Smoking Fish 101

Hand slicing for commercial purposes takes a lot of time, patience, and practice.
Smoking is one of the oldest preservation methods there are. The curing, drying, and smoking processes make salmon a delicacy.

This week, the Smoking Fish 101 Team recognizes the fantastic work of Jair Gudino Chavez of Tulum, Mexico in setting up his new shop - Bonsai Food Boutique.

If you’re on vacation anywhere around Tulum, make sure to stop in and say Hi - and try his cold smoked salmon. Highly recommended. Bonsai Food Boutique

Have a video of your own? Share it: https://www.smokingfish101.com/community-creators/submit

A quick look at Rowena DeRade's DIY Fish Drying Rack. Starting to work on our YouTube Channel now. Going to be some great tips coming up! Hit that subscribe button.

A homemade Drying Cabinet Built for Fish | Smoking Fish 101 Hubby outdid himself with this DIY fish drying rack! A community co...

🎣 Featured Creator of the Week: Susan Wesley
Many of you may recognize Susan from one of our previous Smoking Fish 101 photo contests after winning first place with some stunning finished product. This week, we’re recognizing her again - this time for sharing a candid look at slicing Chinook salmon into consistently sized strips before they head into her traditional walk-in smokehouse.
Consistently sized strips can promote more even smoke exposure and a more uniform finished product.
These community-submitted videos do not need to be professionally produced. The goal is to preserve and share the authentic techniques, experience, and practical knowledge found throughout this group.
When preparing salmon strips for the smokehouse, how thick do you usually slice yours?
Watch Susan’s video and read the full Editor’s Note here:
https://www.smokingfish101.com/community-creators/featured

8 sides of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon.
Brine: 1 cup kosher salt and 4 cups dark brown sugar in 1 gallon water, nothing else.
Sides cut in strips and placed in brine for 5 hours.
Removed, rinsed, and placed on racks under fans overnight for pellicle formation. Cracked pepper added if desired. This step is absolutely key in my process. The fish must be allowed to air dry.
Smoked with applewood at no more than 140 degrees, for 4 hours.
Photo and recipe by group member Alan Erickson.
Thanks for sharing Alan, looks fantastic!

🎬 Calling All Smoking Fish 101 Creators!

We’re building something special.

Smoking Fish 101 is launching our new Featured Creator program, and we’re looking for the Founding Featured Creators who will help build what we hope becomes the world’s largest educational library of fish-smoking videos.

Have you ever posted a fish-smoking video in this group? Or do you have a great video sitting on your phone?

We’d love to feature it.

Whether it’s your favorite salmon recipe, a cold-smoking setup, an EQ cure, a smokehouse tour, a filmed mistake that could have been avoided, or a technique you’ve learned over the years, your experience could help thousands of other fish smokers.

As a Featured Creator, your video may be selected to:
✅ Be featured on SmokingFish101.com
✅ Be showcased across our YouTube and social media channels
✅ Receive editorial recognition from the Smoking Fish 101 team
✅ Help educate fish smokers around the world

We’re not looking for perfect videos - we’re looking for authentic, educational content from real members of this community.

To help us feature your video in the highest quality, please upload the original video file through our Featured Creator submission page rather than sharing the Facebook version. By submitting, you confirm that it’s your original content and agree to our creator submission terms.

We’re inviting the first 100 Founding Featured Creators to help launch this new section of the website.

If you’ve got something to teach, we’d love to see it.

Submit your video here: https://www.smokingfish101.com/community-creators/submit

🇺🇸 4TH OF JULY SALE 🇺🇸

If you’ve had your eye on a Big Chief or Little Chief, now’s a great time to grab one.

For the 4th of July, Smokehouse Products is offering SmokingFish101 members:
10% OFF Big Chief Smokers
15% OFF Little Chief Smokers
FREE SHIPPING on orders $150+

Shop the 4th of July Sale here 👉 https://www.smokingfish101.com/go/sponsor/smokehouse?utm_source=smokehouse&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=sf101_smokehouse_view_product&to=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smokehouseproducts.com%2Fcollections%2Fbig-and-little-chief-smokers

🏆 WE HAVE OUR FIRST-EVER CHAMPION! 🏆

Congratulations to Travis Wood of Red Lake, Ontario, whose Lake Trout entry has officially won the Smoking Fish 101 Championship Series – Freshwater Edition with an incredible 200 votes!

What makes this win so special is that this championship wasn’t decided by the judges—it was decided by the community.

This inaugural championship featured 20 different freshwater species from anglers and fish smokers across North America and beyond. There were some truly breathtaking entries, and every finalist should be proud of what they shared.

Travis’s photo may not have been the flashiest, but he did something every champion does… he got behind it. He shared his entry, encouraged people to vote, and rallied incredible support from his community. That’s part of competition too.

To make this even more special, Travis told me he’s a huge fan of Jeff Gustafson, and he was watching Jeff’s final weigh-in at the Bassmaster Classic when he won the world championship. Now he’ll be heading out for a guided day fishing somewhere in Ontario’s Sunset Country with Jeff as part of this championship’s Grand Prize.

Congratulations, Travis! 🏆

A huge thank you to every single person who entered, voted, commented, and shared this first championship. Because of you, we’ve officially started something that I believe is going to become a tradition within the Smoking Fish 101 community.

Finally, thank you to our incredible championship sponsors for helping make this possible:

• Ontario’s Sunset Country
• Smokehouse Products
• Victorinox

The Freshwater Championship may be over…

…but we’re just getting started.

⏰ Only 7 hours left to vote in the very first Smoking Fish 101 Championship Series – Freshwater Edition!

While everyone is voting, I figured I’d share what’s on my smoking table today.

🐟 Georgian Bay King Salmon & Lake Trout—fully equilibrium brined and now headed into the refrigerator to develop a proper pellicle before smoking.

A good pellicle is one of the biggest differences between decent smoked fish and exceptional smoked fish. That slightly tacky surface helps the smoke adhere evenly and contributes to that beautiful color and rich flavor we’re all after.

Tomorrow these fillets will be going into my Smokehouse Products Little Chief, a smoker that has been producing incredible trout and salmon for generations.

If you’ve been thinking about getting into smoking fish, or you’re looking for a proven smoker that’s built specifically for trout and salmon, this is a great place to start.

👉 Little Chief:
https://www.smokingfish101.com/go/sponsor/smokehouse?utm_source=smokehouse&utm_medium=partner_page&utm_campaign=sf101_smokehouse_storefront&to=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smokehouseproducts.com%2Fproducts%2Flittle-chief-front-load-electric-smoker

And before you scroll away…

🏆 Don’t forget to cast your vote! There are only 12 hours left before voting closes on our very first Freshwater Championship Series. We’ve got some incredible entries, and every vote counts.

What species are you smoking this weekend? 🎣🔥

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, grandfathers, stepdads, uncles, mentors, and fishing buddies who helped pass this tradition down. 🎣🔥

Today feels like the perfect day to open up the Smoking Fish 101 Freshwater Championship Series and look through the entries with family.

There are some incredible freshwater smokes in this round - the kind of photos that start conversations around the dinner table:

“Remember that trip?”
“Your grandpa used to smoke fish like that.”
“We need to get back out there this summer.”

Voting is officially open now.

Take a few minutes today, browse the entries, and vote for your favorites.

The current Top 5 are battling it out, but there is still time for the leaderboard to change.

👇 View the full list of entries and Cast Your Vote Here:
https://www.smokingfish101.com/contest

A huge thank you to our sponsors helping make this first Freshwater Championship possible:

🏆 Ontario's Sunset Country
🏆 Smokehouse Products
🏆 Victorinox

Share the contest with your family today. Look through the photos. Talk about the trips, the fish, the recipes, and the people who taught you.

That’s what this whole thing is really about.

Happy Father’s Day, everyone. 🔥🎣