Smokin' Salmon Recipe

It is inevitable that at some point, if you fly fish a lot, you will have to retain a fish at some point. For example, in the state of Washington, by law you must retain hatchery steelhead with a limit of 2. Or you may end up just fowl hooking a fish bad enough that you can’t release it. Either way, smoking fish has a long northwest heritage and is an excellent choice for your retained salmon, steelhead, or trout.

Here is how I smoke fish-

• You will first need to clean your fish and pull out the pin bones using a forceps or tweezer (most fly fisherman can find forceps faster than a tweezer). I smoke fish with the skin off but that’s pure preference. I use a dry brine of brown sugar, kosher salt, and pepper.
• Next dry the fish off with a paper towel as well as you can and cut them in to eatable pieces. You don’t want to have to thaw out a huge piece when you just want to have a little for a dinner appetizer.
• Then mix 2 cups of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of Kosher salt, and a table spoon of pepper together and pack the mixture on to the dried fish. For a slightly different flavor you could try this pepper seasoning as well.
• Cover the fish and let cure in the mixture overnight or at least 8 hours, and maybe longer for thicker cuts of large salmon.
• When you uncover the fish in the morning you will see that much of the liquid has been pulled from the fish and a lot of liquid is now in the brine.
• Wash the brine off the pieces of fish and dry them off. Let them sit on a drying rack for 1-2 hours or until a shiny glaze/film is apparent on the fish. This helps the fish smoke better.
• Use whatever wood chips you would like, hickory is the most common, and let them soak for at least 30 minutes. Start your smoker (or find a new one here) for 2 hours at 150 degrees, then smoke for 1 more hour at 175 degrees, and then take some apricot jam and cover the fillets with it for a nice glaze. Smoke the fish for 1 more hour at 180 degrees. When the fish is done you will see a very slight crack in the top of the fish.

Take them out and enjoy. If you are going to freeze them use a vacuum sealer. If you are going to eat in the next 7-10 days then put in a Ziploc in the fridge with each piece of fish wrapped in a paper towel.