RT ? [Archive] - www.ifish.net

Deleted User

12-12-2000, 12:08 AM

Hi Bob D. I don't mind being put on the spot. And I always try to tell it like I see it; unless it could cause undue probs for someone. Remember that these are opinions too. * Before commenting on those eggs, I will post the cure you speak of here:

- For this recipe, you will need:

1 quart water

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of NON-iodized salt

1 cup of borax

2 tablespoons of PRO-GLOW powdered red bait COLORING (not the cure). Be careful with this stuff, it readily stains anything it touches! Wear gloves when using the coloring or this brine, or else you have pink hands for a few days!

First of all, split your egg skeins and quarter them. Next, with THE EXCEPTION of the eggs, bring ALL of the above ingredients to a boil in a large pan. Make sure to stir frequently!!

After the mixture has been boiled and all contents are dissolved, cool the mixture to a luke-warm temperature and then place your eggs in the brine. Allow the eggs to soak for about half an hour, stirring about every ten minutes. NOTE: for single, loose eggs, I do no more than ten minutes in the brine!

Then, remove the eggs from the mixture and drain in a strainer for several hours. Following this step, you will want to lay the strained eggs out on newspaper for approximately 18-24 hours to dry. Once the eggs are relatively dry to the touch, roll them in plain borax and store in a plastic container. NOTE: for loose eggs, let dry for just a few hours ... or else they will turn out like a dried pea!

Although somewhat time consuming, this process has produced the best eggs that I have every used ... we have used them in our summer king fishery in Alaska, and we have seen the same type of fantastic fishing qualities that we noticed in the Washington steelhead fishery.

These eggs possess the same color qualities as pro-glowed, or pro-cured eggs, but they seem to milk much longer and are more rubbery, providing us with better bait durability.

You might also experiment with adding shrimp or sardine oils to the brine mixture...I'll simply leave you with that subtle hint.
------------

* Most guides have more than one good cure. The best ones have 3 or more very good ones that each have slightly different ingredients. This is to have flexability for different chinook biting moods. Some of the guides use a bring cure similar to the one above as one of their lineup. I do too. The brine cure above sounds very good, but I wouldn't favor it over my top cures (but read at the bottom that he left only a couple hints, which further tells me that he likely uses some different additives for particular conditions - which kind of leaves your Q and my A to take with a grain of salt). And I would do a few things differently to have it closer to my brine cures; I have 2 versions: A standard one similar to the above, which would be good to try as a relatively low chem cure and then use on river additive adjustments from there to find the bite mood. And a higher chem version with sodium sulfite and MSG added for chinook fishing use (about 1/4 C. SS & 2 T. MSG to that above recipe). I also would recommend using distilled water to eliminate any chlorine or purity concerns. And recommend using plain white paper towells instead of newspaper, to avoid ink scent contamination. Neither of those 2 things are a big deal, just among lots of small deals that together add up to a big deal in fishing; especially for chinooks. I think the recipe above with some shrimp and anise oil added would make a good steelhead fishing egg cure too; leaving the sulfite out. Two of the advantages of this brine method are that the luke warm water allows the egg sack pores to open allowing in the enhancers, and the 100% salt solution ratio it has (which is just enough to make individual eggs float) keeps the eggs from milking out their rich egg juice. You get a similar effect with dry chem curing in which you allow the eggs to re-absorb the juice over a couple days in the fridge. The brined eggs will have a slightly differnet texture and skin toughness after the borax rolling. ... Try the cure out and compare it to ones I and others have published and see which works best for you. - RT

[This message has been edited by RT (edited 12-12-2000).]