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Wife and I will be in Trinidad for our annual Albacore fishing trip in Sept.
Meanwhile.......What have you produced with the WSM? Very nice charcoal smoker.
Welcome from the SF Bay area. Where in Humboldt? I lived in Crescent City, then Eureka, then, then, then. Lots of well gifted smokers here who will chime in to help the cause.
I would add a stack or vent either out the back wall up high near the center of the roof, or just thru the roof near the ridge. Either will help minimize the amount of smoke from just sitting up there with no place to go.
I smoke a lot of Salmon but with a dry brine of dark brown sugar with salt. Have no idea what is the best brine for YFT. Hopefully someone with experience will chime in with suggestions.
Neither can I, but I did learn to fish right handed so the wife and I can trade fishing rods when needed, like when she hooks up with a big fish and tells me to earn my keep and "bring it in".
I have never used the flap or baffle. Being the exhaust pipe, it remains fully open (vertical). The reason I installed the pipe was because the propane smoker did not have a vent on the top which I wanted. It's stock vent is on the back panel towards the top. Also, since I run my temp probe...
Installing the hot plate controller was only because I originally had no plans to use a PID. It was/is still a big improvement over the original big chief set up.
But yes, if you are planning to always use a PID on the chief, you can simply disregard the controller.