Ok so I have a ton of chum that I am ready to smoke. Most people say chums are for smoking only. So I want to get ready to smoke them.

Is there any secrets to making chum taste any better when smoking because of the oilyness of them?

No need to post recipies because I did a search and found 100 different ones. Thanks to all in the past. I want to know if anyone has any CHUM SPECIFIC wet or dry brines?

Or is a salmon a salmon and smoke them all the same? I am use to smoking meat not fish.

Secret is to put the Chum on a cedar plank then smoke it. when finished throw the chum away and eat the plank.

Great reply....LOL.......Tried the Hoodsport thing last year, what a joke. I haven't seen such a mess since "Red fishing" on the Kenai. The State should issue dip nets and save all the snaggers the trouble. Took one home and smoked it, nobody had seconds.

That is the best Avatar I've seen so far Divers!

Eat the plank...LMAO!

FJ...out.

Shows what you know about smoking fish Doug.

Divers,
That is a text book reply. LMAO. That was good.

LoL divers! but seriously i dont fish for em but ive eaten em smoked up as jensens squaw candy- prettygood if you candy coat em with brown sugar and molasses trick is you only kill the chrome hens. Take a bright hen and smoke her up and cherish the eggs cause if treated right they will produce this winter.

I took home a big buck that I probably should have let go. But after a long hard fight and wrestling to get my jig out of his throat, I knew he would probably die anyway, so I smoked him up.

I took the smoked fillets to work and put out a sample fillet for folks to try. I said if they liked it, they could take home one of the fillets. 15 minutes later, no more fish....

OK, I'm in for some serious harrassment, but here it goes anyway...

This was actually the best looking fish I caught. The others had dark bellies and you could tell the flesh was not so firm. This guy still had firm flesh and his 'sperm sacks' where still fully intact\solid. It was 35 inches and pretty heavy (high teens - didn't weigh it though).

Only got one word to describe that fish:

SPOOOOOON!

Ugh(ly). Not my cup of tea (or fish), I guess.

Phish that fish looks fine and will smoke up good. I have smoked up ugler fish then that and they where good.

Yep, same here. First time I ever went chumming, I took my dad on a guided trip on the sky. They guide just about forced us to take the fish home, and my dad never throws anything back anyway. So I tried it and swore I never would again. But this guy would have died from the battle and hook removal process anyway, so I thought I'd give chum another chance. Like I said, people at work loved it

Rebember that it has been sitting on ice for an hour before the pic - so the fish is going to look extra ugly form the weird coloring that happens when a fish sits...

But in general - yes Parker - that is a VERY ugly fish , like all chum are, but it was definately not 'boot' status like the others I saw Saturday...

Don't worry PhishPhreak, they can't ALL be this pretty.

Just ribbin' ya parker! :p

Wow, 4Salt. I have my own web groupie. Not too sure if I should be honored, or file a restraining order.

Hey, how come you didn't post this photo?



Oh yeah, it's because I LET IT GO.

Yeah 4Salt, you found a typical Icicle River Spring Chinook photo. Kinda like a good roast. Brown on the outside and nice, red, and fat on the inside! Fished there only one weekend. Don't think I'll go back....not for those fish...no matter what Todd tries to tell me!

Not even close to SPOOOOON! quality when it comes to springers.

Now, *this* is a SPOOOON! quality Springer! Makes Phreak's fish look like a Super Chromer!

I know about those Icicle river fish parker. My stalking skills aren't up to snuff yet. That was the darkest fish I could find on your site in the short time I had to look.

Now if I remember correctly, there was this Quinault hatchery steelhead...

Why does everyone refer to Chum as dogs, boots, oily, crap, no good, or barely good enough for the smoker?

I always beleived the hype about colored silvers,chum or salmon in general. But i decided to keep a very red silver and try it out for myself. Expecting the worst it actually turned out to be one of the best silvers we had ever eaten. The meat was very firm and in great shape. Then we smoked one and it was awesome. So i thought why not chum too? I kept 2 yesterday. One was all purple and green but still had some crome on the belly, the other was all colored with a black belly. Smoked one and baked the other and they kicked azz. It was hard to pick which was better. All i know, is that it seems that people like to tell the story more than live it. I will definately be keeping more colored boots and crap fish from now on.

This is the advice I once heard given to a friend. He really wanted to date on the the Sonic Cheerleader gals:

"Stalk 'em, they like that!"