October is one of the best months of the year for river anglers that like to target a variety of fish. Our tributaries contain big numbers of chinook, cohos, browns, steelhead, and lakers. And for the spring steelheaders that like to fish with spawn, this is your golden ticket. What you do with those eggs after you catch that fish will depend on if you’re fishing all day catching fish or watching people catch fish all around you.
For skein, I like to use Nates Baits Cures. First spread that skein open. Then put it in a zip lock bag and sprinkle a good amount of cure in the bag. Just enough to cover it. Zip up the bag squeezing the air out and leave it in the fridge a couple days. Make sure you move the skein around to work the cure in a few times a day. After a couple of days use a bowl that you can put a spaghetti strainer on top of. Dump your skein in the bowl and allow the juice to drain to the bottom of the bowl. Cover with a towel not touching the eggs to cut down on mold spores attaching to your bait and put back in the fridge a few more days as you go back and mix it up a few times a day. Then after it starts to harden, vacuum seal the bait for a day of fishing. Or in a zip lock bag.
Now the juice…. AKA goodness. If you put your skein on a paper towel or newspaper, you’re throwing away a secret weapon. I like to get a small dishwashing liquid bottle and wash it out really good. Then funnel your juice into your bottle. After you have thrown the spawn bag a few drifts, put a little liquid goodness on your sack and it’s like you just put on a fresh bag and watch the water light on fire son!
For loose eggs. As “SOON” as you catch a spitter put the eggs in a zip lock bag and wash them out with river water. When the eggs are clean, fill the bag of eggs up with “RIVER WATER” again for several hours until you see a few eggs get all white. The water will make the eggs harder. What I like to do is drain all the water and put my eggs in mason jars with about a teaspoon of Kosher Canning Salt. Shake them up. Then leave them in the fridge for a day. Then put a good paper towel folded on top of the eggs and put the lid back on. And flip it upside down. Keep replacing the towel every time you check them until the towel is all the way dry. Then put the jar of eggs in a pan of boiling water just for about 8 to 10 seconds and then put the lid on. And date it!
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