How to cure roe

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Curing Eggs

As an avid bait user (use it 90% of the time)
The following tips taken from my experiences on the vedder may help you:

Natural coloured dog or coho roe works the best on coho for low clear to average river conditions (when the river is very cloudy, a bit of colour will help i.e. either fishing natural roe with some coloured yarn or pro cured red.

I find that the white spring roe taken from fish in the vedder needs to be colour cured to work properly because it is very pale coming out of the
fish. I have not had much success with coho on white spring roe, cured or not, so I stick with dog or coho roe.

If you are fishing for springs, white spring roe pro cured with red hot double stuff is deadly. Also, dog roe cured with guides choice roe glow (liquid cure )works very well though it does not
stay on the hook very long.

When I catch and keep a fish, I try to take the eggs out (if female) immediately and put them in a bag and keep it cool. I try and process the eggs when I get home from fishing but if I do not have time, I will put them in the refridgerator for the next day. DO NOT freeze the eggs before you cure them or you will get mush when you thaw them out.

To make natural coloured roe, I simply cut the roe into loonie sized pieces being careful not to cut the eggs themselves. I pour some borax onto a plastic plate and then I roll the roe in the borax until fully covered. I then let it sit for about 30 minutes and then I put them in sandwich bags and seal tightly. If I plan to use the roe the next day or two, I just refridgerate them, If not, I will freeze them (it is ok because the borax acts like a curing agent.)

For dyed cured roe, procure red hot double stuff and guides choice roe glow are two that I use. Just follow the instructions on the package
(make sure to cut your roe first). When the curing is done, drain or dry the eggs with paper towels and then roll the eggs in borax the same as with the natural coloured roe.

Use larger pieces for springs and smaller pieces for coho.

Good Luck!!!
slug

myself,i'm very sensitive to borax drives the skin on my hands crazy.one day on the vedder i found this(commercial) container of roe.it was chum roe cured with just pickling salt.it worked well and now that's how i do mine at home.salt it&leave it.mostly i make roe bags,different sizes.but sometimes nothing works like a gob of guts,esp for steelies.

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