How to smoke northern pike (jackfish)?

[loejukan]

First time trying to smoke fish any help would be appreciated! How long does jack usually take?  A lot of info on other fish in here but not to much info for how to smoke jack. Is there anything I should be aware of?  I did a pretty basic recipe for my brine so if anyone has a recipe to share would be appreciated.

[devo]

Kirby, pikeman_95 told me once he has tried to smoke pike with limited success. I believe it has something to do with the texture of the fish. Maybe try giving him a PM and see what his thoughts are on smoking pike.

[pikeman_95]

Take a shot at the same method I used in the smoked Mack

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=27306.0

filet them bone free and soak the filets in Soy Vey veri veri triyaki. Just put them in a zip lock bag with enough sauce to cover them and turn the bag a few times during the evening. Smoke the next day. I made it a point to not have any strips thicker the 1/2 inch. They just make smoked fish candy. I tried to just smoke Pike with a salt brine before and I was not that impressed. I think if you give this a try you will be supprised how good it turnes out. We were very happy with the Macks.
Kirby

[ExpatCanadian]

I tried this very thing last summer up in Northern Saskatchewan. Had the propane smoker with me so I figured I'd give it a try.  Well...  I hated it...  couldn't eat it.  BUT, my Mom liked it, and she ate it all so it didn't get wasted.  I used a simple brine of salt, brown sugar and water...  don't remember exact proportions I used.  Brined for a couple hours then smoked for an hour or so and heated until it was cooked through.  I found it quite dry and flavourless.... 

But then again, I grew up with my Mom dredging the freshly caught fillets in flour and seasoning salt and frying them in butter in a cast iron skillet over a campfire.  Hmmm... I wonder if I actually know what Jackfish even tastes like naturally ???  :D

[devo]

Give me a fresh Walleye to a pike any day.  ;)

[gcn11]

Give me a fresh Walleye to a pike any day.  ;)

Pike (Jack) like anything else require the proper time and attention but can be smoked successfully. However, i find them to be to big a pain in the butt to smoke when there is walleye, whitefish, and trout in abundance. I actually very much enjoy deboning and having a panfry with pike as opposed to anything else. Our water is cold enough here to keep the pike from tasting swampy. If Pike is all you can get your hands on to smoke then I recommend smoking smaller pikes and rinsing all slime off of them before brining. They will smoke allright but I'm with devo...catch some pickerel (walleye). ;)

[pmmpete]

Pike is a terrifically tasty fish, but you have to skin the fillets, because the skin tastes nasty.  If you want to smoke pike fillets, I suggest that you skin them first.  I've never smoked pike because it tastes so good cooked in many different ways, but perhaps I'll try smoking some this year.  I'm also going to try pickling the strips that you fillet out when removing the "Y" bones.  The pickling process should make the "Y" bones completely unnoticeable.  I've pickled northern pikeminnow (formerly known as Squawfish), which is a really bony fish, and the bones completely disappeared.

[pikeman_95]

I have smoked pike with a typical salt brine and with out the skin. Pete is right, the skin is horrible. It tasted good out of the smoker but did not store well. It kind of turned mushy in the fridge. I think the salt continues to pull the water out of the flesh. I have recently smoked some Mackinaw by filleting the fish and removing the skin and bones. I then take the thick meat on the back and butterfly these so they are no thicker then 1/2 inch. To brine them I use Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki straight with 1 tsp of cure#1 per 5 pounds of fish. I placed the fish in zip lock bags and add 3.3 OZ Soy Vey per pound of fish. Massage the bags a couple of times, keeping the fish in the brine for 12 hours. Do not rinse and place in the smoker and let they dry at around 130 for about 1.5 hours or until the surface dries. then roll the smoke for 3-4 hours and turn up the heat to around 160 until dried to your taste. You can baste it at least once while it is drying. It turns out chewy and very good. I made a smoked fish ball out of a small package and it was fantastic.
Here is a link to the original posting

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=27306.msg325630#msg325630

[Mr Walleye]

Not a lot to do specifically with this topic but what we do with our walleye and pike that we are keeping is slide a knife right through the gill plates, towards the back of the gills and cut clean through towards the bottom of the fish. This allows them to blead out. We put them back in the live well and run the pumps for a good 20 minutes then clean them. The fillets turn out very white and clean, especially walleye but pike as well. We typically do this just before leaving our fishing spot that way they are ready to clean when we arrive back at the launch.

Mike