Washing your egg shells

[PikeSticker]

Actually that was a cartoon image of Bugs Bunny and a slogan on a wash cloth my grandma gave me for Christmas about 55 years ago. (Yeah, we were pretty poor and that was the kind of useful presents we often got!) That slogan  came to mind as I was cooking up some eggs for breakfast just now and preparing to wash my egg shells before drying and "bagging them" for later use.

I was wondering how many others wash their shells before using them on the lake bottom. For a couple years I didn't and just used them with lots of organic material on them - white, skin, sometimes broken yolk smear. For the past several years I've been washing all my egg shells and notice that my hole doesn't accumulate a whitish cloud in the water over time as much as it use to. I'm speculating the organic material from egg whites and skin on the shells begins decomposing and the cloud is bacteria in the water growing in the organic soup. Just a theory but my holes stay clearer longer with sterlized shells.

Anyone have similar observations?

[kasilofchrisn]

I was reading some old posts and came across this one.
One thing I used to do when I was spesaring was to soak my potato peels in a coffee can of water overnight and then rinse them well a couple of times.
This gets rid of the excess starch from the potato peelings and the hole was a lot cleaner.
I guess it does make sense to wash your egg shells too.
I just wish Alaska Department of Fish and Game didn't net out my favorite pike lakes.
I used to like driving out to Sevena lake and spearing and using tipups. Had some good fish fries from out there.

[PikeSticker]

Ha, I just sent a photo two days ago to a friend showing him what type of hut I use for darkhouse spearing. It was a Sevena pic back in the Boom Time days. Wayne, Fred, and my huts in the foreground and your plywood box in the background where I had my Rokon parked on your smooth ice. I still am threatening to make up a slush strainer like you were using. Sure saves time getting the last little of the crystals out of the water.

Yep, since the big pike decline I've got so many egg shells accumulated that I could spear for five years and not run out. ADFG is making plans to Rotenone Stormy Lake maybe next year to eliminate those pike. This year they were catching as many Char as they could with the plans to breed them in the hatchery and use the brood stock and fry for restocking that exact genetic strain of char back in the lake. Their problem this fall was they had a dozen or so females in the pen but not a single male char. Of course there are suckers, sculpins, sticklebacks and coho fry that need to be replaced in the lake to balance it out again too. Not to mention the freshwater clams too.  Hopefully they will consider those species if they go through with the plan. Apparently there is now a neutralizer they can add to the outlet stream that deactivates the rotenone immediately so there is no chance of incidental kill downstream and in Swanson River.

[kasilofchrisn]

Yeah those were the days.
I got all that spearing stuff from old Dave Wynkoop before he passed away. I think he was 86 or 87 when he passed on.
The first couple of years he would use the shack after I had it set up and the hole cut.
 I would sit all morning and get skunked with the spear or occasionaly get a small pike or two. Then Dave would show up get a couple of five pounders in the first hour he was there and go home and fry them up.
I remember the one year in Trustworthys derby Copenhaver would bring in a 10+ pounder for the total weight division and then fred would show up with five or six two pounders and beat him. I think Fred ended up winning that year with all those pike he speared outta that lake.
Thats too bad about Stormy. It is almost the last public lake we have locally with catchable pike. That is where I got the fish last year with the Radio Tylemmetry tag in it. My fiancees son got his derby winning pike from that lake the same day. I was suprised he won as small as that fish was.Both fish were caught on tip-ups.
I did spear one for the derby outta there a few years back but it was only a couple of pounds or so and didn't win me anything.
I just might have to find a place to try and spear me one this year from the portable just for old times sake.

[Nightbird]

What's the purpose of the eggshells?

[Nightbird]

 Got my answer further along. Can't spear here, but finding reading about it very interesting.

[kasilofchrisn]

Dropping egg shells down a regular fishing is a good fish attractant where legal.
Also makes it easier to sight fish from inside your shanty down your regular fishing hole.

[gooseblaster49707]

i just dry my shells on a cookie sheet. crush them down and put them into an MT mayo jar for future use.    whatever floats to the top after backlighting the hole gets spudded out the next morning and tossed onto the ice til spring.   it's all natural so. . . . .

[jasonmichalski]

I just use them as they are.