If your new to fishing salmon light tackle on Lake Michigan one of my favorite times of year is skein fishing harbors during the spawning run. This event will happen every year starting in August and runs till around end of October. About early mid Sept chinook salmon will enter the harbors and tribs spawn and die. One great way of fishing these aggressive bite fish is with skein or salmon roe. A mature female caught right now will have a tight roe of eggs held together by a thin membrane. The key to using skein as a bait in fall starts with catching these pre spawn females. I prefer when I catch a 4 year old female right now is to immediately after catching bleeding out the fish. You want NO blood on or around the roe before curing. I will cut the gills and let the fish bleed out completely. After this carefully cutting open the belly with a shallow cut NOT to damage the membrane that holds the eggs together. Gently pull the roe out from near the head and it will come out nice and whole. DO NOT rinse the roe off with water. Water will penetrate the eggs and they will begin to spoil. Once your ready to cure lay out skein in strips on plastic or paper towel. I dont use newspaper because of ink transfer. Your going to need 1. Paper towel 2. gallon size freezer bags 3. Surgical gloves. I prefer not to touch my skein during curing with just my hands to prevent transfer of human scent just my opinion. Next is a curing powder. Now they make lots of brands. I prefer Pautzke Borax O Fire in natural color. Everyone has there own secret recipe on curing, adding scent, color ect, I prefer this product 110% as it is built tested and proven to catch fish with the krill scent attractant. First I start by laying out my skein in strips. What you want again is NO blood in your skein NONE blood will break down and spoil your eggs. So I start by making a small cut in the blood line of the membrane. Take a spoon and gently run along the vein bleeding out all of the blood take your time. Dab with paper towel soaking up blood. After all is out you want to butterfly the strip. Flip over egg side up and GENTLY run a knife down the middle opening up the roe. Try not to break as many eggs as you can. Once open lay out flat and dab any excess blood, moisture. If wet let air dry for a bit but not too dry. Next take your cure and sprinkle evenly on both sides. Dont be afraid of too much your not going to burn your eggs. Once covered on both sides I place into my bags left open to start the cutting process. After 1/2 hour check your eggs you will notice juice forming on the bottom DO NOT empty this out this juice is part of the process and will penetrate into your eggs giving it scent and firmness. After 1 hour I will place extra cure into the bag. Close the bag up and tumble gently around covering all of your eggs tumble for about 5-10 minutes. Next your almost done I will transfer from my juice wet bag into a dry bag and place evenly on the bottom. Lay bag flat and remove any air in bag some guys use food processors to remove air. Any open air will spoil your eggs in refrigerator or cause freezer burn. I like to double my bags if Im not planning on using right away or freezing to be safe. Cured skein will last for up to a month in refrigerator or a year frozen. I dont plan on using for a few weeks yet so I freeze mine right now. So thats my method it works for me. I will have another segment in a few weeks on using and rigging. If you have tricks or a recipe to share or comment or question feel free to post. Again I hope I help you have fun this fall and catch more fish!! Shane
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 03:28:36 +0000