This is an update from a couple of years ago, I did this and didn't save it, luckly Jason (Misuse) did, I've had calls and pm's from guys asking about this post, and thought I'd throw it up her again. For whatever it's worth, here is is again
I keep seeing people asking about smoking, so I thought I would try to take a novice through the steps as I do it.
Note: Before I get a bunch of crap from the experts, I want to say, this is the way I do it, many of you may not agree with me, and you may do it defferent than I do. If you don't agree, post your own thread on how you do it. In my opinion, theres no right or wrong way to do it, just the way you like to do it.
First, I want to thank the crew of the Waatoosee for some beautiful Yellow Tail and Albacore from there recent trip. Greg (Mots) called me this morning and told me to come over and pick up some fish from their trip. Much to my delight, I left and was there very shortly, becuse I love to smoke fish. I don't do it the same every time but this is my stanby way of smoking fish. Its easy and fast.
Even though I have three smokers, I happened to go to Wall Mart with my wife to get some flowers to plant in the yard this morning, and as I was walking through the barbeque section, I noticed this big barbe on sale for $ 58.00. Normally it runs $ 98.00. Needless to say, I bought one to add to my smoker collection. I find that since you have everything out to do the fish, its much more effecient to do two or three batches of fish in the same time as it will take you to do one batch. Two of my smokers are the round 18" Brinkmann smokers, one is a large Weber, and now the last one is the square upright Brinkmann, which I have found to be much more user friendly than the standard round Brinkmanns. The racks slide in and out, as do the water container and the container for the coals. Much easyer to use and less of a hassel loading the coals, fish and the water .
First make sure everything is clean, you know the old sane, "cleanleness is next to godlyness", I like everything clean and ready to go before I start. I use regular Kingsford charcoal. I use the chiminey with some newspaper to get it started, two chimineys per smoker, I find this is the right amount for a batch of fish, to maintain the correct heat and duration for smoking.
After you get the coals started and while your waiting for them to get up to heat, place the wood chips in a container (approximately two quarts) and fill with water, let it soak until the coals are ready, also while your waiting you can go ahead and season the fish. I use a good portion of Lawery's seasoned salt, fresly ground pepper, some lemon pepper, some of Emerils "BAM" essence seasoning, Gorilla garlic, and a little dried onion powder, all to your taste, your going to have to experiment and use more or less depending on your taste, untill you figure it out. Thats the fun of doing this. You can add other seasonings in, depending on your own taste buds, be careful though, your probably not the only person that's going to be eating this fish, and give some consideration for others. Be moderate to start with, until you find that some people really like it a little hotter or more seasoned. I kind of stay on the lighter side, becuse I usually give away a lot of my smoked fish, and I don't want anybody to be offended and have a bad experience. Before you put the fish in the smoker, make sure your grills are oiled, I use the Pam spray, and it works very well.
Also, I take all of the skin off of the fish, I find if you leave it on, the fish does not get smoked thouroughly, and the skin makes a big mess of the smoker, I just take all of the skin off and don't mess with it.
I do not brine the fish, I figure if the fish has been swimming around in salt water all its life, why do I want to add more salt to the fish. I also do not like the consistancy and taste of the fish once it has been brined. Just my preferance. Plus its a waste of time.
Make sure you are very careful when placing the hot coals into the smoker, I have been burned a couple of times until I found out it is much easyer to use a welders glove, this works well and is much safer.
Once you put the hot coals in the smoker, drain all of the water off of the chips, I usually soak the chips for at least 30 minutes. I have found, for my taste, I like the Mesquite chips the best with ocean (salt water) fish, just my preferance. And this also depends on the type of fish you are smoking, for instance, with trout, I use Alder or Apple chips. Do it to your own taste.
Arrange the fish onto the grill and leave space between all of the cuts, so the heat and smoke gets around all of the fish pieces.
Now, once you have the fish on, don't open the lid or door on the smoker for at least the first hour,all of the heat will escape, usually, I don't check it for and hour and fifteen minutes, and I find to my liking the fish will take anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours, depending on the thickness of the cuts.
While your waiting, you might want to get some beers or wine out and enjoy what you have done, take the time to smell the smoke and the fish, this is the part I love, you may want to put the statue of the four gay Myan dudes on top of the smoker for thier blessing, and did I say, drink some more beer or wine, wine is my preferance.
I almost forgot, when your smoker really starts smoking (I call this power smoking), don't forget to take the parrots out of there cages and put them in the house, they start acting funny after they inhale some of the smoke
When your done, take the fish off of the grill
and plate it up, let it cool at room temperture
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After it cools completly, you can vacuum pack it, or, make a killer dip/spread with it, that's comming next in 'Smoking 102'
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