut it into fishable size chunks.

Also eggs in sacks you buy are typically "single" eggs that are salt water hardened. This is a can of worms and I'm not going to explain the whole thing.

4- IMO if you are not going to fish the bait soon you are best to cure it. And even if you are going to fish it soon, uncured eggs are very hard to keep on your hook! Yes they can go in sacks uncured (common for sturgeon) but for salmon most guys cure them up and either freeze them or fish it right away.

In short, get some roe, cure it up that day, when done either fish it tomorrow or freeze it in borax. When you plan to use it take it out of the freezer the night before and thaw it in the FRIDGE (nice and slow). Unused roe can be tossed back in the freezer in borax. 

[Noahs Arc]

1- yes chum roe works great as bait. Some will say it's the best roe.
2- i butterfly the whole skien open leaving the membrane intact, and cut into 4-5 pieces (chum) before curing.
3- sounds like you bought roe bags before or water hardened eggs. I don't use them I prefer chunks. Lots of guys love bags for many different reasons and they catch fish. Good if you're on short supply I guess. You could always thaw and wrap before ou fish them next time. I have found thawing using and freezing cured roe multiple times does not affect my catching success.
4- I never have frozen uncured roe so I don't have experience with this, but it's kind of a no no. Some guys do it obviously but I always cure or roll in borax first. I've given up on jars long time ago and just use gallon size ziplock freezer bags.

Important that you remove as much blood from the skien as possible, this can be done by making small cuts in the veins and wicking it out with a spoons edge or the back of the knife. Not such a big deal if you're going to use it within a month or 2 but I just cured some roe for early coho next year and I made sure to get as much off as possible so the roe doesn't go sour.

I always try to cure my roe within 5-10 hours of coming home from fishing. Just my preference and this goes along with the paragraph above about the blood.

I have found the more natural cures work best for steelhead (non sulphite cures) but again some guys use them and slay fish. Curing roe is a very personally stylized process as long as it fishes well and catches fish that's all that matters.

[Electroman]

Here is a little video i used to get me going for my first couple times.

https://youtu.be/W_NSAzJHb24

It will take a few times to get a feel for it. Just get some more roe and get your hands dirty.

[John Revolver]

I just butterfly the skeins to open them up and pop them in a large freezer bag.   

I pour in a very generous amount of pro-cure and close up the bag with a good amount of air inside and roll it around.

I let the bag sit in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the eggs soak up the juices.

I will take out the skeins and transfer them to a different freezer bag filled with borax.

In the freezer it goes.

done.

Very very simple and works.

When its time to use i always tie up a variety of roe bags in different sizes and colours. Some with puff balls some without. This allows me to quickly change up my presentation according to various conditions.

[rln]

Check out the Procure and Pautzke websites, they both have videos with methods on curing bait. Well worth a look

[Electroman]

Check out the Procure and Pautzke websites, they both have videos with methods on curing bait. Well worth a look

Not all the videos are good. Im still not 100% sure this one was real.

https://youtu.be/VYpgaruKN_I

[243Pete]

Not all the videos are good. Im still not 100% sure this one was real.

https://youtu.be/VYpgaruKN_I

  Sperm sack curing... saw that video a little while back and I was wondering what the heck was going on, throwing everything together seem a bit weird but if it works for that guy then all good for him.

I did a few experiments last season on storing eggs, vacumed sealed with the juices/ wet had eggs bursting when I let them thaw in the fridge. Placed and rolled with lots of plain Borax in a freezer bag and frozen, found that it worked the best especially if you totally cover the eggs as it can prevent freezer burn. Vacumed sealed with Borax, bloody hated that if you didn't pack the Borax down some of it can get sucked into the vacume but that was my own fault, eggs came out great even after a year and a half of being frozen.

[DanL]

I did a few experiments last season on storing eggs, vacumed sealed with the juices/ wet had eggs bursting when I let them thaw in the fridge.

I have been freezing and vacuum sealing my cured roe for a few years now and it’s been fine so far. I think the trick is to completely freeze the roe solid first, before vacuum packing as that process might put deform or otherwise put pressure on the eggs that make them burst when frozen then thawed. I suspect that as the water freezes and expands, the roe needs room to expand a bit too so if vacuum packed into a tight mass first, then the expansion damages the eggs. Just my speculation though.

Another factor may be the amount of cure used. I have had some gooey roe before but I believe that was a result of overcuring. A little experimentation was required to determine the amount of cure gave the result I liked so now I can use the exact same amount of cure each time (ie  1tblspoon / lb of roe or whatever) and it always comes out the same and stands up to freezing very well.

I usually single all my eggs before curing to tie up into roe sacs and find the sacs freeze very well too. During the season I’ll throw my little jars of roe sacs into the freezer at the end of each day so it’s possible some sacs might go through a dozen or more freeze/thaw cycles before they get used and they seem to hold up fine. I would not freeze a non-boraxed cured roe long term (ie months or more) without vacuum packing or risk freezer burn. I have frozen roe going back at least 2 seasons and have no concerns about it’s integrity.

I have not tried curing previously frozen uncured roe yet, but I currently have a few packs of raw roe in the freezer now for future experimentation. It would be pretty cool if it works out well…

[Animal Chin]

If you vacuum seal your roe in bags, slit open the bags and pull loose the bag a bit before putting it in the fridge to thaw. I've found the jars are fine sealed when thawing.

[243Pete]

DanL, I'll keep those in mind for the next batch, I've already stored most of my cured roe in borax then vacume sealed it.
Sounds like that is most likely what is happening to my eggs as they thaw out. I'll try what Animal Chin said and cut the bags open before thawing.

Generally when I cure my eggs, I either eye ball it or use a large table spoon to cover my roe. I dry my roe out a bit and use a paper towel to absorb any left over moisture and swipe up any blood from the veins that run along the skein. Then when I roll my roe in the cure in a Zip-lock bag I leave it outside for about an hour and then put it into the fridge for 24 hours, I'll roll it around every 8 hours of when I open it to get a snack, this leaves the roe firm and with less excess juices. I've left my roe out at room temp after adding the cure for a couple hours and found that even though it makes for a more wetter egg they don't seem to stay as plump and round as when I do a shorter 1 hour sit at room temp.

I've kinda avoided frozen uncured roe but keep me in touch with how it goes, if it does work please post or pm me as that would be awesome! 

[scouterjames]

Here's some reading....

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=22057.0

http://www.pacificangler.ca/dimitris-how-to-cure-salmon-roe/

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=33695.msg320931#msg320931

and some watching

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/video/how_to_fish/curing_salmon_roe.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_NSAzJHb24

[Tylsie]

I have a related question, but I couldn't find the specific answer I was looking for. Long story short, I came into a lot of loose roe, way more then I can use. It is curing now, and being the generous guy I am, I am going to spend Sunday afternoon tying roe bags for all a few of my friends for steelhead season. My question is about storing.

When I read "freeze it in borax" do you just sprinkle or roll the bags in borax to form an outer layer or do you put it in a jar and completely cover it? It seems to me that completely covering the eggs in borax would dry them out, but I could be wrong. For the record, they were cured in a brine, but I will dry them out tomorrow.

[Noahs Arc]

Are you talking about loose singles? Or are they still attached to the membrane?

[243Pete]

I have a related question, but I couldn't find the specific answer I was looking for. Long story short, I came into a lot of loose roe, way more then I can use. It is curing now, and being the generous guy I am, I am going to spend Sunday afternoon tying roe bags for all a few of my friends for steelhead season. My question is about storing.

When I read "freeze it in borax" do you just sprinkle or roll the bags in borax to form an outer layer or do you put it in a jar and completely cover it? It seems to me that completely covering the eggs in borax would dry them out, but I could be wrong. For the record, they were cured in a brine, but I will dry them out tomorrow.

I try to cover them with as much Borax, like totally cover them with a thick layer of the powder as it helps with freezer burn as I store most of them in heavy duty Zip-loc freezer bags, the Borax sometimes gets burnt but the eggs generally remain untouched. I haven't tried storing them in jars but I've seen lots of videos of people who store them in large canning jars.
Yes the Borax does dry them out a bit but once they hit water they are soft and never had any issue with fish taking them. I find that if I store them in borax it's a lot less of a mess to deal with and my fingers don't end up turning a bright shade of red or pink unlike leaving them stored all gooey.