Achieving the perfect egg
The Sacramento River in Northern California will have an excellent King salmon fishing season in 2020, and it goes without saying, hundreds and hundreds of King salmon will be caught drifting and back bouncing cured salmon eggs once again this year. Its not a new technique, but modern science and decades of industry leading experience has brought forward some unprecedented egg curing formulas for curing absolutely perfect eggs. The Pautzke Bait Company has been developing advanced bait curing and scent products in recent years and has brought forward some of the most effective bait curing and scent products to ever be available to the public. The Pautzke Bait Company has clearly remained in the top position of the industry and is a leader in producing next level egg curing products and scents nationwide. I’ve been using Pautzke products to cure my eggs for years and I’ve found that the following methods will cure highly effective eggs, every time.
Egg harvest and preparation
A quality egg starts at the point of harvesting a fresh caught female salmon. Upon doing so, its is paramount to properly bleed the salmon so that no blood remains in the fish or the egg skeins that are contained within. The best method for bleeding a fresh caught salmon is to immediately cut the gills and place the salmon back into the water, whether its in the net, fish box filled with water, or in a water water bucket capable of holding a salmon upside down for a short period of time. Keeping the salmon vertical, with its head down, helps with effectively bleeding the fish and getting all of the blood to drain internally from the skeins. Egg extrication is an important task, just be mindful when cutting the belly of the salmon. If the knife penetrates too deep, you will likely cut the membrane of the skeins and damage them before removing them from the fish. Once the skeins are removed from the fish, place them in a plastic bag and keep them cold! Once you’ve got them home, make sure all of the veins are blood free and keep them in the plastic bag in the refrigerator until you are ready to cure them. I recommend the eggs be cured within a few days.
Application of Pautzke egg curing products
Application of the partake egg curing product is by far the easiest part of the egg curing process. Pautzke egg curing products are potent in a sense that they have lots of smells, flavors, and bite stimulants that attract King salmon, but not in a sense that a little too much of any product will affect the outcome of the salmon egg curing process. A liberal amount of each of the four Pautzke egg curing products I use will do a fantastic job of curing the eggs and creating a very fishy end result. To achieve the perfect egg, I shake a light layer of Fire Cure onto the butterflied skeins, shake a light layer of Fire Power (Krill Powder) over the Fire Cure, and lightly message with my gloved fingers, the aforementioned powders into the folds of the skein making sure to cover all exposed areas of the skein front and back. I then place the skeins into a gallon plastic baggie and add a 2 second burst of partake red Nector and a two second burst of red Pautzke Fire Dye. I then close the plastic baggie and roll the skeins around for several minutes. I then place the plastic baggie in the refrigerator. Every few hours, or as often as time will allow, repeat the rolling of the skeins in the baggie to ensure full coverage of the eggs within the cure liquids. I like to leave the skeins in the plastic baggie refrigerated for 3-5 days. Once the 3-5 days have lapsed, I will either prepare the eggs for fishing or will place them in the freezer where I will store them during salmon season, until I am ready to use them.
