Salmon Eggs & Roe
Single jarred eggs for stocked rainbows, cured roe clusters for steelhead - egg baits push the oldest button in a salmonid's brain, with the same below-the-redds ethics as egg flies.
Salmonids evolved alongside an annual caviar spill, and egg baits exploit the reflex at every scale: the single red jar egg that stocked rainbows can't pass, and the marble-sized cured roe clusters that drift through steelhead runs on both coasts. It's match-the-hatch at its most primal - fished, like all egg imitation, downstream of spawners and never at them.
What it catches
Stocked and wild trout (single eggs), steelhead and salmon (roe bags and clusters), Dolly Varden and char wherever spawn drifts.
Getting & keeping it
Jarred singles at every tackle counter (shelf-stable); roe comes from your legally kept catch, cured with borax/sugar cures (a craft of its own) or pre-cured from shops; spawn sacks tie loose eggs into mesh marbles.
How to rig it
Single egg: tiny egg hook (#10-#14) fully inside the egg, drifted naturally on light line. Roe: spawn sacks or clusters on egg-loop-knotted hooks under floats through steelhead runs - the egg loop grips soft roe without crushing.
When it shines
Anywhere downstream of spawning activity by season (fall salmon, winter-spring steelhead), opening-day stocked ponds, high cold water when scent + sight both matter.
Field tips
Natural drift is everything - enough weight to tick bottom, never anchor; match cluster size down in low clear water; the egg-loop knot is thirty minutes of practice that pays for decades.
Common mistakes
Fishing ON redds (same ethic as always: the queue below, never the beds), oversized clusters in shy water, and drag-laden drifts that skate unnaturally.