Smoked Northern

[smokingfisch]

Hey Guys.  

The other day I spoke with my buddy and he got me hooked on some smoked Northern. 

The first step was obviously catching it. Ha.  A tip was to not keep anything under 30'.  The reason being is because if they are 30" or bigger it makes it easier to pick out the bones since they are bigger.

I then put the Northern in some brine and let it sit over night.  6 hours is the recommended minimum time.

After I took it out of the brine I put it on my smoker racks and let it air dry for approximately an hour.  While drying I sprinkled a little black pepper and paprika on it. 

I then put the fish on the smoker and gave it roughly an hour of smoke, using apple wood and then another hour of heat.  At the two hour mark I poked the fish with my finger and there was a little separation, which is perfect.

At the end I vacuumed sealed the fish and placed them in the fridge.  I served the fish cold and on some Ritz crackers and some pepperjack cheese.

 

[smokingfisch]

Ok so I obviously didn't insert the pictures correctly.  Sorry...

 

[roadkill cafe]

Nice looking Northern, SF!! What was in your brine?

 

[thoseguys26]

Northern Pike is a great fish to eat. I usually stuff them silly with butter, onions, peppers etc etc and foil and bake them. Done properly you can just pull the whole spine out with all the bones and you'll have a pile of flaky white meat and vegies sitting there.

Smoked.. I've never had but I bet it's great. Nice work.  Try editing your post with pictures imbedded.

 

[ferd66]

So far, my favorite way I like Northern is pickled....way better than herring.  You can filet them to get the bottom half of the filet boneless and all the bones are in the top half of the filet.  The bones all dissolve in the pickling solution.  good stuff.

 

[hatebreed]

Pike is very easy to fillet without bones. Search how to fillet northern pike on youtube there are lots of videos on how to do it. Ive got some in the freezer from our june trip to the french river. May have to try smoking it. Usually we do it in the turkey fryer with fresh cut fries