Try Something New: Spawn Sacks For Trout

By: Bojan Zivkovic

Traditionally, Pautzke salmon eggs are baited straight onto a hook and ready to fish instantaneously. The jarred eggs have been cooked and cured to perfection, making them stay on the hook for a good amount of casts until you have to re-bait again. However, sometimes I notice the eggs can come off easily, which is expected when finesse fishing single eggs. As much as the presentation looks most natural when the eggs are baited straight onto a hook, I put in a little extra work by using spawn material to tie up the eggs into spawn sacs as if I were steelhead fishing.

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Why do I go through this extra effort? Preparing and tying jarred eggs into spawn sacs is a great way to get more casts out of your eggs, which means more time spent in the strike zone. In some rivers that have an abundance of minnows and baitfish, single eggs which have been pierced through the hook can come off easily once these small fish you aren’t targeting start biting. Constant re-baiting, especially warmer waters that have an abundance of these fish, can be a pain.

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By tying jarred eggs into different color spawn sacs, you don’t have to pierce the eggs whatsoever when baiting your hook. The spawn meshing not only acts as a protective shell around the eggs, it also comes in different colors. This allows you to tie your eggs according to water clarity of water. For example, you can make it brighter or more natural, amongst other things. Depending on the size of the hook you are using, you can usually bait no more than four jarred eggs on it. Placing these eggs in sacks permits many more eggs used at once, which is great when the fish need a bigger and brighter presentation in off-color water.

The steps to tying spawn sacs are simple. All you need to start tying is;

– spawn meshing, or even spawn scarf (white, chartreuse, pink, orange, peach)
– spider thread or sewing elastic thread
– Gold/Silver/Green Label/Premium, Yellow Jackets, Orange Deluxe eggs
– Styrofoam balls to keep jarred eggs afloat
– scissors and a container for your Pautzke jarred egg spawn sacs

The Simple Step By Step:

1. Lay out a square piece of spawn mesh (your color of choice) on the surface you’ll be using to tie your jarred egg spawn sacs on

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2. Place the desired amount of Pautzke jarred eggs you want for your spawn sac (if you want to keep your eggs afloat off bottom, you can add a few Styrofoam balls depending on the size of the sac you want)

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3. Bring all four corners of the mesh together. Then tighten the mesh just above your clump of jarred eggs so the meshing hugs the eggs securely.

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4. Take your spider thread/sewing elastic thread and give the meshing 10 (or more) tight wraps relatively flush against the top of your meshed eggs. Then snap off the remaining thread (remember to be somewhat gentle or you’ll pop some eggs).

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5. Trim the leftover material above the spider thread/sewing elastic.

6. Repeat the first five steps until you have the desired amount of spawn sacs pre-tied for your next day on the water.

The spawn meshing simply does not allow your bait to come off the hook easily. In fact, the spawn mesh material itself sticks to the fishes teeth, making them hold onto your bait that much longer after striking your jarred egg spawn sacs. As much as it takes some time tying jarred eggs (or Fire Bait) into spawn sacs, it’s definitely worth every second on the water. With eggs tied in sacks missed fish-strikes usually hand me back my full offering, and it saves me a good 30 seconds before I put my bait back out in the strike zone again.

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If you have not given this method of preparing Pautzke salmon eggs a try, I suggest you get your hands on some spawn tying materials and give it a shot! I can guarantee you will get more use out of your jarred eggs this way and it will increase your chances of putting more fish on the bank successfully.

Happy Fishing!
Bojangles