Northwest Fishing Reports

im looking to buy a smoker in the near future. any suggestions? nothing too fancy, but it needs to work well and last a while of course =)

goonatic wrote:im looking to buy a smoker in the near future. any suggestions? nothing too fancy, but it needs to work well and last a while of course =)

I've got a lil chief that has got to be 40 years old, still works... That's the most widely dist one.... Lots of much better ones for a price. What's your price range and how often do you plan on using it? What are you smoking?

I do my smoking the old fashioned way. Barrel smoker with indirect heat using hardwood lump charcoal and wet chunks of Apple, alder, and sometimes I may throw some cherry on there. You can find a full size char griller barrel smoker for around $100. Can also be used as a grill with direct heat.

umm i would say my range is 200, give or take a little, i plan on using it often because smoked fish is my weakness haha! and maybe i might see what other treats i can smoke up!

I smoked a turkey this last Thanksgiving. It was a gift from heaven! LOL

http://www.amazon.com/Char-Broil-Infrar ... B00365FIAS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I got one of these last year. It does everything and smokes good, but not great. but still damm good. its the best grill I have ever owned. I cook on it twice a week now LOL

cobrar543 wrote:http://www.amazon.com/Char-Broil-Infrar ... B00365FIAS

I got one of these last year. It does everything and smokes good, but not great. but still damm good. its the best grill I have ever owned. I cook on it twice a week now LOL

I read some of the reviews on that, seemed there is an issue with getting the temp down far enough to be a decent fish smoker. What do you think? Does it cook the fish or smoke it? Besides that, it looks cool. You could cook a lot of stuff in that one!

I use a medium size Bradley electric, I love it. I can load 20 15"-20" trout at a time. I also smoke sausages of all kinds, I lay sausages on racks rather then hanging them and I can load about 20 pounds to a batch. I also smoke a lot of briskets and the Bradley will take 2- 8 pound briskets and the water trays with ease. My first smoker was an old oven(that was about 1965) then I had a couple of converted refers and then I was in hog heaven when I got my first Little Chief. There are a lot of smokers on the market that work great, but the smoker is not how you get great smoked fish or meats, its the passion that the person puts into the process of smoking the fish or meats. Be careful though, using a smoker can become addictive. Some times I wonder if I fish so much just so I can smoke them or do I run the smoker so much because I have so many fish. The only down side I have found with the Bradley smokers is the cost of the biscuits, they are about $20.00 or 48 biscuits and you burn 3 per hour, with most of my fish I only use smoke for about 2 hours and I never start the smoke until the fish has been in the smoker at low temp for the first hour. Well good luck and have fun with it.

This is the smoker I have had for years. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Masterbuilt- ... er_reviews" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; It is propane fired. The same as with anything new takes some getting used to to keep the temp down and the way you like it. I have done fish, ham, roast and ribs. When we have the family over for the holidays it serves as a over flow oven for cooking and heating as well. I had a little chief smoker for years and loved it. But when it was cold out even putting blankets and a box over it to insulate it, it sometimes took for ever to get done. With the propane I can let it smoke for a few hours until it looks good then turn up the heat and finish it off in short order. Mine has a cast iron pan with a grate on it to hold the chips. The newer ones have gone to a light weight pan. I think I would get an old cast iron pan to replace it.

Jerry H wrote: I had a little chief smoker for years and loved it. But when it was cold out even putting blankets and a box over it to insulate it, it sometimes took for ever to get done. With the propane I can let it smoke for a few hours until it looks good then turn up the heat and finish it off in short order. Mine has a cast iron pan with a grate on it to hold the chips. The newer ones have gone to a light weight pan. I think I would get an old cast iron pan to replace it.

Emphatically agree, when it's cold outside, my little chief sucks.... I like the idea of having some temperature control such as the smoker Jerry posted.

Lil Chief is a great way to start. I made a insulating cover for winter smoking. I really prefer the larger one "Big Chief" so I can smoke halved fish.I use applewood as my go to smoking wood. Cherry and Alder are also nice.

Springer Jerry wrote:

mizm05 wrote:I do my smoking the old fashioned way. Barrel smoker with indirect heat using hardwood lump charcoal and wet chunks of Apple, alder, and sometimes I may throw some cherry on there. You can find a full size char griller barrel smoker for around $100. Can also be used as a grill with direct heat.

That is a meat smoker not a fish smoker. They smoke a turkey real well but using charcoal will ruin the flavor. Alder to start and finishing with any fruit tree or even Vine Maple is the way to go.

Don't tell that to anyone who tries my smoked fish. I have a waiting list of friends and family who chomp at the bit when it's smoking time. I use lump charcoal made from hardwoods. It actually adds flavor, not detracts. I would agree with you if we were talking briquettes, but that's not what I use. The bed of coals is hardwood lump coal, and then I put wet apple, alder and sometimes cherry chunks on top of the lump coal bed. Never had a complaint, quite the opposite. Just make sure the heat is indirect, as with any type of smoking.

This is my current smoker. http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-162528 ... shopping15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It smokes everything that I will ever need to feel the need to smoke. Does a spectacular job at controlling the heat. I use alder peterson pucks for all of my fish and hickory alder mix on my meats.

Last year I threw a smoker together. Just throw some reasonable dimensions together and get a sheet of wood, electric coil heater, and hardware. Make sure you add enough support on the inside so the wood doesn't warp. I would probably make it a little bit smaller next time.
It works good for fish and ribs. The open space is a little too open and the heat dissipates. So had to throw a cover together and add some insulation on the outside.
These smelt are from over the weekend. Made a brine of salt, brown sugar, ginger, pepper, soy sauce, and touch of chili pepper.

they turned out pretty good
hewesbob is right...it's just addictive

Good luck getting the smoker that fits your home!