Guys, what is the best color of cured salmon eggs for steelhead.

Pinks, oranges and reds. never underestimate colors like pink lady and oregon cheese.

I prefer natural = no color. Hard to beat the old 1 2 3 cure.

I have a feeling that good ol RGB is nothing like 1 2 3 cure!

Ingredient list, and chemical + amino balances aside - I've tried some funky things with eggs. Green, chartreuse, blue, black, purple, red, orange, pink, natural you name it.
Black and purple never seemed to work well but the green chart and blue eggs all worked pretty well. some spots a dozen guys would be pounding the hole with red and pink eggs under floats and we'd sneak a fish out with some odd colored eggs. It generally doesn't hurt to think outside the box when it comes to salmon and steel fishin!
Now "best" is very individual and impossible to answer as it's very application specific. Changes from time of year to location to conditions ect. In low clear I feel as a generality natural is best. when you get some color goin on the mild pinks and reds shine. average winter and spring conditions where I fish I like some good bright reds and pinks.

There's a time and place for most everything on the shelves at the tackle shop, I say most cause some of it is there just to catch us!

Well said Chad. I think Barry keeps the OMG its the RGB cure close to his vest.

H

osmosis wrote:Ingredient list, and chemical + amino balances aside - I've tried some funky things with eggs. Green, chartreuse, blue, black, purple, red, orange, pink, natural you name it.
Black and purple never seemed to work well but the green chart and blue eggs all worked pretty well. some spots a dozen guys would be pounding the hole with red and pink eggs under floats and we'd sneak a fish out with some odd colored eggs. It generally doesn't hurt to think outside the box when it comes to salmon and steel fishin!
Now "best" is very individual and impossible to answer as it's very application specific. Changes from time of year to location to conditions ect. In low clear I feel as a generality natural is best. when you get some color goin on the mild pinks and reds shine. average winter and spring conditions where I fish I like some good bright reds and pinks.

There's a time and place for most everything on the shelves at the tackle shop, I say most cause some of it is there just to catch us!

plain borax for me, nothing more nothing less. from what you are saying, to me the fish are keying in on the color so why waste the time coloring all those eggs.(just my $.02) add a tuffed of yarn and or a puff ball and your good to go. (old school rocks)

I totally agree with Dew, keep it simple. I find most things you find on the store shelf catch more fisherman than fish. They have to sell their product and guess what, THIS PRODUCT OUT PERFORMS everything else out their.

I use PRO-CURE Wizard which gives you an excellent product. Again keep it simple.............

H

ham, do u use that cure on your steelhead bait? the reason i ask, is i've always read and heard steelhead don't like sulfite based cures. they say u can't teach a dog new tricks. but i'll try anything once

I can say that the cure we use has various chemicals in it and catches fish when the natural does not work! There is a place and a time for both though.

I use pautzke bait Fire cure, and Borax O' fire. The borax has krill in it. It's ready available here as the Pautzke bait plant is here in my home town. The fire krill comes in natural, red, pink, and orange, although all I've ever used is the natural. They have some good vid's on the curimg process, but it's pretty much the same for most the formulas out there.
http://www.pautzke.com/products_borxofire.php
http://www.pautzke.com/products_firecure.php

Chad, I too struggle with the natural. It just doesn't look right for me. I go with my gut on most things and natural I'm sure will work fine. It just doesn't for me. I like a nice orange/red color that is rich looking. It's what I have confidence in and I stick with it all the time. When I was younger I would use natural fishing behind redds. Now days I have some issues doing that.

Dew, I don't use the same. When I wrote the post I wondered if anyone would pick up on the difference. There is, and one should not use eggs cured with chemicals on steelhead in my opinon. They work, BUT.........

Steelhead have a sweet tooth and they love sugar of some sort. I have my favorite sugar and it works great. I would have said what it is but I was sworn to secrecy when it was told to me. A man is only as good as his word, right? You really can't go to wrong using this.

STEELHEAD CURE

* 1 cup White granulated sugar
* 1 cup Non iodized Salt
* 1 cup Pro-Cure Borax ( plain white or colored)
* Fluorescent dye if desired ( 1/8 to 1 tea.)



H

great topic guys. it go's to show you that everyones "secret" cure catches fish, and is only secret when it's catching fish. put i honestly believe color is more important than the eggs themself. why are yarnies so productive? maybe it's the neutral buoyancy. i think it's color. i never fish eggs alone.(for steelhead) i always have yarn or a puff ball, and i'm always changing colors. last winter they would'nt leave a lime green puff ball alone.

Very good point Dew! I could not agree more on the yarn.

H

Especially when it UV yarn