I usually smoke freshwater fish (Bass, Sac-au-lait, Bream, Catfish) not that I don’t like saltwater fish, it’s just that I haven’t had the opportunity to try them yet….To start, everyone has their own taste, but what I like to do is use fish filets, I have been wanting to do whole skin on, scaled (not catfish),like you see trout done up north, but just haven’t had the chance yet to do that either. Keeping them cool in a bowl, I season them with Tony’s seasonings…. Again it personal taste on how much Tony’s you use, I like mine a little spicy and the wife doesn’t so we have to take it a little easy on hers. I will dust them garlic and onion powder, then mix them well so the mixture is all over them. I usually like to have the smoker hot before putting the fish in, around 200 degrees…..I like to smoked fish with pecan , again really haven’t ventured out…why change something that works… I have an expanded metal grill in my smoker that 2’ x 2’. So once it hot, I will spray it with some type of cooking spray to keep them from sticking, then just lay them on the grill….I probably over cook them a bit, but I like the edges of my fish crispy and the fish to be firm….during the cooking process, I like to drizzle a little melted butter over each filet to keep them moist….I probably do that 2 maybe 3 times depending on much I have in the bowl. I really don’t do much more than that….I don’t flip them or really move them around too much because I don’t want them to fall apart. It really doesn’t take long depending on the thickness of the fish maybe 30 minutes….I always have one that “falls on the ground” that I use to judge by and its usually the guideline to doneness for the rest of them …. The hardest part of smoking fish is to know how much to fix….The last time I smoked fish, I smoked 10lbs of catfish and I kid you not, my 17 and 14 year olds ate most of it….they love smoked fish…..Lately I have been in school and haven’t had the time to fish like I would like to, so I have been forced into buying Guidry’s catfish filets…the filet weigh really close to 1lb and I can judge what to fix by that…..with my crew it two per person and depending on the weekend and what’s going on, I have seen them get up the next morning and eat it cold for breakfast and say it better today !!!!! One piece of advice is smoked fish is not going to stretch as far as fried fish....I can fry 2 lbs and they are done with fish left over...I can smoke 10 lbs and they look at me like a hungry dog asking for more......Hope this helps ShoneyBoy……
