Value added by smoking your fish

I recently caught 5 lake trout and smoked 14 pounds of fillets.  I was at the grocery store, and started wondering about the value of the fillets versus the value of the smoked fish.  Farmed salmon and steelhead were available for about $10 per pound, so the 14 pounds of fillets will cover the gas for the trip on which I caught them, and a couple other trips on which I got skunked.  Fancier wild salmon costs more per pound.  Smoked salmon is available for $1.25-$2.00 per ounce, which is $20-$32 per pound.  And I suspect that fancy smoked salmon costs more.  So smoked salmon is worth 2-3 times as much per pound as fresh salmon. Next time I smoke a bunch of fish, I'll have to figure out the difference between the weight of the fresh fillets and the weight of the smoked fish, which has to lose some weight during the smoking process.

Value per pound aside, that smoked fish is tasty stuff!  And as they say in the credit card ads, the fun involved in catching the fish is priceless.  Not free, but priceless.

Hi Pete, that's some good insight, and some tasty looking trout! I'm relatively new to smoking, bought a propane master built smoker a few months back. I smoked my first batch of rainbows a while back using my salmon method with some success. I'm just wondering what your brining and smoking method is?
Kevin


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Seeing the price of smoked salmon in the store always gives me a nice feeling. I just don't like thinking about how much I have spent on gear, though.

I'm saving this post to show my wife when she asks why I spent $100+ on tackle 😁 but seriously it is nice to be able to smoke up a fish that tastes better than anything you could buy in the store, and it didn't "Cost" as much. Sure there's the $100+ for licenses and tags, the gas, bait, tackle, etc but we don't need to talk about that....

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Pete-- you're indulging in one of my favourite pastimes-- cruising past the seafood counter and doing the math about how much money we're saving doing what we love to do. That's some great looking smoked fish you have there. 
T2

I'm saving this post to show my wife when she asks why I spent $100+ on tackle 😁 but seriously it is nice to be able to smoke up a fish that tastes better than anything you could buy in the store, and it didn't "Cost" as much. Sure there's the $100+ for licenses and tags, the gas, bait, tackle, etc but we don't need to talk about that....

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Every fish you catch brings the overall price of your gear down.  If you like crab, a full pot of Dungeness is worth a new rod and reel. Let her know that the more you fish, the closer to breaking even you will be.   I kept track my first couple years and by the end (mainly because we car pooled), I had paid for my Outback and the gear I had purchased for catching the fish, crabs, and clams. Seafood is expensive. The best part was all the exercise I was getting.

I'm saving this post to show my wife when she asks why I spent $100+ on tackle 😁 but seriously it is nice to be able to smoke up a fish that tastes better than anything you could buy in the store, and it didn't "Cost" as much. Sure there's the $100+ for licenses and tags, the gas, bait, tackle, etc but we don't need to talk about that....

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Every fish you catch brings the overall price of your gear down.  If you like crab, a full pot of Dungeness is worth a new rod and reel. Let her know that the more you fish, the closer to breaking even you will be.   I kept track my first couple years and by the end (mainly because we car pooled), I had paid for my Outback and the gear I had purchased for catching the fish, crabs, and clams. Seafood is expensive. The best part was all the exercise I was getting.

Looking at your avatar,all that excerise has turned you into s stallion man.

I'm saving this post to show my wife when she asks why I spent $100+ on tackle 😁 but seriously it is nice to be able to smoke up a fish that tastes better than anything you could buy in the store, and it didn't "Cost" as much. Sure there's the $100+ for licenses and tags, the gas, bait, tackle, etc but we don't need to talk about that....

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Every fish you catch brings the overall price of your gear down.  If you like crab, a full pot of Dungeness is worth a new rod and reel. Let her know that the more you fish, the closer to breaking even you will be.   I kept track my first couple years and by the end (mainly because we car pooled), I had paid for my Outback and the gear I had purchased for catching the fish, crabs, and clams. Seafood is expensive. The best part was all the exercise I was getting.

Looking at your avatar,all that excerise has turned you into s stallion man.

That it has! I see you are a fan of fine art so here is a stipplegen of that fine piece. 

I'm saving this post to show my wife when she asks why I spent $100+ on tackle 😁 but seriously it is nice to be able to smoke up a fish that tastes better than anything you could buy in the store, and it didn't "Cost" as much. Sure there's the $100+ for licenses and tags, the gas, bait, tackle, etc but we don't need to talk about that....

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Every fish you catch brings the overall price of your gear down.  If you like crab, a full pot of Dungeness is worth a new rod and reel. Let her know that the more you fish, the closer to breaking even you will be.   I kept track my first couple years and by the end (mainly because we car pooled), I had paid for my Outback and the gear I had purchased for catching the fish, crabs, and clams. Seafood is expensive. The best part was all the exercise I was getting.

Looking at your avatar,all that excerise has turned you into s stallion man.

That it has! I see you are a fan of fine art so here is a stipplegen of that fine piece. 

Im waiting to see the 3D printed version to be a trophy topper ( model paint should work).
Your an animal!! .......... all be it a mythical one but an animal lol

Mojo: It has already been printed on eggs..

But enough thread jacking.  Pete, there are some great recipes out there for smoked salmon pizza.  Utterly delicious.  It is my new favorite way to eat it. If you really want to add value to fillets, take some Hoodsport chum, brine it for 44-48 hours, smoke it, then cut it into pieces for smoked salmon pasta and dips. Basically taking something nasty and making it edible. With that long of a brine, I was actually able to eat it like normal smoked salmon.

Better yet, unbrined and unsmoked, it got us 21 large full keeper crabs last week (best way to add value to chum  ).

Pete, there are some great recipes out there for smoked salmon pizza.  Utterly delicious.  It is my new favorite way to eat it.

I'll look for those recipes!  Here's a tasty way to use smoked fish: Get some big mushrooms, remove their stems, stuff the heads with shredded smoked fish, cheese, and maybe some basil or other spices, squirt in some lemon juice or worchestershire sauce, and bake them at 350 until they're soft.