# Smoked  Rainbow  Trout



## reinhard (Jul 12, 2014)

Got a rainbow in a stream on the North Shore of Lake Superior this spring.  I call them loopers, better known as kamloops, a strain of rainbow trout.  It was about 5 pounds.  I thawed it out and trimmed it up a bit.  Normally I leave the head on, but I kept this one for future fish stock.  Here is the brine I used----

1 gallon water

1 cup  brown sugar

3/4  cup pickling salt

1/8th cup black pepper

2 T  diced garlic [i used the stuff in a jar]

7 bay leaves

2  T  onion powder

I set the smoker after a 24 hour brine at 230 and used apple wood chips for smoke.  Took about 4 hours, and I took the trout out when the internal was around 155 deg.  Here are some pics---













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## kc5tpy (Jul 12, 2014)

Hello.  Bet you had fun catching that one!  Looks a mighty fine meal!  Keep Smokin!

Danny


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## fire in the hole (Jul 12, 2014)

5 pounder??? That would be a nice fight.

Only thing I would do different would be to leave the fish in one piece, head and all.......so I could savor every last morsel of that tasty trout. But then, I don't care for the dried out parts of smoked fish.

Your smoke looks good and your brine looks to be right on.


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## venture (Jul 12, 2014)

Nice fish!

Looks almost like a small salmon.

Hope it tasted as good as it looks!

Good luck and good smoking.


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## leah elisheva (Jul 13, 2014)

Oh YUM! Now that looks incredible! The smell AND taste must have been just beautiful! Lucky you!!!!! Cheers! - Leah


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## reinhard (Jul 13, 2014)

Thanks everyone!!!  FireInTheHole---normaly I do leave the head on but I also use them for fish stock.  I smoke all my fish whole because I also want to savor as much meat as possible.  These rainbows such as the one I caught here in Minnesota on the North Shore are commonly called loopers.  This name come's from it's real name kamloops, a strain of rainbow trout.  These are stocked by the DNR to provide angling opportunities for anglers here.  They normally run betwwen 4 and 9 pounds when they are caught when making their annual spawning run in the spring.  They are also caught out on open water while trolling on Lake Superior.  Reinhard


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## rippinntearin (Jul 18, 2014)

A "Looper"?  Haha!

Great looking meal my friend!

Carl Spackler: So I jump ship in Hong Kong and I make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas.

Angie D'Annunzio: A looper?

Carl Spackler: A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-lagunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.


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## hoolligan01 (Sep 4, 2014)

Your trout makes my trout loom like gold fish. I try mocking my trout with alder wood did not like it plus the trout dry up


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## dirtsailor2003 (Sep 4, 2014)

Great looking trout! Nice smoke!

Out West we call those Salmon!


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## padronman (Sep 4, 2014)

Man that looks sooooo good!!!! 

Scott


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## WaterinHoleBrew (Sep 4, 2014)

Yum !  I love smoked fish, great job !  Thumbs Up


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## sb59 (Sep 5, 2014)

hoolligan01 said:


> Your trout makes my trout loom like gold fish. I try mocking my trout with alder wood did not like it plus the trout dry up


Too dry? Use a thermometer , smoke between 165 -175 & pull at 145. Add smoke only about 2 hrs. or try hickory!


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## disco (Sep 5, 2014)

Terrific looking fish and smoke. I am jealous of both the catching of the fish and the smoke!

Disco


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## msuiceman (Sep 20, 2014)

in MI we call them steelhead (which is the same as they call them in the upper NW).... can get rather large (personal best: 15lber). they are lake-run rainbow trout (in the upper NW they are sea-run). they take a smoke really well and fight like all heck on the other end of your line. I have a few spots that we absolutely crush them fishing in the great lakes depending on time of year. The funny thing is, the 8-10lb steelies tear up your gear more than 20lb king salmon.

Brine looks a lot like what I use, save I don't use bay leaves (maybe I should?).


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## venture (Sep 23, 2014)

Yeah.

Nothing scientific here?

But in my part of the world I think of the Steelhead as an ocean-going Rainbow.

At 15 LBS?

I would just call that a great fish!

Good luck and good smoking.


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## moikel (Sep 23, 2014)

That would be a rainbow to us,brought here from the Russia & Esk rivers in USA. Browns came from Britain. Good fish wherever his ancestors were from
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






. Ours don't run to the sea except in Tasmania.


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