I agree that about 4-5 days in the fridge is the limit. You should keep the fish from soaking in the drippings so you want to drain the container often, this will slow down the stenching process. I will even rinse periodically and pat dry.

2 weeks in the freezer is nowhere near long enough to produce negative affects to your catch!

One suggestion when freezing is to leave the fish in roast form rather than fillets. This will leave less flesh surface area exposed to the detrimental dry refrigerated air that sucks the moisture out causing freezer burn. Also if you are vacuum sealing, it is easier to get a reliable seal since there are less bones exposed that ultimately create pin hole punctures in the vacuum bags.

IMHO, steelhead does not smoke as well as salmon anyway! It does not have nearly the amount of oil content producing a drier fare.

Hope this helps!

Thomas Pate