August 16th

     With the coming of fall every year means fall salmon, and this is by far the busiest time of the year, not only does it mean catching hundreds of salmon in a couple short months, it also means curing eggs.
     I took the day off from the river to cure eggs. Eggs are one of the best baits there are for catching salmon and steelhead. Many theories exist as to why fish will eat others eggs, my beliefs are that for fish like resident trout eggs are a huge source of protein, but for fish like salmon that do not eat once they come into the tributaries to spawn, I believe they eat the eggs of other fish to ensure the survival of their own. Again this is my own belief.
     When it comes to curing eggs or bait in general many just assume that I have my own secret recipe, but that is not so. Tackle store shelves in our area are packed with salmon egg cures with labels like "Double Neon Red" or "Bloody Tuna Recipe" , these are powdered cures where you just sprinkle the cure on the eggs, message it into the "skein" , let sit a while then your eggs are ready to use or freeze to use at another time. I use the analogy that in the race car world there are those that build race cars and those that drive them, I don't want to create a good egg cure I just want to use it.
     Over the next few months I'll need to put up nearly 100 quart jars of bait to be used the following season, this means after spending a long day on the water chasing salmon, it also means long evenings curing eggs. If your doing eggs for the first time yourself, first determine what species you're targeting whether it be salmon or steelhead, for steelhead I like "Pautzkies" and for salmon Scott Ammerman who is an Oregon Coast Salmon and steelhead guide has his own line of cures, once you've got the eggs in front of you just follow the recipe on the label and this should result in PERFECT eggs.  Good luck!