Timing on smoking some fish

[Xtrema312]

I got about 12 lb of salmon that came out of the lake today.  I want to throw it in the smoker on Sunday morning. I usually do Kummok brine reduce volume recipe to match how much fish I'm doing. I've come to like brining it for about 16 hours. Here's my issue. I need to leave town tomorrow early in the afternoon. I can't be back until Saturday night. Trying to decide how to time things. 

I could throw in a brine tonight and pull it tomorrow before I take off. Then rack it up to form a pellicle, but it would be in the frigerator on racks for 40+ hours.

Another option is to throw it in the brine tonight, pull it tomorrow and bag it in the fridge until Saturday night. Then toss it on racks to dry in the fridge overnight.

I guess I could always just leave it in the fridge for a couple of days before starting the process, but I've always liked to get in the brine as fresh as possible.

I guess I'm just looking for some input from people to see what others have done when they had two to three days between when they want to start fish smoking project and finish it. I'm trying to think if there's any downside to longer-term rack time in the fridge or having brined fish not smoked right away.

[zueth]

Fridge, wrap with paper towels and in zip loc, change paper towels and every two days and will stay good for 2 weeks.


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[pmmpete]

I brine my fish in ziplock bags.  Through experience I know just how many hours to leave a particular kind of fillets in a particular brine.  At the end of that time, I drain the brine off the fillets.  If I don't have time to smoke the fish that day, I leave the drained fillets in the ziplock bags, squeeze out all the air, and put them in the fridge until I'm ready to smoke them.