Smoked bass and bluegill

[jokensmoken]

Anyone here ever smoked large mouth bass or bluegill...And if so, could you offer some advice.
My fish smoking has been almost exclusively cold smoking salmon with a brown sugar, salt and pepper cure.
I don't usually keep bass to eat and we usually deep-fry our gills but in cleaning out my down stairs freezer to make room for several butts I got on sale I found about 3-4 lbs of filets left from my nephews visit and subsequent fishing trip this fall. Any advice offerd
would be appreciated.

Walt

 

[cmayna]

Never done bass but looking at it, I would assume it is a pretty wet, oily meat.  If so,  I would probably do a simple dry brine.  You might do a research on how oily (fatty) it is compared to say Chinook Salmon.  If any where near Chinook, then for sure a dry brine.  My opinion anyways.

 

[SmokinAl]

Never smoked bass either, but bluegills make a real good smoked fish dip.

I bet bass would too.

Al

 

[jokensmoken]

Thanks Al, any tips on a dry cure vs. wet brine or would my salmon cure work...I've read conflicting recipes. Some swear a dry cure some a wet brine.
Not that I mind experimenting, but you guys usually cut the learning curve WAY down through your vast experience.

Walt

 

[cmayna]

I just googled "smoked striped bass"  and almost 100% of what I saw is using a wet brine.

 

[big t bbq]

I have smoked both, but they were whole fish, not fillets, wet brined with salt and brown sugar for 18 hours, I know it sounds like a long time but again these were whole fish. They are both very good.

 

[SmokinAl]

When I made the fish dip, I didn't brine them at all.

I just coated  them with EVOO & Cajun spice & smoked them for a couple of hours.

Then into the Cuisinart with a  little mayo, & cream cheese, and mix until you get the consistency you like.

We like it with some hunks of fish in it so I just pulsed it a few times.

Al

 

[cmayna]

Al,

That sounds yummy.  Love fish dip.

 

[jokensmoken]

Thanks All.
I'll give it a shot...Got about 6 pounds of sirloin thawing for jerky and thought I'd smoke the fish same time. Might as well load 'er up...

Keep the smoke thin and blue

Walt

 

[Bearcarver]

Anyone here ever smoked large mouth bass or bluegill...And if so, could you offer some advice.
My fish smoking has been almost exclusively cold smoking salmon with a brown sugar, salt and pepper cure.
I don't usually keep bass to eat and we usually deep-fry our gills but in cleaning out my down stairs freezer to make room for several butts I got on sale I found about 3-4 lbs of filets left from my nephews visit and subsequent fishing trip this fall. Any advice offerd
would be appreciated.

Walt

Hi Walt,

Bass & Bluegills aren't as fat & Oily as Salmon, but I use the same method for Salmon, Trout, Gills, Bass, Tuna, and most any other fish.

Below are two of my Step by Steps---Pay attention to the length of time in brine going by the thickness of the pieces.

Thicker:

Smoked Salmon      

Thinner

Smoked Brook Trout & Tilapia

Bear

 

[biteme7951]

My dad loved smoked bass (largemouth and smallmouth)  making it the only reason I would keep them. They are not oily at all and I would wet brine them overnight  with salt, brown sugar, onion and garlic powder, some poultry seasoning, and a couple of bay leaves. Smoke times were short (2-4 hours) as the fillets were thin.A bend test  for flakiness and internal temp of 160 is what I looked for. The thinner parts of the fillet were more like jerky and eaten as such and the thicker parts were used plain or in a fish dip with crackers. We also threw in bluegills and they came out more like jerky when peeled from the skin. Peel and eat bluegill went fast at our house.

Barry.

 

[jokensmoken]

Thanks loads bear,
Exactly the info I was looking for. Not that dissimilar to the way I brine my salmon. Gills usually don't last long enough around here to smoke (we deep fry them as fast as we catch them) and I don't usually keep bass and I've read that they don't smoke well because they are so "lean" so thought I'd ask first.
You guys have shortened the learning curve more than once.
I'll post pics Sunday...I'm slicing sirloin tonight for jerky smoke Sunday and may as well load that 40 inch MES up.

Walt

 

[jokensmoken]

Thanks Barry,
I've got a go to brine that's similar to your suggestion...
I'll post pics through the process...

Walt.

 

[cmayna]

Looks like wet brines win.  Looking forward to the pics.

 

[Bearcarver]

Thanks loads bear,
Exactly the info I was looking for. Not that dissimilar to the way I brine my salmon. Gills usually don't last long enough around here to smoke (we deep fry them as fast as we catch them) and I don't usually keep bass and I've read that they don't smoke well because they are so "lean" so thought I'd ask first.
You guys have shortened the learning curve more than once.
I'll post pics Sunday...I'm slicing sirloin tonight for jerky smoke Sunday and may as well load that 40 inch MES up.

Walt

Yeah----Gill Fillets are usually so thin I like pan frying them better anyway.

Now Smoked Bass Fillets have a little more Heft to them.

Bear

 

[jokensmoken]

IMG_20170121_124544261_HDR.jpg

• jokensmoken
• Jan 21, 2017

 

[jokensmoken]

Jerky sliced last night...The bag on the left is a peppercorn dry rub...The two on the right are a teryak brown sugar wet conglomeration I've been working on

 

[jokensmoken]

IMG_20170121_114346180_HDR.jpg

• jokensmoken
• Jan 21, 2017

Here's my fish after thawing over night...All largemouth and as suspected about 3.5 pounds

 

[Bearcarver]

Here's my fish after thawing over night...All largemouth and as suspected about 3.5 pounds

Nice little bucket of Bass Fillets.

If those were mine, I'd Pan fry them, but that's up to you.

However just so you know by the time you get the Internal temp to what you want, the thin outside edges will be crisp, maybe even leathery, much like the outside edges of some of the thinner pieces in my links I gave you in Post #10 above.

Not a Big Deal---Just letting you know.

Bear

 

[jokensmoken]

Well Bear, that's kinda what this is all about, learning...Lol...
We usually do pan or deep fry these fish fresh...I found these filets left over from my nephews trip here this fall while adding butt roasts to my freezer and thought, what the heck, I'm doing jerky Sunday let's try some bass filets...Nothing ventured nothing gained...But I'm tending to agree with you.
Most will robably end up as fish jerky and in dip but I wanted to see if the shoulder portion of the larger ones might fair differently so I seperated a few of the larger ones and cut the shoulder of the filet off to do a dry brown sugar salt cure... They're about 3/4 inch thick so I'm hoping for reasonable results.