By: Kyle Deavers
It’s seems like every winter I tend to get the same questions from anglers. They always want to know how I’m curing my eggs. As often as I cure eggs I’m constantly changing what I do to get more bites. Competition is increasing each year and I have to make better eggs to keep clients catching brown trout and steelhead.
This winter I’m still curing brown trout eggs, but I’m also harvesting fewer fish because of the availability of trout eggs since Pautzke came out with the new Natural and Premium Trout Eggs. I’ll be honest I haven’t used the Trout Eggs exclusively through the ice as I’m still using many of the brown trout eggs I had prior to the Trout Eggs coming out. However, for the last several months I’ve been using the Trout Eggs in the river with great success. Really they are no different than the trout eggs I got on my own for the last 10 years.
The Trout Eggs work right out of the jar. On the other hand, I’ve found that my bites increase when I cure them in BorX O Fire, just like I’ve always done with my brown trout eggs. I believe the bites have been better with the cured eggs because they like the krill in the BorX O Fire. It’s also a known fact that trout and steelhead like borax based cures. Regardless, I’m still bringing cured and uncured eggs to the river and letting the fish tell me what they want.
One thing that worried me about curing them is the Trout Eggs come in a bottle with some kind of liquid in it. Pautzke tells me that the liquid is preserving them so they don’t spoil. With that said I’m taking the eggs out of the jar and tying them with Atlas Mike’s spawn netting and Miracle Thread before I cure them. I’m using the 3×3 squares with Chartreuse and pink netting being the best colors this season.
The reason I decided to do this is because I didn’t want the liquid on the eggs as I cured them. Therefore, I tied them in a sac and placed them on a paper towel so they were able to dry out prior to curing them. While you don’t have to do this I personally believe that it allows the cure to work better, too. You can cure the eggs anyway you want, but this is what’s been effective for me.
To do this, I tie them, place them in a Tupperware and then sprinkle Natural BorX O Fire on them. I sprinkle just enough to cover the netting, which as you can see from the photo isn’t much. I think when curing your eggs less is more. After applying the BorX O Fire I let them sit overnight and they are ready to fish in the morning.
The one common mistake I see many anglers make is how they place the cured sac on a hook. I barely penetrate the netting because you have a better hook up ratio. I’ve been using a size 10 Redwing Tackle Sabertooth hook whenever I’m fishing sacs.
Editor’s Note: Kyle Deavers operates Big Boy Fishing. To learn more about his guided brown trout and steelhead trips please visit: www.bigboyfishingwi.com.