Todays Tullibees

[eyeguy 54]

I'm havin fun!

[Walleyehooker]

They look very good

[OnAFly]

What was your time/temp? Did you brine?

[eyeguy 54]

on these I brined about 5 hours. cup non iodine salt, cup brown sugar and 2 quarts water. 2 hours at about 145 with hickory and cherry then I upped it to 170 for about 90 minutes. A little mapple syrup on them the last 45 minutes. I bring in one piece and check the temp quick. 150 or so is good for me. A little more or less is fine also.

[Boar]

Very nice, doin Jerky right now, can wait.

[otterman91105]

They sure do look good.

[masoct3]

Nummmmy

[Sandmannd]

Look very good indeed.

[loadmaster]

Any thoughts on why you halfed them instead of leaving them whole,

[Driftless]

I'm havin fun!

looking good!!!!!

[eyeguy 54]

I always fillet stuff that I smoke. Gets smokier. :>)

[Mnfisher]

Last year I smoked some Tulibee's from LOW and they turned out mushy. The year befoe the ones from Mille Lacs turned out great. Any idea why? Some I fileted and some I left whole and butterflied them. After soaking in brine, I air dried til shiny. I have some more from LOW now so just wondering. Yours look very good.

[hockeybc69]

mnfisher,

any chance those ones from LOW maybe were handled differently than the Mille Lacs ones?

There is absolutely no reason a fish from one lake to another should have much difference in the end product. Sure, there can be a subtle difference, but mushy vs firm.... not a chance its due to the location of the catch.

I also smoke all my fish filleted. Cant say why I do it, its the only way I have ever done it. I have ever actually had a whole smoked fish though.

[pushbutton]

Agreed, have smoked form both places and not noticed any difference. Think Eyeguys were from LOW.

[eyeguy 54]

yes these were from LOW, Did a batch last year from Mille Lacs and came out the same but they were a littl smaller. The 2 batches this year were frozen solid, thawed and then smoked. I brought home a few fillets, and then I decided to just bring the whole fish home frozen, thaw out, fillet and then smoke. I heard from a guy up there that it worked fine. No problem at all and not mushy.

[Mnfisher]

Mine were frozen too (this year). The ones from Mille Lacs weren't frozen. Got them soaking now and plan on smoking tomorrow. I'll let you know. Thanks for the replies.

[Fish Head]

I caught some tulibees at LOTW and froze them to smoke latter. This will be my first time smoking them, so sorry for the stupid question. I'm assuming you left the skin on and I'm assuming you scaled them prior to brining and smoking?

[hockeybc69]

Skin on, not scaled.

[eyeguy 54]

+1

I just cut the fillet straight down and leave bones and scales on. Clean the slime off and brine.

[OLE77]

Probly another dumb question from a newbie smoker, do you put water in the pan when smoking fish.

[pushbutton]

Seems preety smart to ask if you don't know Many different ways to smoke, but I do use water during most of the low smoke. Try to fire up the heat at the end though to cook thoroughly and caramelize any sugars, and will not use the water pan for this....

[DrJuice1980]

I am a novice when it comes to smoking fish, I tried doing Northern once, turned out terribly dry, tried a salmon filet once and terribly dry as well both had not been anything close to the store bought or moreys bought. I am not using a mop, only thing I really did was seasoning. I dont know what I am doing and all the photos posted on here look great, mine do not. I would be very greatful if you could please inform me on the steps you take prior to the smoker and time/temp while in smoker, so pretty much the whole process. I can smoke a mean rack of ribs, any cut of pork, Ive done a great brisket and whole chicken but the fish have turned out not so good to say the least. Thank you for your help.

[pushbutton]

Far from an expert and not much of a stickler for details........ but would probably just start off with a tried and true brine like Hi Mountain and go off their instructions until you get familiar with the process....its simply a safer approach since it has some preservatives in it. After brining, first thing is to rinse really good. Next important part is to lay the fish out and rest for around an hour forming a peticule layer...it is formed when it is sticky to the touch, I feel more comfortable doing it in the fridge....this will help give the smoke something to adhere to as well as help keeping the fish moist.

Have always racked mine, so cleaning and oiling is important. The low slow part is around 150 ish for a few hours. When the internal temp is reaching 130 ish to 140 ish will then crank up the heat to 200 through 240 ish depending on how thick or oily the fish is....or if I put a glaze on it...which I usually do....starting about half way into the cooking process. Recommendations are anywhere from 145 to 160 for 30 minutes to be safe. Personally like a firmer end product, give a lot of it away, so usually error on the hotter safer side.

Ultimately, a ton of different variables with smoker size and type, fish size and type, different brines, cooking techniques, ect..... and hard to lay out a single best way to do it..... will probably learn the most from doing it and wrecking a few things. Sounds like you got a good start on that and half your battle is over Would not hurt to read about about it as well, from someone with more of an attention span that is capable of writing more than three paragraphs......Check out the Smoking Library above, ton of great past threads, use the search engine below the classifieds....mill through them and pay close attention to anywhere Third Eye comments

[Alagnak]

I usually do a wet brine overnight and then a glaze (br sugar, honey, lemon) brushed on with cracked pepper towards the end of smoking with all of my salmon/trout at home. But- the guy at the lodge I work at in alaska (because he's smoking every day) just throws 1/2 sugar and 1/2 salt together in a bowl, sprinkles a bunch on top of meat side of fillets, lets it sit over night, rinses and dries fillets, then smokes. When the fillet gets moist in the smoker he grinds some pepper over top. That's it. They're alwas spot on. When you start with fresh wild salmon it helps a lot though too. ;-) ALso, any larger fillets I like to score/cut down to the skin every couple inches so the brine and smoke can penetrate. Personally I only smoke oily fish- whitefish/tullies, trout, salmon. I've never been a fan of most 'white meat' fish.

[TruthWalleyes]

Gosh dang-it that looks good!