The Rooster Tails Fishing Club of
Northern California, Inc.
"There are obviously
people who like to fish
Educate ~ Entertain ~ Enhance
Rooster Tails Fishing Club of
Northern California, Inc.
PO Box 7441
Auburn, CA 95604
530-887-0479
www.roostertailsfishingclub.org


Where and how to
Bank Fish
Spinner sizes and
colors recommended

Terminal Tackle

Near-Shore
salmon migration
routes
Inside this issue:
How to cure salmon eggs 2
for bait
How to sure salmon
eggs, continued
3
Jerome Daigre, QMS
spinners
4
Jackpot Entries
4
NTO
August 19
Caples Lake
Volume 4, Issue 8 — August 2014
Fishing from the banks of the Sacramento River with Roland Aspiras
The days of a stiff fiberglass river-rods and
old fashion reels have long since been replaced with long composite-material rods,
high capacity spinning reels, and a strategy
fishing sophisticated spinner-lures for taking
home a nice salmon… but not from a boat.
River-bank fishing is a cost effective fun way
to catch quality salmon. Leaving the boat at
home has many advantages including reduction in driving time, no launch and minimal
access fees, as well as saving the extra fuel
costs of towing a boat.
The Rooster Tails Fishing Club is proud to
announce a river-bank salmon fishing expert,
Roland ‘Innovate’ Aspiras, at our club’s August 15th breakfast meeting that will be open
to the public. This will be a special opportunity for non-boat owners as well as for
salmon anglers not willing to gamble their
prop and boat hull on treacherous drought
stricken low river-water levels. To participate
in the current river salmon season scheduled
to progress through December 16th despite
the drought, you won’t want to miss this special breakfast meeting to catch salmon. Roland’s presentation will cover spinner sizes,
colors, as well as terminal tackle necessary
to fish from the banks of the Sacramento and
American Rivers. Breakfast attendees will also
hear where to bank-fish, how to rig their spinners
for special situations and instructions on how to
locate near-bank salmon migration routes.
Roland is a well-recognized columnist for several
fishing publications including the Fish Sniffer
Magazine, The California Delta Scuttlebutt On-line
Magazine, and a former pro-staffer for major fishing retailers reporting on anadromus and other
fresh water fish species for related newspaper
articles
Roland ‘Innovate’ Aspiras with bankcaught salmon
Calendar of Events
NTO—August 19
Caples Lake
Monthly breakfast—Sept. 19
Speaker to be announced
NTO—September 23
Location to be announced
September 2014
Mon
Tue
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2
3
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8
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14
15
21
28
Sun
Wed Thur
Fri
Sat
4
5
6
10
11
12
13
16
17
18
19
20
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Page 2
HOW TO CURE SALMON EGGS FOR BAIT
by Andrew Moravec
All about salmon egg skeins:
Female salmon develop their eggs in a skin sack called a skein. As immature feeding fish, a salmon’s skein is initially very small. As
the salmon reaches their final months prior to spawning the skein will enlarge and the individual eggs will grow to about the size of a
pea. Each skein can hold thousands of eggs.
As the skeins develop the eggs become tightly clustered in a skin purse that is the skein, this makes for great fishing bait that can be
cut into the perfect sized chunks. As the salmon nears the spawning area the skeins break down and loosen, at this point the female
will deposit the individual eggs in the spawning redd to be fertilized by the male salmon. Loose eggs can be cured but are difficult to
fish; anglers must spend quite a bit of time to create clusters by wrapping loose eggs in cheese cloth.
The skein size varies based on the size of the individual salmon and the proximity to spawning. A skein from a small Salmon may
weigh only a few ounces but a skein from a trophy female King Salmon might weigh several pounds.
Salmon eggs are very delicate and high quality eggs are not the easiest to come by. Be sure to bleed your catch right away, keep cool
until it is time to process and fillet, and begin curing the salmon roe within 24 hours.
What to do after landing a salmon:
The work begins just moments after landing an egg laden salmon. To produce a quality finished product, you must begin with quality
fresh ingredients. Make sure to bleed the fish immediately after landing it; salmon eggs must be as blood free as possible to put up
good bait. Placing the fish on ice will ensure that the meat and the roe are preserved, but on a cold day that may not be completely
necessary.
Removing the salmon roe:
Carefully cut open the underside of the salmon to remove the roe. Start the cut at the anal vent and slice up the belly to the throat of
the salmon. Be sure to make the cut shallow as to not cut into the egg skein.
Each female salmon has two egg skeins. They are attached to the organs near the head and can be carefully removed by hand.
Open the entire length of the salmon belly being careful not to cut into the gut and remove skeins.
Prepare the roe for the curing process:
There are a few simple tasks that will ensure a quality finished cured bait. First, blood free salmon eggs create the perfect bait.
Even a well-bled fish will still retain a little blood, which courses through the skein and can spoil a perfectly good batch of eggs.
Take a fillet knife and puncture any blood veins on the outside of the skein, run your knife blade from the end of the vein to the
opening and remove as much blood as possible. Then butterfly the skein so that all the eggs will be exposed to the cure. I like
to pat dry the recently opened skeins with a paper towel to remove any lingering blood or liquid.
Use a fillet knife to butterfly open the skeins. Butterflied skein at top, original skein at the bottom.
Page 3
How to Cure Salmon Eggs for Bait—continued
How to apply salmon egg cure:
Bait Cure performs several functions. It preserves the fragile roe. It makes the roe more durable. It colors the roe. It adds bite
enhancing chemicals to help create even more tempting bait. Bait Cure can be messy as the dyes used are often potent. I
strongly recommend curing any bait outside in an area where a few permanent stains won’t cause a problem. Place the prepared skeins in either a small plastic bucket or a gallon plastic bag. Sprinkle the cure over the skeins until they are lightly covered. I like to add a little, roll the bag, than add a little more. An insufficient amount of cure will produce unpreserved bait. Adding too much cure will cause the roe to be burned by the chemicals in the mixture. Once the skeins are evenly coated in cure
they then need time to complete the curing process.
Use a paper towel to pat-dry the egg skeins. Lightly sprinkle egg cure into container a little at a time.
Egg curing process:
Salmon Egg Cure is a mix of borax, salt, sugar, dye and other preservatives. The salt preserves. The sugar toughens. The borax dries. The dye colors. Once the skeins are coated, the cure will draw out liquids from the eggs. Within a few hours the eggs
will shrink and the container will be filled with a soupy colored juice. Within a few more hours the liquid will be pulled back into
the eggs: preservatives, dye and all. Once the juicing and reabsorbing takes place, the eggs can be specifically prepared for
the desired fishing technique.
Gently shake and roll the closed container and set aside overnight at room temperature. Salmon eggs should be evenly coated with
egg cure.
Cured Salmon Roe is extremely versatile. Anglers have many ways of using it to catch Salmon and Steelhead. After the curing process is completed, the decision of how to utilize it will define how it is finally cared for. If an angler wishes to fish for Chinook Salmon,
he might want a very wet egg that leaches out juices into the water; he will sacrifice durability for a bait that carries a large scent trail.
If an angler wishes to fish for Steelhead, he might decide that it is more important to have a durable bait that can handle a dozen casts
before it falls apart. When putting up Wet Cure Eggs, consider taking the entire finished product and simply place it in a glass quart
Mason Jar to freeze. Juice and all. When putting up Salmon Eggs for Steelhead fishing, consider straining the eggs in a colander,
then air drying them on a rack to toughen them up. Placing a final coating of borax over the cured Salmon Roe can make the eggs
even more durable. Place cured eggs in strainer to remove excess liquid and to harden.
Page 4
Jerome Daigre, QMS Spinners
2014 Jack Pot Entries
The Rooster Tails are pleased to have Jerome Daigre, in addition to Roland Aspiras, at their August 15 th breakfast meeting.
The science of making custom salmon spinners requires an
understanding of what motivates salmon to strike a lure. It may
seem random and the reason so many tackle manufacturers
create hundreds of colors and design variations hoping the one
that the angler purchases lands several salmon and ignites a
word-of-mouth legend. For 15 years, Jerome Daigre has handmade hundreds of spinners refining his one-at-a-time custom
manufacturing method of creating genuine Daigre QMS spinners… for those in the ‘know’, QMS stands for Quality Made
Spinners, made in America. Using only the best components,
Daigre QMS spinners feature thicker American made Pen-Tac
blades with real gold and silver. Due to the blade density, they
turn more smoothly even at slower speeds, unlike thin copper
or tin blades on traditional spinners often made overseas.
KOKANEE—Wade Webb, 18 1/2”, LAKE OROVILLE, 6/19/14
Jerome also uses premium hooks that match the spinnerdesign overall, allowing for skirt-length, beads, and supporting LANDLOCKED SALMON—Rik Cox, 24”, 3 lb 12 oz. Lake Oroville,
7/1/14
hardware to create the perfect balance for trolling or casting.
Jerome Daigre, QMS spinners, produces one of the most productive in-line river lures on the market used to exploit salmon
instincts. Despite the fact that salmon stop eating during their
natal-water journey to spawn, science has shown that their
throats have swollen closed and their digestive systems have
shut-down, yet nature and years in ocean feeding has programed them to attack what they still perceive as food.
STRIPED BASS—Biff Brethour, 34”, 15lbs., Delta, 4/18/14
This is especially true when they first enter brackish-water estuaries leading to their river spawning grounds. These ingrained
feeding instincts stay intact during most of their migration as
they survive on stored body fat. Salmon are ‘eating-machines’
that have relied on three basic instincts, sight, smell, sound, to
find their prey in the vastness of the ocean. Spawning salmon
are also programmed to be aggressive and quick to attack what
they perceive as a predatory fish or other dangers to their predestined spawning activities. QMS spinners appeal to these
foraging characteristics and amplify features that aggravate
migrating salmon to provoke strikes. Attend this special
breakfast meeting and see for yourself the quality QMS spinner
construction
that withstands
the most vicious
attack. Find out
how custom
Daigre QMS
spinners could
result in a trophy salmon for
you during the
2014 river
salmon season.
LAKE TROUT (Mackinaw)—Gary Roberts, 19”, Gold Lake, 6/3/14
RAINBOW TROUT—Gary Roberts, 22 lbs.3/4”, Lake Oroville,
6/26/14
BROWN TROUT—Gary Roberts, 25”, 4lbs. 8oz., Lake Pardee,
2/25/14
LARGE MOUTH BASS—Ivan Ichters, 26 1/4”, Lake Wildwood,
5/28/14
SMALL MOUTH BASS—Rick Cox 15”, Lake Berryessa, 7/8/14
CATFISH—JR Greenlee, 31 5/8”, 15 lbs. 6 oz., Clear Lake, 4/20/14
SHAD — Mel Ewing,, 21 1/8 in, 2lb 2oz., American River, 6/11/14
****
Members
John & Kathy
Hess with a
beautiful 20
pound
salmon
caught from a
six-pack charter boat out of
Fort Brag
$470 in Jackpot
****