Smoke Trout = any good ideas

With the sunrise comes yet another trout season.
I always end up with more fish than I can give away (yes, I'm that good...:roll:)
Anyway this year I want to smoke them.

When I was a kid I'd eat trout, pearch, blue gill, sunny's all day long, but the bones are a bother to me know that I'm an old Bear.

I figured if I smoke the little puppies a) they'd taste better, and b) I'd be able to deal with the bones.

And I have a food saver so I can stock up a bunch for long term prep storage.

Anyone have any experience smoking trout that didn't involve a $600 smoker?
Low tech w/charcoal's just fine with me.

Thanks

PS: If you want trout PM me in about three weeks - I'll have more than I know what to do with.

Sure. Just build a cold smoker. You need some kind of firebox with an outlet pipe for smoke and a box for the meat into which you pipe the smoke. You can assemble one out of junk for a lot less than $600. Ours is a metal drum piped into an old icebox.

I've been using the Scandinavain "Gravlax" recipe. Gravlax = Grave Lox.

You mix a little salt and sugar together and sandwich the salmon (that's the 'Lox') together with some dill weed. Put it in a cool place (that's the 'grave') and flip twice a day for at least a couple of days.

Here is what I have learned:
Very small fish; Par boil so that you can peel meat from bones. Combine with Bisquit Mix in small dough balls, freeze or deep fry. Dip in various types of mustard.
Larger fish:
Fillet meat from bones soak in salt water as per instructions and smoke using any 'sapless' fruit or other hard wood (no pine/cedar/fir/balsam wood), cut or shave wood as needed for smokey low temp fire.
Fillets are easier to vacume seal than whole fish.
Check the web for smoker and rack design

My new Masterbuilt cost less than $200 at Christmas. I smoked salmon last weekend, vacuum sealed and froze it. 1 1/2 hrs in the smoker is all it takes.

Here's some of the less expensive Masterbuilt smokers.

http://www.masterbuilt.com/index.php...okers.html?p=2