I just tried a new type of fishing, for me anyway. The kids and I caught a mess of Silvers on chunks of commercially cured roe a couple of days ago. Never done that before, but it worked great, so we kept our fresh caught roe to try to cure it. Had just enough battery and cell coverage to find "3-2-1" recipe, (respective parts borax-sugar-salt). Scrounged up the ingredients and gave it a try. Now I have questions I hope someone can answer: 1. Anybody familiar with this mix of ingredients? 2. How do you know when it's done and ready to be package and frozen? 3. Does the borax quickly dissolve and rinse away in water when you use the cured roe so the salmon don't smell/taste borax when they're about to bite? Thanks all. Limited internet, will check back when sun comes out and recharges batts.

I assume you used borax and not Boraxo?

Yup, used borax.

Always used Morton Tenderquick. Spread roe out in a pan and sprinkle TQ over and refrigerate for a day.

Thanks. Never heard of Tenderquick. Is it meat tenderizer?

borax and raspberry jello mixed together is killer for silvers and reds. I take a pot sprinkle borax in the bottom, make a layer of roe sprinkle and repeat. Let it set over night in the fridge. From that point you can do one of two things, freeze it or let it sit out to dry a little then freeze it. Next time you hit wal mart pick up some of that fire cure and just follow the directions. It is better then borax. Hope that helps a little.

Tenderquick is a curing salt. I use it a lot to make corned speed beef. (venison)

get some Nate's bait cure. its hands down the best in my experience.

there is alot to curing eggs if you want to do it the best, and have the most success with those eggs, and so they fish right.

It all starts with bleeding the fish. i never bonk a salmon i want the eggs from, i rip a couple gills and let them bleed out.
next is removing the skein in one piece and not getting guts all over the eggs.

my egg curing pyrex dish, strainer, scissors, and containers are only used for eggs.

I put on rubber gloves, and then use a pin to poke a hole in any vessels which still have blood in them, and then work the blood out using a finger nail.

next step is to "butterfly" open the skeins. hold the skein with the membrane in your hand, and slowly and evenly snip between the two sides until youre down to the membrane. you can leave them like this to cure..
or,
i then cut each skein in half longways, and then each side is cut into the size i will use to fish it. kings i use a 2-3" piece, silvers and reds get 1".
i place the cut pieces into my pyrex baking dish in a single layer, and sprinkle the cure on the roe, i flip them all over and sprinkle the other side. i then gently mix them so each berry (egg) has cure on them.

they will begin to have the mositure drawn out of the eggs right away.

I wrap the dish well with a couple layers of saran wrap and leave them on the counter for a few hours. then i will turn them and re-apply cure to any spots that were missed.
leave them overnight. they are ready when most if not all of the liquid has been reabsorbed.

for silvers, i will then place the clusters on a screen and let them air dry for a couple of hours. Kings, i dont.

they are then put into either new or saved disposable rubbermaid containers with a lid. the saved ones were new and only used for eggs.
I then put the containers in a bag and vacuum seal them, to prevent freezer burn and place them in the freezer for a minimum of 5 days before i fish them. they always fish better when they have been frozen for at least 5 days. ( i got some out this spring that were 4 years old, and hammered kings with them)....

i never put the eggs in the fridge or a spot where they can absorb odors, from food, chemicals, etc. ubnless they are revacuum sealed.

i never rinse the eggs using tap or municipal water. it is either from the creek they were caught in or distilled water. I never touch them with my bare hands, except when removing them from fish. i dont put them on the hooks to fish with bare hands either.

alot of people think or will say that my method is going too far and they catch fish just fine being what i consider careless with them. and maybe they do catch fish.... and it wont make a noticeable difference when the fish are biting and everyone is catching...

but, when you can go to a spot, day in and day out, and catch fish, when everyone else is claiming its slow, or out catching the other people there 10 or 20-1 when the fish are biting, thats when the difference shows up....

I usually try to face into the wind when handling egg skeins. It helps blow human scent away from the eggs.

Thank you all. Back home now. I let them sit in cure for 24 hrs, then air dried them for a few, then vacuum sealed and froze. Hope to get some more. Now I have detailed instructions for next time. My first try product did not seem as sticky-gooey as the commercial gigs in a tub that we used. Thanks again.

You don’t want them to be gooey snot rockets like the stuff in the tub, unless it’s Nate’s Bait in the tub.

You should be able to buy his cure at sportsmans warehouse. Or from his website. Get the black cherry....

His cures are in another league compared to the others you can buy at the store.

I worked with him to develop / change some of the formula to what it is now. I have never shared all that info publicly before, because it took a lot of time and money to get it dialed in. But what the heck, what good is it keeping it to myself.

Again, you can skip steps and do it however you want.... that’s just how I do it, what I’ve found works best, and has hammered fish even on the “dead” days.
I had some days with 100+ silvers, while the other 50 people fishing the same area caught 5 total. It was certainly a difference in egg cure, but a lot of it was presentation and the fish were picky and had lockjaw unless it was just right.

White, I don’t clean the egg laden fish outside, I clean them in the house like a villager, just so I don’t have to worry about wind direction

The nates bait recommendation is spot on. Pro cure is very good also. Make a bunch and switch out your bait as soon as it washes out. You will catch more fish than everyone around you hands down, which is weird since these are not secrets. 30 years doing this and it definitely is a game changer.

I've been curing loose salmon, steelhead and brown trout eggs like this for 30 years.

Take about 3-4 gallons of fresh water from a creek or stream. Add 1 lb of CANNING salt (Non Iodized) and 1 lb of sugar. Stir till water is clear and all granules dissolved. Rinse the eggs in creek water before putting them into the salt/sugar brine. get all the clots, dirt and flesh out of them. Put them (about 2 salmon's worth of eggs) into the brine once you have them clean and (this requires patience) stir them continuously till they dimple like a golf ball, about 30 minutes. I dip a spoonful of them after about 20 minutes and look them over. If no dimples, keep stirring. Once they have dimpled pour them through a strainer and then pour the eggs onto a large bath towel. Spread them out over the towel with your hand till they are 1 layer thick. Let them dry for about 20 min.


Prior to all of this I boil about 12, 1 pint canning jars to sterilize them. Set them aside to cool. Don't put the eggs in a hot jar, you'll cook them. While the eggs dry I boil the lids for the jars and keep them warm. Once the eggs dry, they will feel tacky, not wet. Put handfuls of them into the canning jars till you have about an inch to the top of the jar. Next, get a lid dry and ready. Take a strip of newspaper (about 1/4" wide and 2" long) and light it on fire. Drop it into the jar and immediately put the lid on and screw it tight. This will burn all the O2 out of the jar and the lid will 'pop' down, creating a vacuum seal. I have kept egg like this fresh in a refridgerator for 2-3 seasons.

These eggs stay soft and I believe the steelhead hold them longer because of that. Also they probably taste sweet from the sugar, who doesn't like sugar? These eggs do not turn white for quite awhile. I tie them in netting, about 4-5 in a sack. Some times I add anisette to the eggs as I stir them to flavor them. These work great.