smoked trout, questions

Are you wanting eat right away or is this to preserve for the future. I ask this because I have two different answers.

You can essentially go with either hot or cold smoking, or split the process with a cold smoke start and a hot finish. You can also go whole with the head-on or off, or smoke fillets.

A whole smoked fish looks neat to some folks, and personally I have eaten trout for so long that the bones don't bother me. But I am clearly in the minority. Bones are the main reason many folks don't like trout. No matter what you decide, do a test with skin on fillets and remove all the bones. It's worth it.

The thread below shows a pictorial on how to de-bone a trout fillet.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=59355&highlight=pin

pellicle

All about the temp, a pellicle could form that quickly. If you have sugar in the brine, it will form faster, of course, trout as thin and it doesn't take much sugar to overpower the thin body.

I am very new to the board but I do have a lot of experience smoking fish. I prefer a head off presentation on small whole fish. I also think the head off allows for a little more smoke to get in the thicker shoulder portion. I agree with using the rack with an hour of fan time before smoking. It has worked very well for me. I use a brine of 1 cup pickling salt and 1/2 cup sugar to 8 cups water. I usually use apple wood for my smoke source. When fish are whole I tend to up the smoking wood about 25% I use a modified Weber Kettle with a water pan that acts a lot like a 22 inch WSM. For smaller batches I have also just used the kettle with indirect heat. I prefer the hot smoking method. With whole fish I often refridgerate my finished product at least a day to let the flavors settle, separate the meat from bone, then I make cream cheese based spreads that people really seem to enjoy