Over the years of fishing bluefish have rarely been an edible fish to me.  I have had it at my in-laws and once at J-Bay extremely fresh. I have always enjoyed smoked fish. Last weekend fishing I ended up keeping the last bluefish caught. Began to prep the fish by bleeding it right away. Its kinda of gory but a necessary first step to extinguishing the incredibly fishy taste of bluefish.

Upon landing on the beach I made sure to scale and filet the fish asap. Leaving the skin on. Then immediately putting the fillets on ice. Once home the I prepped the fish by cutting the blood line or vein out. It is distinguishable by the dark red line that runs along the lateral line of the fish all of the way through the fillet. I bagged the fish in separate zip lock bags and back on ice it went.

I found a recipe online that worked really well! It was shared by a fellow New Jersyian whom smokes a lot of meats in his backyard. I modified the recipe to work with what i felt the amount of meat on hand which was about 4 lbs of fillets.

4 cups water
1/8 cup kosher salt
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons whole mustard seed
1 1/2 tablespoon whole peppercorns
3 crushed bay leaves

The recipe states to mix all of the ingredients up in a bowl. I decided to use the ziploc bags as i think they work best for marinading any meat. I then poured half and half the solution and divided the heavier stuff that was left per bag.  I then placed flat in the refirgerator overnight. Ended up being about 12 hours. The recipe states no less than 5 hours on the marinade.

The next morning i removed the fillets from the marinade and using the smoker racks that i had oiled with olive oil placed the fillets skin side down on the racks for “drying”.

I have heard of this drying process before although it sounds odd it is the most important thing you can do to preserve the moisture. Unless you like hard dried fish.

Let dry on the smoker rack with the smoker door open outside for 3-5 hours. The longer the better. The filets will look shiney and have a sticky film. This is how you know they are dry enough for smoking.

Now you will load your smoker box with some hickory. The recipe called for Hickory. I think next time around im going to try a fruit tree wood such as apple or alder.

Get your smoke up to 200 degrees and let smoke for 3-4 hours. Or when it reaches 145 degrees.

You will know the fish is done when it flakes with a fork and has a golden brown color to it.

I think the fish was the best when it was warm right out of the smoker. You can put it in the fridge and it will last a week or two. When you are going to enjoy it take it out of the refrigerator and let it get to room temperature for the best taste.

Also for a real treat mix the smoked bluefish in with cream cheese and spread it on bread or dip some chips or crackers. Excellent!!

The recipe referenced in this article can be found here.