Went salmon fishing at Sam's

[SmokinAl]

All you northern guys that catch your wild salmon & cook it fresh, I really envy you. That being said I got my pole & net & went to Sam's. When I saw the salmon in the cooler I snagged one with my treble hook, netted it & brought it home to smoke. It was filleted & skinned. I cut the belly & tail off so the main piece of meat would be the same thickness, kind of like St. Louis style ribs, then I coated it with EVOO & cajun seasoning.

Onto the smoker at 215. I put it on cold with the smoker cold & cold water in the water pan. The idea was to cold smoke it for 30-40 minutes while the smoker got to temp.. Here it is just on with the TBS flowing.

Normally I don't put a probe in the salmon, but I really wanted to know what the it temp. was when I usually take it off. I set the therm for 140 and it went off in about 55 minutes. We checked the salmon & it was done. One thing I learned is that you don't want to overcook salmon. You are much better undercooking it. My wife Judy is a salmon expert & she can look at it & tell when it should be taken off the smoker. Here it is ready to eat. Juicy & moist with that cajun spice. Judy said it was ready & she was right. I posted more than 1 pic because it was so juicy & tender. It just melted in your mouth. Hope you can see that in the pics.

Thanks for looking folks, hope you enjoyed the show.

 

[chef willie]

Looks great Al....I'm still reading posts from that other thread and here pops yours. I'm gonna treat myself and go fishing at Costco Monday when I get off work...lol

 

[fpnmf]

Looks way delicious Al!!!!

  Craig

 

[beer-b-q]

Looks Great Al...  What # test line and what size hook did you use? lol

 

[nozzleman]

Man that looks good, I gotta try it. The best thing about fishing at Sam's is you can always count on eating fish at the end of the day.

 

[les3176]

nice looking salmon AL !!! yes the pics did do it justice,it looks juicy and perfect!!!

 

[tyotrain]

AL that is some great looking fish nice job.. bet that was tasty.. AL I live 5 mins from the St. Lawrence river its were the World Championship are held for carp.

we have some great fishing here.  check this link out http://www.carptournamentseries.com/news/?page_id=914

 

[tjohnson]

Looks Great Al!

I love grilled salmon.

Todd

 

[SmokinAl]

AL that is some great looking fish nice job.. bet that was tasty.. AL I live 5 mins from the St. Lawrence river its were the World Championship are held for carp.

we have some great fishing here.  check this link out http://www.carptournamentseries.com/news/?page_id=914

I used to catch carp when I was a kid, used homemade dough balls. Soft bread mixed with a little cotton. I have some big carp in the pond behind my house. They are sterilized grass carp & weigh about 15-20 lbs. each. There's also some big catfish & bass in there, and a ton of bluegill & crappie. Judy caught a 10 lb. largemouth back there about a year ago. Biggest one I ever caught was 8.5 lbs. The photo in my avatar is a 15 lb. catfish that I caught back there, believe it or not that sucker hit a spinner bait. I always thought you had to bottom fish for catfish.

 

[porked]

Looks great Al, I betcha it tasted great too.

 

[jirodriguez]

Man-o-man, that is some fine looking fish Al! I might have to borrow Judy next time I make some so she can tell me when to pull it off the smoker.... lol.

 

[Bearcarver]

That looks AWESOME Al !!!

And Great pictures Too!!!----I left-clicked to zoom in on one of those closeups, and it seemed like I was walking on the surface of the fish, looking around in between the flakes!!!

Thanks Al,

Bear

 

[Bearcarver]

Hey Al,

Did you drag them out on a rope?

 

[scarbelly]

Great looking Salmon AL - I have tried Salmon every imaginable way and just dont like it, but it looks great.

 

[rbranstner]

MMMMMMM Salmon. My favorite. I seem to "catch" them every time I head to Sam's as well. It's my go to hot spot. haha

 

[SmokinAl]

Hey Al,

Did you drag them out on a rope?

Not his time, but I'll remember to do that next time!  

 

[dennycieslinski]

Wow!  Salmon, my favorite fish!   You sure got it lookin good in those pics.  There is not many things out there that will allow me to pass up a chance to eat salmon.  

 

[somekinj]

looks great! I'm just started getting into smoking and Fish and Poultry is really all I can eat due to a Bowel Disease. This looks amazing and will have to try it out!

 

[crashtack]

Al - with the cajun seasoning - what's your preferred wood for the smoke? Assuming it's something a little more robust than alder.