Riverman, With the box mostly over the entire smoking unit it takes about 4-6 hours depending on outside temp and thickness of chunks. I just smoked-up a couple batches of Kodiak Cohos in the 10-12 lb range with each fillet cut into 3 pieces. I put the fish in (larger pieces on lower racks) with the first pan of chips and let it go 1.5 hours then load a second pan of chips and let go for another 1.5 hours. I then bring the rack out of my toploading Big Chief and inspect for doneness. If the bottom racks are cooking much faster than the upper racks I will switch rack positions at this point. I press lightly on the fish to check doneness along with appearance. The meat will firm up as it gets closer to done. I then put the adjusted racks back in the smoker for a 3rd pan of chips. If some pieces were near done at the 3 hour inspection I will come back and check when the 3rd load of chips quit smoking (about 1 hour). I will take pieces out that are done and let the remaining pieces keep going. I pretty much do the Big Chief deluxe wet brine recipe except using brown sugar instead of white. I like my smoked fish on the moist side so I'm a bit finiky about not over-cooking.