Got this on line from a friend and wanted to share!
A bait that's tough to beat
Tuna balls are widely used on the Northwest steelhead/salmon circuit, and everyone seems to have a favorite recipe
Tuesday, July 18, 2000
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By Bill Monroe of The Oregonian staff
MAUPIN -- Ask a professional guide on the Clackamas or Sandy rivers for his secret cure for salmon egg roe and get ready for a stony stare. It's as if you'd just requested the secret map to his buried treasure.
But ask one of the old-timers below Sherar's Falls during the April-May spring chinook season for a tuna-ball recipe and get ready for a flood of answers -- no two exactly the same.
And they all seem to work.
"That's tuna-ball technology for you," said Steve Pribyl, an assistant fish biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's office in The Dalles. "Everyone's got a recipe."
Tuna balls are:
• One of the latest baits to hit the Northwest steelhead/salmon circuit, especially along the banks of the Deschutes River, where they are the bait of choice below the falls, the only portion of the lower Deschutes where bait is allowed.
• One of the oldest and best-known bait secrets, depending on which old-timer is asked.
• A version of a time-tested technique with potential applications to several kinds of fishing -- salmon in estuaries, trout in lakes, sturgeon, bounty fishing for pikeminnows, for example.
The tuna ball is merely tuna rolled into a ball and wrapped in a special cheesecloth-like mesh net-
ting, similar to that used extensively in the Midwest for making "spawn bags." Those are egg roe, also held in a small mesh sack and wrapped tightly with light thread. They are used to fish in tributaries of the Great Lakes for salmon and steelhead.
After it's gathered inside the mesh bundle and tied off, the sack is either skewered by the hook or held on it with a simple bait loop in the leader.
Once understood, tuna-ball technology takes on a life of its own when it comes to how it's prepared -- that is, the recipe for what is balled and wrapped in the mesh.
Formulas all rely on the basic ingredient, tuna, and the keen sense of smell of a fish.
"There's something about tuna flesh that seems to hold scent and release it over a long period of time," said Joe Rohleder of Waldport. Rohleder is a former commercial fisherman, long-time salmon angler and also a department employee who has used tuna balls for years to catch salmon and steelhead.
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Rohleder's recipe uses fresh or frozen tuna, not canned. He either catches or buys it on the dock during the summer albacore run:
Freeze scraps of tuna leftover before canning or freezing the fillets. The dark fat strips -- darker flesh is not usually good to eat -- work fine for tuna balls.
When ready to use for bait, thaw tuna the night before and soak in olive oil, then drain and wrap it in the cheesecloth bags at streamside when fishing for salmon or steelhead.
The alternative is to not soak it in anything, but simply thaw and wrap it, then squeeze some droplets of your favorite fish, shrimp or other scent on the wrapped ball. It will quickly soak in, Rohleder said.
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Pribyl makes his tuna balls solely with high-grade albacore tuna, canned and packed in oil. It's difficult to find, though. Most albacore these days is packed in spring water:
Tuna labeled "light" is not necessarily albacore.
Drain the oil from the canned albacore, then replace it with a commercial bait-oil, shrimp or other favorite liquid scent, found in sporting goods stores.
Refrigerate overnight, then drain.
Mash the tuna as if you were making sandwiches, then roll it into balls and pack in mesh.
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Ryan Grote of Madras, a Sherar's regular, uses any tuna he can find, packed in water or oil:
Take the tuna straight from the can, wrap it and start fishing.
"I don't think it makes that much difference," he said.
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Wrapped in the tough mesh, the bait is well-protected and will outlast all other kinds of steelhead and salmon bait by at least 10 to 1.
"It doesn't explode like sand shrimp or other baits when it hits the water," Pribyl said.
The method, he said, also can be applied to baits for sturgeon fishing, for the hard-to-hold-on-the-hook chicken liver that tickles the pikeminnow's well-known sweet tooth, and even for different baits for trout in lakes where bait is allowed.
Rohleder said some anglers who have used tuna balls for years substitute sardine, both canned and fresh.
"There aren't any new secrets," he said, "just new things people think of that they forgot."
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You can reach Bill Monroe at 503-221-8231 or by e-mail at
billmonroe@news.oregonian.com
All about tuna balls and recipies!
. So I might as well tell my "tuna tales" too. When fresh albacore tuna becomes available, usually late summer, get some for 2 reasons; their filets taste great BBQed and using small filets in place of sardine for Kwikfish wraps for 'Nook fishing is deadly. Either use them plain or like I sometimes do with my sardine filets, soak them in the reddish egg juice drained off from the chem curing process. I definitely do better backbouncing or drift-fishing with well cured egg clusters than with netted tuna balls, but try squeezing some oil out of the fat of fresh tuna or from quality brand cans of oil packed tuna onto your eggs, or into some of your baitscent formulas, before fishing. Another good use of oily tuna balls is to clip a small one on the back side of Jet Planer divers for a great and lasting scent trail down thru your backtrolled or anchored bait. Don't clip one to your anchor because that would be against chumming reg.s. And experiment with "curing" tuna balls very lightly with eggcure chems, or better is soaking them in egg juice (as above). Also with other baitoils as mentioned in Bill's piece. Hope these revelations help to tuna round your fishing sucess 
. - RT - Tips: Try the oily flesh from other fish that are also bigger than bait fish in the above ways. Not seal, shark, or killer whale meat though; for a lot of reasons 
. And if you try the olive oil recipe, also try the omega-3 rich flax seed oil to compare results.
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