Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Smoked rainbows

Well I decided since I'm on the mend from a back injury last week I'd best lay off the spearing for a while, too much work and lifting. I was itching to get out of the house after sitting last weekend out loaded up with Motrin. So I headed over to a lake I like to trout fish on with a fresh flat of raw shrimp. I've bucketed a couple decent ones, a 16" and a 17" so far. When I get one more I'm going to head to the house to brine and smoke the shiny rascals.

I fillet them off leaving the skin on, like a mini salmon. Then I brine them for approximately 2 hours in a 50/50 mix of brown sugar and table salt. Take them out and rinse the sludge off, pat them dry with a paper towel, then lemon pepper them, and hang them on racks in the smoker. I let it run about 4 hours using applewood chips and keeping the temp about 140f.
They are absolutely amazing with triscuits and a cold beer. They aren't fishy like salmon, more buttery and savory.

Any of you guys ever smoke your trout?

I'd like to have the option.

I think I ate rainbow once, in 1959 at some floozy restaurant in Colorado.

Smoked whitefish are the stuff legend is made of.
How bad could the trout be?

I'd like to go spear or catch some whitefish, we have them up here I just don't know how or where to fish them. Made it home and stuck the filets in the brine bowl a couple minutes ago.

I figured they had trout in Ontario, surely you have lakers up there?

Don't misunderstand, I'm in Iowa, and make my living, such as it is in Iowa.

I enjoy NW Ontario any time I can, and Canada in general.

Yes, there are lake trout in the deep lakes in NW Ontario.

I have yet to catch a whitefish, they seem to be bottom feeders, and are a rare catch.

With me, and my fishin' pals, pickerel/walleyes are king.

Keep us posted on the smoked trout.

I can't imagine smoked fish, here in the south we deep fry our fish till we die of heart attacks at age 47. I know a guy who smokes crappie but I have never had it. I would like to try it.

It's really easy if you have a smoker, even if you don't I've seen people smoke salmon in wood or cardboard boxes using a hot plate. The main thing is brining, which sucks a lot of the water out of the filets and imbeds the base flavor, usually either sweet and or salty. After you remove them from the brine and rinse is the time to put any topical seasonings on the filets, ie lemon pepper, Cajun seasoning, or about anything you can dream up. I've also never seen anyone smoke fish without the skin on either, never left the skin on a fish until I moved to Alaska but they leave it on everything up here and remove as needed for cooking. When grilling or smoking the skin keeps the meat from sticking to the grill.

I use a 50/50 salt/brown sugar mix when doing a quick brine for trout. For salmon fillets, which are bigger and get brined overnight I use 70/30 or so sugar/salt. Any more salt and it's so salty I can't eat it. You mix the salt and sugar together then sprinkle it over the fish. It will draw the moisture out and make a big gooey mess in the pan.

It's a bunch of fun to experiment with and good eats when you get it right. You should give it a shot this spring when the fishing starts up for you. And trust me it can't be that healthy it has a ton of salt in it.

I will try that in a few weeks when I fish below cherokee damn.

I do all my fish in a mixture of brown sugar and kosher salt. After smoking and cooling I will sometimes add a spoonfull of Mrs Yoshida's gourmet sauce right into the vacuum bag.

Seabilly, smoking fish is easy and better for ya. Our culture up here in Wis/ German area does smoking like you guys deep fry. Catfish, even small channel cats are awsum. Oily fish are the best. Lots of different brine recipes here . I just put 1 cup salt with 1 gal. water and mix it till the salt is dissolved. A bit of brown sugar on them when ya start smoking doesn't hurt neither. I smoke till they are golden and then I'm done. Leave the skin on the bigger fillets or smoke small channel cats or whitebass whole, just chop off the head and gut them.

I used to smoke suckers. I ran with some folks when I was in my late teens-early 20's who made a big event of the annual spring sucker run, netting them with big boom supported drop nets with weights around them.

We'd cut off the heads, gut the fish and cut them into sections about 6" long. For brine we simply added enough kosher salt to a clean bucket of water to float an uncooked egg. Let the fish soak overnight and smoke slowly at a low temp until the right texture was reached.

I've also done smelt that way, which wasn't very good and was with my then BIL when he scored a bunch of smallish bullheads for smoking. The bullheads weren't too bad, but the best I ever had was when I smoked a 12lb steelhead some years ago. THAT, was delicious.

I haven't done any fish smoking in quite a while, but I think I might have to get back into it. When I do, I'm definitely going to try adding brown sugar to the brine mix. That sounds tasty.

Bruinruin, I smoked suckers and there were so many bones I only ate the tails. A small channel cat can't hardly be beat cause of the oil in them. However a trout or salmon from Lake Michigan was just as good. Bullheads were good but they really soaked up the salt and made it a bit to salty and strong. Whitebass are good to. Just an observation::::.. When I smoked fish and ate them on a regular basis , like a half a whitebass a day, by back pains and arthritis in my back completely went away for several weeks after I quit eating them.. I would actually lick the plate with the oil on it. I swear it takes away my back pains.

Smoked trout numerous times and prep them just like you do. I use a 50/50 mix of cherry and alder. Haven't done it in years due to the lack of trout here in Illinois. When in Montana I'd frequently get some 4~6 pounders that were perfect for the smoker. Ah the good ole days.

Guys, you're gonna toss me out of here, but when I was growing up in Wisconsin, my uncle had a dip net on a river near Jefferson. The blacks would come around and ask him if they could use it to dip carp. He's say: Go ahead. Take all you want. After a week or so, they'd bring him about 10 pounds of smoked carp! It was some of the best smoked fish I'd ever eaten. The smoking helped to rend the fat off, it flaked off the bone and was as good a fish flavor as any game fish I've eaten smoked. Smoked Buffalo is great too!

I dare anyone to try it and not like it.

Dan:

You are right, but don't give the secret away - you will increase demand! My dad worked with a few fellows who bowhunted carp and suckers, and when they come from clean water, they can't be beat. Hoping to get some suckers this weekend when they become legal to spear - into the smoker and then the canner. . have visitors and broke out a jar of the smoked/canned northern pike. everyone liked it - the jar is empty ;-(

I have to agree with the catfish. Seems like that's about all I catch lately, but smoking or grilling them with a mix of brown sugar and salt is hard to beat. The rest of the time they are deep fried.

We use to catch a lot of trout and got sort of tired of eating them so Dad and I decided to smoke some in the smoker. Have not eat one any other way since. They are especially good on a toasted onion bagel with cream cheese and dill. Just flake the meat off the skin and bone and chow down