Stella smoking trout, or any fish is really simple
To prepare fish
1. Gut the fish and pull out the gills
2. Hang overnight with flax or rope through the gills (for best taste)
3. slice down one side of the spine from head to tail, slice head in half if you like the brains/eyes etc
4. alot of people have different ways but some cut down the other side of spine also and take the spine out
5. Lay fish flat on a tray, give liberal coating of brown sugar and salt. a little bit of lemon pepper doesnt hurt either. Leave in fridge for half an hour or so and the salt/sugar will turn into a nice sticky goo.
To smoke the fish
There are many different types of smokers, i prefer useing smokehouses and smoking for 3 or 4 hours, the ones hunting and fishing/warehouse etc sell smoke/cook the fish fast (30 minutes or so) and are nice when hot but seem to loose their flavour and texture once they go cold
The small box smokers use meths and manuka sawdust and are really simple to use, basically put meths and sawdust in smoker, place fish on the rack, light the meths and close lid and come back 20-30 minutes later
1. if useing a smokehouse/44 gallon drum etc i light a fire usually useing manuka, a small fire will do, let it burn for 10 minutes or so to produce some embers
2. Place fish skin down on a rack above fire, higher up the better
3. Place 1 or 2 pieces of manuka on embers and close up the door or equivalent
4. check fire occasionaly make sure there is no flames and its smoking away, top up wood where nessecary
5. we usually smoke for 1-4 hours, the longer the better and the fish comes out beautiful. You ideally want to have no flame so the fish is smoked rather than cooked