Smoking fish is easy, and extremely rewarding, especially enjoyed with a beer.
I mainly use Pelagic fish that I wouldnt normally keep when out fishing for reef species, this is because of their firm white flesh and you can turn an otherwise average table fish into something special. Fish species include but not limited to:
Mackerel - All Types
Trevally - Be careful of worms in larger fish
Queenfish
Shark
First of all I fillet and skin the fish, I then cube the flesh into bite size pieces, although you can cut it to any size you want.
Then let the fish soak in a brine for up to 2 hours.
My recipe for smoked fish may seem a bit odd, but believe me, it is great.
3/4 of a cup of Brown Sugar
Tablespoon of Coffee
Tablespoon of Vegimite
1 Beef Stock Cube
Tablespoon of Honey
Splash of Soy Sauce
Chilli Flakes or Powder to taste
Once all this is in add the tiniest amount of boiled water, this is basically just melt down the sugar, start stirring it all together, you dont want it to runny or to coarse, it should be nice and gluggy.
Take the fish out of the brine and pat it down with paper towel, try to remove as much of the moisture from the outside.
Next, brush the marinade on to the fish pieces, you can put all the pieces in with the marinade and mix it around but any moisture left on teh fish will turn the marinade too watery, this is a pain if you have alot of fish to get through.
I have a small Stainless Steel Smoker that I bought from a Tackle shop years ago and it works great. This is the stage where you want to set up the smoker.
I use Sheoak for the wood as I like the taste, this gets spread evenly on the bottom of the smoker.
The little burner gets filled with a little Metholated Spirits and placed under the smoker, dont light it yet though.
Load the fish onto the racks of your smoker, get as much in as you can but leave a liitle space between each piece to ensure the smoke gets in everywhere.
Place the racks in the smoker followed by the lid, then light the burner.
Wait until you get a good amount of smoke wafting out from around the lid, then at this point I time the cook for 12 to 15 minutes.
Once done, lift the smoker from the burner and extinguish the flame, or just let it burn out.
Remove the fish straight away to avoid it sticking to the rack and place in a airtight container.
You can either enjoy it hot there and then or bung it in the fridge and eat it cold over the next few days. Either way make sure your having a beer at the same time!
Backyard Farming Forum
you will be disappointed 
I am of the opinion best to stick with hickory, mesquite that you can buy in pellets from shops, sheoak and white gum are not bad either, I get these from timber mill.
