Smoking Fish 101

Beautiful sockeye strips for dried fish - cold smoked with alder wood for 36 hours.

One of 113 entries in the Q3 Salmon Championship 🔥🐟
Wanda Isaacs entered this Sockeye in this quarter's Championship.
We're keeping the standings hidden for now so every entry gets a fair shot—but voting is open and the community is deciding the winner.
Take a look through the field and vote for the entries that catch your eye.
Voting closes October 8 at 11:59 PM ET.
Voting link in the comments 👇

🔥 VOTING IS OFFICIALLY OPEN 🔥
The submissions are in. Now it’s up to the community.
Voting is now open for the Smoking Fish 101 Q3 Fall Salmon Championship.
Take a look through the entries, find the smoked salmon that gets your attention, and cast your vote.
You can vote for more than one entry — but only once per entry in a 24-hour period.
🗳️ Voting runs October 2–8
A huge thank-you to the partners supporting this Championship:
Wild For Salmon — Official Salmon Partner
Victorinox — Official Knife Partner
ThermoWorks — Official Temperature Partner
These companies are helping us build something much bigger than a photo contest — a place where people who smoke fish can show their work, compare techniques and celebrate the craft.
👇 Vote here:
https://smokingfish101.com/championship
And if you entered — share the voting page. Let your friends, family and fellow fish smokers see what you made.

FINAL STRETCH — Q3 2026 Salmon Championship entries close tomorrow at 11:59 PM ET.
If you’ve been sitting on a smoked salmon photo you’re proud of, now is the time to get it in.
For anyone new to the Smoking Fish 101 Championship Series, this is more than a casual Facebook photo giveaway. Every entry is reviewed before it goes live, and the competition is run under a published set of rules.
A few of the important ones:
• The smoked fish must be something you prepared yourself
• The photo must be your own original work — no stock photos or AI-generated images
• Every entry is reviewed by the Smoking Fish 101 editorial team before approval
• Public voting is validated on our servers
• Duplicate, automated and abnormal voting activity is rejected
• Attempts to manipulate voting can result in votes being removed or an entry being disqualified
• Winners are determined by verified vote totals — our partners do not select the winners
You can enter more than once, as long as each submission is a different photo.
Submissions close October 1 at 11:59 PM ET.
Public voting runs October 2–8.
Enter here:
https://www.smokingfish101.com/championship
Thanks again to our Q3 Championship partners Wild For Salmon, Victorinox and ThermoWorks for helping us build something worth competing in.
Full Championship rules are available on the entry page.

Q3 Salmon Championship | Smoking Fish 101 Enter through October 1 and compete for prize packages from Wild For Salmon, Victorinox and ThermoWorks.

Now this is a fish smoker I’d like to load up.
We spend a lot of time talking about smaller electric smokers because they’re where many people start — but this is the other end of the spectrum.
The Myron Mixon MMS Offset is an American-made, traditional wood-fired offset smoker built for serious capacity.
It comes with two 27" × 42" cooking racks, can be expanded to four racks, and each rack is large enough to hold three full hotel pans.
That got me thinking less about brisket and more about what this thing could do with full racks of salmon, lake trout or whitefish..
No pellets. No little cabinet. Wood fire, smoke and a lot of room to work.
If you had one of these sitting outside your smokehouse, what fish would you load it with first?
We now have access to Myron Mixon Smokers through Smoking Fish 101. I’ll put the details in the comments for anyone who wants to have a closer look.

We’ve had the JVR VAC100 running for three days now and have already put it to work sealing smoked fish, freshly sliced cured pork belly, diced peppers, and a few prosciuttos in dry-curing charcuterie bags.
First impression — this is a serious step up from the lighter countertop sealers I’ve used before. It arrived extremely well packed, setup was straightforward, and so far the seals have been incredibly clean and consistent. Exactly what I was hoping for.
JVR sent us the VAC100 as part of our affiliate partnership so we could actually put it to work and evaluate it properly. I’m going to keep using it before I give it a full review, but I’ll share what we learn as we keep putting it through its paces.
For anyone who has been looking at one, code SF101 takes $100 off the VAC100.
👉 https://smokingfish101.com/go/jvr-vac100-chamber-vacuum-sealer?src=fb-page&act=2026-09-28-jvr-vac100-unboxing-facebook-page
And yes, the rubber chicken made the photo. 😂
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Alder Smoke, Brown Sugar, Kosher Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, and lots of attention to detail. Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha.
Smoking Fish 101 - Q3 Salmon Championship - photo contest entry by: Tom Seward

One knife I think earns its place in any serious fish setup is a flexible fillet knife.
Not because it looks fancy — because that flex makes a huge difference when you’re following the backbone, working around rib bones and taking skin off cleanly.
Victorinox’s Fibrox fillet knife is one of those simple workhorse knives we recommend for fish processing.
If you’re still doing most of your fish work with a stiff chef’s knife, this is one of those tools where you notice the difference pretty quickly.
👉 https://smokingfish101.com/go/victorinox?src=fb-page&act=2026-09-24-victorinox-fibrox-facebook-page
Victorinox is the Official Knife Partner of the Smoking Fish 101 Championship Series.

We’re getting down to the final stretch of the Q3 Salmon Championship.
If you’ve smoked salmon this season and you’re proud of it, don’t leave the photo sitting on your phone.
We’re looking for the best smoked salmon photos from the community — backyard smokers, traditional smokehouses, hot smoked, cold smoked, whatever your style.
Entries close October 1.
If you’ve been thinking about entering, this is the time.
👉 https://www.smokingfish101.com/championship?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=championship&utm_content=facebook_group_final_week_sep23
Let’s see what you’ve got.

Q3 Salmon Championship | Smoking Fish 101 Enter through October 1 and compete for prize packages from Wild For Salmon, Victorinox and ThermoWorks.

Did you miss our first Smoking Fish 101 newsletter yesterday?
If you thought you were already signed up but didn’t receive it, your email may have been sitting in our old signup system.
We’ve started fresh with the new Smoking Fish 101 newsletter.
If you want the next one, make sure you’re on the list:
https://www.smokingfish101.com/newsletter?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sf101_newsletter_signup_sep_2026&utm_content=first_newsletter_followup
New guides, techniques, seasonal smoking ideas, contests, gear and community updates — straight to your inbox.
You’ll also get the free Smoking Fish 101 Master Guide when you join.
If you received yesterday’s first issue, what did you think?

ThermoWorks just released a limited-edition Brook Trout Thermapen ONE — and this one is pretty sharp.
I’ve been using a Thermapen ONE for a few years now and recommend it without hesitation. When you’re smoking fish, getting a fast, accurate internal temperature reading without leaving the smoker open any longer than necessary really matters.
ThermoWorks has also been one of Smoking Fish 101’s longest-standing photo contest sponsors. We partnered with them for a reason — they make excellent equipment, and I use their products myself.
If you like the Brook Trout design, this edition is limited:
https://smokingfish101.com/go/thermoworks-thermapen-one?src=fb-page&act=2026-09-20-brook-trout-launch-fb-page
Anyone else already using a Thermapen ONE? Maybe we should have a Thermapen photo challenge?
— Mike
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