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Topic: Smoked Trout from Freshwater Lagoon  (Read 1486 times)

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  • Dave The SynthGuy
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  • Date Registered: Apr 2009
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I’ve been kinda bad about not posting on NCKA so I thought I’d break that habit by posting my improvised smoked trout recipe from a recent fishing trip to Freshwater Lagoon on 4-1-2018.   Two of us went up there on Sunday with the expressed intent of catching some of the recently stocked hatchery fish to smoke.   :smt001  We managed to get a limit of small fish each  (11”-13”) and I smoked them the next day on my offset smoker. 

I’ve never smoked trout before, and I’ve never smoked such small fish.   :smt003 My buddy suggested I butterfly the little trout which I did. I smoked his fish for him, too.

I used a commercial brining solution that someone gave me for Christmas (you can see it in the pictures below) but after tasting it dry, I decided to add more brown sugar to it.  I added quite a bit. :smt005

After brining overnight, then drying for about an hour the next morning, the fish went on the smoker at 11 am.

I used charcoal and alder chips, for smoke and heat, along with an occasional chunk of mesquite, mostly to keep the heat up.  I tried to keep the smoker on the cooler side, mostly hovering around 150 or 160 degrees.  You have to monitor the offset smoker often, there is no thermostat like you’ll find on some electric smokers.

The racks on the top and near the fire seemed to be cooking faster than the ones on the bottom rack, so I took the first fish off at 4 pm and rotated some of the fish up to the top rack where I continued pulling them off up until about 6 pm.

I sampled the first one at 4 pm and OMG — that was really tasty!!! Later, as I took more of the fish off, I began to flake it off the backbones and ribs to keep in the fridge.   I must admit, “de-boning” it is somewhat tedious, and I do miss some of the small pin bones, but after about the third fish it seemed to get easier.

I keptt the flaked fish in the fridge in a Tupperware container and have been having some daily. I’ve pretty much consumed all I made in a few days. 

I’ve never smoked trout before, but DANG… that’s stuff’s good on a cracker!  Gonna do this again, for sure.  I’d like to catch some BIGGER trout for this.   :smt006
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Eddie

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Super tasty lookin', smoked trout is a different treat than smoked salmon. :smt006
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Azkikr

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Goodjob bro! Nice catches


Live2Fish

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Looks good Bradfield


CptSloppywood

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LoletaEric

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Kaw

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Those look fantastic. Beautiful color in the fish.

You smoked them at 150 for about 5 hours? I have an electric smoker that I smoke an awful lot of herring in when they are in they bay. I believe herring take about 3 or 4 hours at 150 in my smoker.


  • Dave The SynthGuy
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  • Location: Arcata, California
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I've thought about trying smoked herring.  I have a bunch frozen for bait.  Maybe next year I will get brave enough to try it.  :smt044
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Kaw

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I've thought about trying smoked herring.  I have a bunch frozen for bait.  Maybe next year I will get brave enough to try it.  :smt044

You definitely should give it a go. I can fit about 60 herring in my smoker and I run it at work where I can do 2 or 3 batches a day. After smoking them I vac bag and freeze them. They will last for probably 5 or 6 months. They never last that long for me. I like to have them for breakfast instead of bacon.  :smt001 It is a lot of work cleaning them all but it’s worth it.


Allister12

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Gosh, it looks soooo delicious! I am sure it tastes as well  :smt001


 

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