I'm new and just saw this so I'm a bit late. Salmon and trout are very similar so I do them the same way. I brine mine in Mr. Yoshida sauce which is very similar to a teriyaki sauce. The brine is your call and can be sweet or savory, dry or wet just remember to let it hang for 2 hours before smoking to build pellicle. The smoking, however, is where the real skill comes. It's easy to make good smoked fish but there is some steps that can make them great. Start low, like 100* and slowly bump it up until after32 hours you're finally at 170*. Then just monitor the IT until you hit 145*. It bumps up the amount of smoke and also helps the texture. If you smoke fish to fast, you get what's called albumin. That's the white stuff that forms on the outside. It doesn't ruin the meat but it's better without.
