Was wondering what to do with my smoked fish after I vacume pack it. I know what most of you are thinking, just eat it. Does it need to be refridgerated right away or frozen? How long can I expect it too last? Does it have to be kept cool? Would like this fish too last awhile so I have a snack when fishing.

One of the beauties of vacuum packing is that you can freeze it with little harm. How long it will keep unfrozen depends on how dry and how salty you smoked it.

I notice that there are commercially packaged products on store shelves that are not refrigerated. I don't know if thay do anything special to extend its shelf life or not.

I smoke mine with very little salt and keep it quite moist. Even so, it is good in the fridge, if vacuum packed, for at least a month or so.

heres what I recomend.
5-6 days in the fridge (usually gone by then anyway. In the freezer, indefinately. ( usually gone within 6-8 months anyway. The stuff you see on the shelf unrefridgerated has so many sulphites in it, that it has a half life of about 1000 years. I do about 50 pieces in a batch and 2-3 batches a year. These rules of thumb have kept people from getting food poisoning.

There are too many variables on shelf life to answer the question without a lot more details. If you want a great resource get the book by Rytek Kutas on Meat curing and sausage recipes.
To make a safer, and very good cure for fish, try Mortens "Tender Quick" (add brown sugar, etc...). Tender Quick is nothing more than salt and sugar, with a small amount of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite. These last two ingredients are what actually cures the fish /meat. Most people believe the salt in their brine will cure the fish, but it doesn't.

The smoked salmon you see not refrigerated is in a retort pouch. This is a special vacuum pack bag that is able to be pressure cooked after it is packed to sterilize whatever is inside, a similar prosses to canning salmon.

Thanks everyone for the help! thats the nice thing about BB like this, people helping each other. Now I think its time to go eat some of that smoked fish.