Curing Roe

[OldTimer]

Roe – Skein and Loose Egg Cures.

Okay – so you’ve caught a large female salmon that you’ve definitely decided to keep…. And you also hope to use its roe (eggs) for bait in the future………. Now what?

What you don’t want to do is to freeze them without some sort of preparation – they will be goo when thawed.

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Clip one of the fish’s gill arches and bleed it out immediately.
Once bled out – put the fish on ice or keep as cool as is possible until you clean it. (I will not describe cleaning fish in this article)

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I’ve done most of mine with a simple plain borax based cure (skeins). Then I add colour via the netting and floatation beads when/if I tie up bags. This way a cure batch can be a rainbow of colours. Note that cured skeins and single eggs still have an attractive colour without a dye.

You can get a big box of Borax at Home Hardware for about 4 bucks.

   

The commercial egg cure and brining powders come in a rainbow of colours. But they are not the most frugal way to go. I have friends who’ve used them and they say they work fine. Do take note that the dies in these products can stain things permanently (clothes, latex painted walls, some countertops, rugs, helpful small children and pet cats apparently), so be careful. Follow their directions closely. Two top brands are Pautzke and Pro-Cure.

Wear some cheap disposable latex or nitrile gloves from the paint department of your hardware store. They not only will keep fish odours and dyes off your skin but will also minimize your human scent/taste in the bait.

Complete skeins: My method - When you clean the fish remove the egg sacs first, remove gently any blood on/in them by wiping with a paper towel – in combination with using the dull edge of your knife to push the blood out the open end of the envelope’s membrane veins. Butterfly the skeins open with a sharp fillet knife, cut each into at least 8 pieces (or more), then wrap them in a paper towel and place them in the fridge for a few hours to dry up any liquid or juices from the cutting. Take them out, spread them out on waxed paper or newspaper, and sprinkle them well with borax on both sides to make them look dusty with no large wet spots. Put them in a large jar (old pickle jar) and back into the fridge for a day. Finally take them out, spread them out again - and then dust them a bit again, then back into much smaller outing size (jam) jars……. A bit more borax on top……. A crumpled ball of plastic wrap, or piece of an old plastic bag, to fill any air space at the top….. On goes the lid and into the chest freezer. Take them out a day before tying or fishing. Will keep at least a week after thawing if kept cold. The clusters sometimes look a bit crusty – but it dissolves as soon as they hit the water.

Loose eggs: I’ve only tried this twice……….. First time I cleaned the eggs well & tried a brining recipe made up of water/sugar/salt/borax….. from an old Field & Stream article. I brined the eggs then boraxed them as required……….This was a total disaster…….. Second time - I cleaned them & tried air drying in the fridge for a good day then froze them in small batches in baggies – it sorta worked - but the eggs were too fragile for my liking, and washed out real fast - but they caught fish if bagged……….Perhaps you have a better simple way that you have actually used and can recommend for loose eggs without going to commercial products.
Note on freezing – I find that our chest freezer does a better job of freezing eggs with less freezer burn than the kitchen fridge’s freezer section.

I’d love to hear any other methods that worked well……………… I’m all out - and perhaps I’ll be lucky enough to try a new method/recipe over the next few months….

Cheers,

OldTimer