With all the rivers coming up the steelhead are coming in. What are some of your favorite steelhead egg cures? I personally have only used eggs for salmon fishing and have done pretty well. However, I have never tried it with steelhead, I know that steelhead tend to shy away from the sulfite and like sweeter eggs. I've heard of the classic borax 3:2:1 cure and the borax jello cures and what not. What are some of the cures that y'all like using. DON'T HAVE TO SHARE ALL THE TRADE SECRETS HERE. Just a curious fisherman looking for some guidence. Cheers! Happy holiday everyone.

pautzkes borax-o-fire Is a good winter egg cure.
When in doubt,add a little shrimp anise to the mix.

Look through the archives, as there has been a flaming metric ton of posts on eggs, egg cures, etc.

Don't think it matters too much for steelhats. Just get some eggs in front of their faces and it is more than likely they will pick it up.



Kings, on the other hand, is a whole different story and I would easily say the cure(s), scent()s, and add-ons you use makes all the difference in the world...on some days....on some rivers.

I agree on Boraxo-Fire Cure.

But if you're cheap, straight Borax with a little raspberry kool-aid mix for coloring has worked extremely well for the past 100+ years.

I'm not convinced that adding scent makes a huge difference for steelhead, but adding shrimp scent can't hurt.

But Chinook are a completely different animal, as The Chosen One has correctly pointed out.

Both of these are 100% truth. I've seen It first hand w chinook. If you ain't got the goods, you're not getting bit.

I use a simple cure that Paul Beaupre taught me and that I slightly modified. Split a full skein lengthwise and put in a gallon ziplock bag. Add about 2-3 Tbsp of picking salt, 1/4 Tsp of bait dye, and maybe a 1/2 Tsp of a cure like Wet Pac. Gently mix up the contents of the bag and put in the fridge overnight. The eggs will juice out, then suck all the liquid back up. Remove skeins from the bag and quickly rinse under tap cold water, then dry on racks until you get the firmness you prefer. Roll up in Shop towels and refrigerate for 3 days. Eggs can then be used as is, or vacuum packed and frozen. A few reasons I like this cure include: 1) The cure doesn't dry and crack the crap out of my fingertips like the full chemical cures do, 2) The eggs can be dried if wetter than you like, or rehydrated with a sprinkle of water to soften them back up, and 3) They keep for years, as I have used eggs as old as 12 years that still fished great. Good luck!

Back in the day...................We went to the camera store and bought sodium sulfite.
Put it in an old Johnys Seasoning shaker.
Cut skeins into baits.
Laid them on a sloped piece of glass so the egg juice ran away from the cluster slightly.
Sprinkled, waited until glazed on that side, turned, repeat.
Getting them a tad over dry on the outside was desirable.
Then put them all in a zip lock bag or jar.
They would then soften some and be perfect.
These throttled the steelhead and springers.

Keep in mind this was back when you counted the concrete panels at the launch to know what runs you wanted to fish that day.....................
AND
there were fish.

I'm pretty sure I remember the day this photo was taken. Fishing off the end of that log on the NFL, right?

Man, those are some dandy looking eggs.

In the Klamath drainage we have certain cures for kings that work well. I won;t get into it too much because it varies in each system. For steelhead it's simpler. I do a brine cure of 4 quarts water to 1 cup each of borax,brown sugar,and non iodized salt,and a little rogue red (small amount) for color,sometimes. I brine the eggs for an hour and 15 minutes and then let them dry overnight on paper towels. They fish the next day,or partially freeze,vacuum seal,and keep for a long time in the freezer. 321 is good too.

I like this stuff called pro glow, made by beau-Mac. Light cure then finish with some borax.

Lots of good suggestions here, the theme seems to be keeping things simple. I thought I was going to doctor up a bunch of different mixtures of ingredients but I guess not. I'll give some of these cures a try and hopefully be able to get an egg bite out of it.

Unless you think you know more about it than the people who actually make the cures... leave it to the professionals

For steelhead a basic borax cure is fine and dandy.

Fair enough, but they also don't want your eggs lasting 12 years in the freezer - doesn't quite fit their business model!

1 cup borax to 1/2 teaspoon of non-iodized salt to cure Chinook eggs after they dry out in the fridge for a day on cardboard. Need to butterfly open after 12 hours. Then sprinkle the cure. I have some dynamite eggs in the freezer from this fall and a couple boxes a couple of years old. Will last up to 5 years if not too dry or dark.
Watched this summerun chew and spit out my eggs last summer. Finally caught the fish after a few casts.

i mostly just put everything in pro glow these days. it doesn't seem to be too chemically "hot" enough to make my eggs unattractive to steelhead, and it's always been great for kings and silvers.

i used to wet pack all my chemically cured eggs, lately i've been air drying them and packing in borax to make them more durable. with how lousy fishing's been the last 5 years, i never know how long it's going to be until my next trip to the river, much less how long it'll be before i put another hen in the cooler.