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doubledown
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06/22/2017 02:01PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
This may belong in meal planning but I love the input from all you fishing junkies so I'm putting up stakes with this post here...

Here's my end game followed by my dilemma and theoretical question...

END GAME: Smoke lake trout over an open fire of alder and eat for dinner.

DILEMMA: Timing. Fish should soak in brine for a minimum of 2 hrs (much more ideally). Fish should be smoked for 2 to 4 hours (I'm planning on doing a hot smoke in a mylar teepee).

Perfect scenario would be hooking into a laker early morning and spend the rest of the prepping/smoking the fish, but nothing is ever perfect and I'm not an expert laker fisherman (not to mention it'll be August) so I'm thinking in 'plan B terms' as I may not hook in until later in the day.

It'll be tough to keep the trout alive on a stringer so I'm thinking more in terms of cleaning and brining in a leak-proof container (ziploc) and hanging in the bear bag overnight...to be clear, this is just a theoretical plan.

QUESTION: If I catch a lake trout in the evening and want to keep it to smoke for dinner the following day, what method have you successfully used to avoid spoilage overnight?

I'd prefer input from those who have experience storing a dead fish overnight. I'm sure some folks might think the endeavor futile or not worth its while and recommend frying, baking, stewing, etc. While I love all of those cooking methods, this is more of a challenge, in addition to being a delicious way to enjoy trout.

In addition to avoiding overnight spoilage, I think the biggest challenge will be doing all of this without chopping down living trees for smoking chips. The only way I can think to avoid that is collect dry wood the day before and soak it overnight. For good order's sake, it's worth mentioning that if I can't find the proper smoking wood already downed, this ship won't leave shore.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

-DD


 
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Canoe Dude
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06/23/2017 11:21AM  
One option for overnight storage would be to use a basketball net anchor. Clean your fish, put fillets into a ziploc and the ziploc in the basketball net with the rocks (fillets on top of rocks). Sink it in deep enough water. Tie something that floats to the other end as a buoy such as an empty nalgene, or even a chunk of wood that might float.
 
doubledown
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06/23/2017 11:56AM  
quote Canoe Dude: "One option for overnight storage would be to use a basketball net anchor. Clean your fish, put fillets into a ziploc and the ziploc in the basketball net with the rocks (fillets on top of rocks). Sink it in deep enough water. Tie something that floats to the other end as a buoy such as an empty nalgene, or even a chunk of wood that might float."


Canoe Dude...not a bad idea. I'm thinking I would have to go pretty far down to achieve the temp, but it'd definitely be out of bear, raccoon and snapping turtle range. Thanks for the input!
 
06/23/2017 04:58PM  
Just smoked some store bought trout this week. Tasty.

I'll throw this out there, fwiw, wet brined trout will resist spoilage because of the salt, and a dry cure will draw water out and lessen spoilage as well. You could brine and then store in the lake overnight.

If I were you, I'd get the smoking done the same night as smoked and salted fish will not spoil for several days, or hunt trout in the AM....

I'm a fan of this brine recipe, although I even up the sugar and salt to 1C each, and add garlic or ginger usually: http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/articles/recipes/smokedtrout.htm#.WU2fGFGQzcs



1lbs trout gutted with skin on I like at a 1.5hour soak. 2 hours of smoke at 190F. Some real world base line figures for you, and the ranges on that recipe are really useful.

Too hot of a fire will be the challenge. A controlled technique would be to use a stove and fry pan as a chip tray under the campsite grill. Good thing about trout is they are dripping with fat, so they are hard to dry out with the skin on.

I've thought about smoking trout so many times. If you end up doing it, please report back. I'd be very interested.

Daniel

 
doubledown
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06/23/2017 06:35PM  
quote dew042: "Just smoked some store bought trout this week. Tasty.


I'll throw this out there, fwiw, wet brined trout will resist spoilage because of the salt, and a dry cure will draw water out and lessen spoilage as well. You could brine and then store in the lake overnight.


If I were you, I'd get the smoking done the same night as smoked and salted fish will not spoil for several days, or hunt trout in the AM....


I'm a fan of this brine recipe, although I even up the sugar and salt to 1C each, and add garlic or ginger usually: http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/articles/recipes/smokedtrout.htm#.WU2fGFGQzcs



1lbs trout gutted with skin on I like at a 1.5hour soak. 2 hours of smoke at 190F. Some real world base line figures for you, and the ranges on that recipe are really useful.


Too hot of a fire will be the challenge. A controlled technique would be to use a stove and fry pan as a chip tray under the campsite grill. Good thing about trout is they are dripping with fat, so they are hard to dry out with the skin on.


I've thought about smoking trout so many times. If you end up doing it, please report back. I'd be very interested.


Daniel


Awesome stuff, my man! Much appreciated! I'll have a Dutch oven for the chips. I'm going to give this method a try before my trip to see how it turns out and will definitely be back with a report after the trip.
"
 
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