Like many of you late middle age fishers and hunters that have noticed lately that the ol' bod is complaining bitterly about being overweight and still being asked to pack gear and fish up and down rivers, sacks of decoys out into the swamp, or bucks out of the woods, I decided I had better lose some of that extra lard and started the Atkins diet in February. Actually lost enough weight already to make up for a full sack of full body goose dekes Of course if you do Atkins you have to cut out the sugar, and since my brine for smoked fish used to use a lot of brown sugar, not to mention apple juice which is mostly sugar, I have been experimenting with sugar free fish brines and actually hit on one that works great:

One part sugar free Torani carmel coffee syrup
Two parts soy sauce
One part water
Garlic and other spices to taste

You need to brine the fish for two days, and stir them up once to ensure that the brine penetrates properly.

Had confirmed sugar-a-holics taste this and swear it is just as sweet as my old recipe, yet there are 0 carbohydrates in the whole batch. Give it a try and let me know what you think