Has anyone ever attempted to smoke fish in the BWCA? if so how'd you do it? what wood did you use?

I just smoked some trout the other day. However, I did it here at the house lol.

Might be a hassle to do that in the BW. First, your gonna want to have them fish brined, second, ones gonna need some wood, but not just any wood. No pines or cedars. Something mellow like Alder or Maple. And then that wood has to be dry enough to smolder.
If you wanted to try it, I would suggest going to Fleet Farm or walmarts outdoor area and get some of the wood chips they sell for the electric smokers. Good wood, and ya know what you have.

Next, something that will allow the smoke to work it's way around the fish like a small foil box or the fire grate wrapped up to keep the wind from blowing thru.
You could try to get some coals going and adding some of the wood chips to a foil packet, that way they will just smolder and not burn away as there is no oxygen getting to them.

Then theres the fish. When smoking fish, one really wants to use a fish that has a high/higher fat content, something like lakers, or even trout. Fish like walleyes or pike aren't really an ideal fish to smoke, better to just fry them up.

On edit, I seen you posted about an upcoming trip to Moose lake. Whitefish didn't even cross my mind. By all means, yes, they would be a great fish to smoke.

I have heard of people doing it with the fish hanging above a smoldering wood pile, but that is more of a hot smoke where the fish is actually being cooked with some smoke hitting it. Not like the fish one would get say at Lou's smoke shop outside Duluth.

Try a google search for smoking fish in the back country, I'm sure there is something/tips for doing this.

No never in the woods. I have done it on a small bbq grill though. A few points though.

Brining isn't necessary. In fact, I think fish gets too salty when it's brined. Just sprinkle your fillets with salt (and brown sugar if you want some sweetness).

As for smoking wood, punky aspen actually works quite well. I've used it, and one of my uncles who was an avid fish smoker preferred it to all other woods. It's a sweet tasting smoke. By punky, I mean just slightly rotted.

Another possibility are beaver sticks taken off a house, as they would be peeled, often slightly damp, and usually aspen, birch, or alder.

The hardest part on a canoe trip would be coming up with a wood that would produce coals that would last long enough to keep the smoke going. Probably would need to hunt down some dry black ash branches or something. You tote in some briquettes if you're really set on it.

I can't imagine smoking fish with aspen. It's got such an acrid smell.

quote gutmon: "I can't imagine smoking fish with aspen. It's got such an acrid smell."

Believe me, it works well. The bark is where the acrid smell comes from and should be removed. Also, it should be a bit punky.

Semi rotted Aspen? That is a new one on me. Not saying it's not done, just never heard of it before.

There's a thousand ways to skin a cat, and probably just as many ways to smoking fish, but a brine is probably the most common and most practiced. Brine done not have to be overly salty which is a common misconception. A brine is simply that, water, salt, sugar and sometimes the addition of spices. The duration of which the fish is placed has the most impact on the overall saltiness. The purpose of a brine is to create an osmosis effect on the fish which is mostly just water within the flesh.

It also helps in the initial drying to form the pectile. Desired for good smoke adhesion/penetration. I have yet to see any Alder in Minnesota, always thought that was a Pacific Northwest tree. Birch would be an ideal candidate as it's everywhere in the BW.

Regardless of anything posted so far, a true smoke (cold smoking) of any fish in the BWCA would be next to impossible as there is no way to control temps which is 90 degrees or cooler. Unless one brought in a cold smoker lol.
Hot smoking is the only thing that one could do which is nothing more than actually cooking with smoke to add some flavor.

Actually there is ALOT of Tag Alder in and around the low lying areas near Ely. Used to hunt grouse in the Alders when I went to school there.

Right, that's the alder I was talking about. Speckled alder or tag alder. Tons of it up there. Meathunter is talking about the red alder, which grows in the PNW. It's tree size. Same genus though.

BTW, Sig Olsen talks about smoking fish on a canoe trip in one of his books. I think he used tag alder.

we found a downed cedar tree , cut wood into strips for the fire and shaved some small planks with an axe, soaked in the lake over night . put lake trout fillets on the planks and built a tree branch canopy over the grate to hold in the smoke. smoke for 3-4 hours and it was AWESOME ! 1 of my best meals in the bwca.

Cedar planked salmon is my family's favorite meal!!! I bet it's even better made over an open fire with planks you made yourself!!