Learn to Tie Fire Balls Into Perfect Spawn Sacks

By: Kyle McClelland

When it comes to winter steelhead fishing I believe color is the single largest determining factor in catching fish. It’s no coincidence that when we put on a fresh spawn bag that has vibrant color we often get bit right away. This is also why bead fishermen are successful. This is also why I started to use Fire Balls more.

Similar to beads the new Fire Balls don’t lose their color even after a few dozen drifts. However, the reason why Fire Balls have been allowed to into my daily routine is because unlike beads they aren’t hard and have the identical color and shape of natural eggs.

One of the things I like most about Fire Balls is that I can match trout (even brown trout), Chinook and coho eggs without having to kill a fish to get their eggs. It’s nice to have a variety of colors available when fishing pressured water. The assortment allows you to keep changing up and give the fish something they haven’t seen. The slightest color change can often instigate a bite when the fish have seen a large variety of baits, which is the case almost everywhere steelhead are found.

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While I’ve fished Fire Balls for trout all over North America while filming Pautzke Outdoors when I target steelhead I normally fish them in sacks. The exception comes in low and clear water when I’ll drift them as single eggs. The single egg method is also best when the bead bite is hot, but I’ve found Fire Balls are more effective because they look, taste and feel like a real egg and do maintain their color.

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Tying Fire Balls

Tying Fire Balls saves me time, money and alleviates the mess of curing real eggs. I still always have BorX O Fire cured eggs in my boat and will continue to drift them daily because being a guide you need to have an array of baits. However, I’m bringing far fewer cured eggs now. When using Fire Balls I don’t have to contend with the mess of curing eggs and the tying process is much cleaner. Sure the Fire Balls are slippery, but the aren’t sticky and they don’t pop.

The best thing about Fire Balls is they help the average angler catch fish. Gone are the days where the weekend angler needed to catch and kill a steelhead to get eggs and be productive. Identical eggs now come in these jars. Lately my go-to colors have been Chinook and coho, but that’s because they’ve worked so well I haven’t tried the other colors.

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Tying Fire Balls is no different than tying river cured or powder cured eggs. The only difference is Fire Balls don’t milk like BorX O Fire cured eggs do. On the other hand river cured eggs don’t milk either. The process to tie Fire Balls is no different than any other eggs we would tie in netting. For high water I prefer to tie five to seven Fire Balls in the netting. When water gets low and clear I’ll drop down to three to five balls per sack.

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*Special Note: Brown Trout, Chartreuse Garlic & Chartreuse Anise Fire Balls are extremely UV. I’m planning on using these colors on bright days.

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Editor’s Note: Kyle McClelland operates XXL Chrome Chasing. For more info on his Michigan steelhead drift boat trips please visit https://www.facebook.com/XxlChromeChasing or https://www.xxlchromechasing.com.

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