Smoked whitefish?

[davew]

Whitefish season opens December 1 on some eastside rivers. I've never made smoked whitefish before, so thought I'd give it a try this year. Can anyone give me some pointers? Do you fillet them or gut them and do them whole? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Mike Cline]

Do just like you’d do trout.

 

[Salmo_g]

Like Mike said, do them the same as trout. I've heard they are good, and it may be the easiest way to strip the bones out. I've never done it myself however.

 

[PhilR]

We had whitefish ceviche on the Deschutes one year. It was pretty gross. Smoked is probably better.

 

[Wade Rivers]

Whitefish season opens December 1 on some eastside rivers. I've never made smoked whitefish before,

Yes please!! My buddy makes it and it's quite good

 

[Stonedfish]

Mountain whitefish are good smoked. A bit bony. If you ever get a chance, lake whitefish are super tasty.
SF

 

[Wetswinger]

Keep the 12”ers. The small ones are good smoked whole and the bones are negligible if smoked hard. Surprisingly good scaled and deep-fried also..I think the flavor diminishes the larger they are..

 

[Mike Cline]

Mountain whitefish are good smoked. A bit bony. If you ever get a chance, lake whitefish are super tasty.
SF

Although I’ve brined and hot smoked a lot of mountain whitefish here in MT, my fondest whitefish memory comes from Minnesota. We stayed at a cabin resort on Lake Kabatogama every Spring/Summer/Fall for a couple of weeks every year for about a decade between 1993 and 2003. The resort owner was 2nd generation on the shores of Lake Kab and netted a haul of Lake Whitefish every Fall around the shoals of the lake. 100s of pounds of whitefish were frozen over the Winter and awaited a weekly hot smoke every Wednesday night to be shared with the guests at the resort. At a lake side gathering, guests brought different dishes usually representing the cuisine of where they were from. The smoked whitefish was not only delicious but in almost all the gatherings my wife and I attended it was the highlight of the event. As @Stonefish said don’t ever pass up smoked Lake Whitefish.

 

[Mike Cline]

Here’s a bit of Fly Fishing ?? Trivia involving Mountain Whitefish. When Dan Bailey opened his fly shop in Livingston, Montana in the mid-1930s, he established a successful commercial whitefish business supplying markets and restaurants in the region to supplement the fly shop business. His method: A cane pole and tiny barbless (barbs pinched down) flies tipped with maggots. The business only lasted a few years but in Bailey’s words, he learned a lot about whitefish behavior in the Yellowstone River.