So anyway, my version of the quick and dirty on curing bait. First and foremost, I am lazy when it comes to these things and I tend to look for the quick but effective way whenever possible rather than the "ultimate" but painstaking way.
In some places, at some times, what cure you use can matter. I have found this to be the case very rarely.
If it looks like eggs, smells, like eggs, tastes like whatever the hell this shite taste like, you will catch fish.
This time of year I have a virtual bait factory of sorts running a continual cycle. Catch the fish, cure the bait, catch the fish, etc. On and on it goes. 200 skeins this week and counting.
My super secret, ultimate, sure fire recipe and methodology is as follows. I will boil it down to the basics here, but do not be under the impression the the finer points as discussed in detail on an annual basis on this site have not been experimented with at least a time or three.
1. Catch fishes, remove the skeins, give'em a rinse so their are free of blood and gunk, mostly.
2. Put skeins in a gallon ziplock bag, or smaller if you only have a handful of skeins.
3. Lightly coat skeins in cure of choice (more on this later) on either side, and shake the ziplock
4. Put in fridge and shake em up once a day for 2-4 days, depending on how many times you pass the fridge in those days, and how badly you need more bait to keep catching the fishes.
5. Remove from fridge, let dry in open air until desired moisture content is achieved, and then package.
6. Package either as they are, or in borax of varying quantities, bearing in mind that more time in borax will achieve a dryer product.
I tend to like my eggs more on the softer and wet side. Less user friendly with regard to staying on the hook and making a mess of your hands (F the gloves), but fish like them more. I let my skeins dry until the exterior is a bit more dry than tacky, even a bit firm, but the eggs are still very moist.
Egg cures. Fire this, borax that, blahdy, blahdy, blah. How many fish take the time to get a nice long wiff, take a lick or two, and then decide to either bite the eggs or not? Realistically, eggs look like eggs, fish move to them, perhaps pick up a scent trail briefly, and then either bite or don't. As Kevin said, even eggs smelling of gasoline or colored blue, rubber eggs with scent and no scent, etc. as I have caught fish on, will continue to catch fish. Perhaps not as many as the "ideal" for that species, river, etc. etc. Of all of the factors, personally, I rank appearance as the most important, texture as the second, and scent/flavor dead last by a long shot. I would rather fish good looking eggs that smell like shite than a pile of mush or rock hard bait that smells like a salmon's equivalent of apple pie or punani.
Having fished most commercially available cures over all of the egg favoring species between WA and AK, I can really only say one has out produced the others, and that is Keith Archers UEC. Is it a miracle cure. No. Am I intentionally kissing Keith's hairy butt (sorry Keith) in public. Definitely not. It is a bit more of a finicky cure than some others in that the curing process, to achieve my desired product, takes a bit longer and a bit more time and attention that my second favorites (Pautzke's red and natural) but it has scratched fish out consistently in tough conditions when others have failed to get bit.
If possible, I would recommend avoiding freezing your eggs whenever possible. if done right, or very close to it, you can freeze well cured bait and it will come out looking and working wonderfully. If done wrong, which is easy to do, you will have wasted much.
Dave, I learned that fresh (uncured) roe catches fish just fine a number of years ago. I had discarded a fresh skein after cleaning a silver on the Sol Duc. A fellow at the take-out picked up the eggs and on his first cast hooked and landed a gorgeous native steelhead. I tried to kick my own balls but wasn't quite limber enough.
That having been said, last night I fished my clients with cured bait under bobbers next to an excellent fisherman fishing fresh roe, and we outfished them 6-1. Why? I don't know. Fresh eggs work, and well, but the cure gives you a leg up more often than not.
Two cents from a bait believer.
Happy bait slinging folks.
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