fish with water or not

[smokey dog]

I am smoking fish for the first time. Should I fill the water basin or not. I don't want to screw this up

[Gizmo]

I use water in the bowl all the time, no matter what is in the smoker.  It ensures the pucks are extinguished and any grease buildup will not start on fire, not that you would experience that with most fish.

[Smokin Soon]

Dean, any time the smoke generator is used the water bowl must be filled. What type of fish are you smoking?

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi dean toth;

Welcome to the forum.

I agree with the others above about using water in the bowl. Also when smoking fish I generally will not apply more then 2 hours of smoke, and generally only 1:20 hours. If moisture is a concern, after you have applied the smoke you can empty the water bowl. Or you can use the cold smoke setup. As Giz pointed out, fish has little fat, so the threat of fire is small. Most of the liquid and oils dripping from the fish would likely be evaporated when it hits the drip "V" pan, but if you use the cold smoke setup you should place a bowl under the drip pan to catch the few drippings that may drain through.

Cold Smoke Setup

[smokey dog]

smokin soon... I was doing burbot. I used the water bowl , thanks for the advise but my fish came out way to salty. What happened ? I followed the recipe and brined for 24 hours. Is that too long ? I only had two lbs of fish. Was the brine recipe for a larger amount of fish. Does that matter ? should I have soaked it in water befor smoking ?

Dean

[Habanero Smoker]

Brine times mainly depend on what you are brining, the Salinity, the thickness and the end results (flavor or preservation). For others to answer your question, it would be good to know what was the brine recipe you used, and how thick were your fish.

Here is a good article on brining:
Curing and Brining