Smoked Bluefish anyone?

[Bearcarver]

Properly done bluefish can be insanely good when its grilled or fried.Especially fried!

I used to have Blues Grilled, at my BIL's, and all the other fish was Great, but the Grilled Blues were Lousy. (He knew about the Darker Meat)
His were normally good sized Blues though.
I had some Smoked twice & they were Great.
It's been awhile, as that BIL passed a few years ago.

Bear

 

[Phillyfisherman]

Hey All,
Big time fishing season here in New England and I've been out with my buddies fishing for stripers. As it continues to warm though, the bluefish will be coming in and eventually we'll be catching them while striper fishing. Normally I just throw them back but I've "heard" that smoked bluefish is awesome. I have had grilled bluefish did not care for it - very fishy and oily.... but supposedly the smoked blues are good so does anyone have a go to smoked bluefish recipe? I'm running a pellet smoker so can only get down to around 200°F or so I'm looking for a relatively "hot" smoke.

Thanks,
Aaron

Done bluefish many times, I put several crushed cloves of garlic in the brine, and depending on the size of the filets usually smoke at 180, but 200 should be doable. Main thing with the blues is to bleed and ice them immediately upon catching them, and remove the red meat along the centerline of the filets before smoking. I love em, I usually do about half the batch with a rough grind black pepper crust, adds good zip.