Years ago I built a shed-sized smoker and used wood over a few charcoal briquets. I liked that a lot. I could do 30–40 salmon at once. These days, different home, I use a hand-me-down Big Chief and mostly only smoke fish. I can only do 4–5 salmon this way, but I rarely dip net anymore and rely on daily, hook-and-line limits of 3–6.
However, I gave up using the electric hot plate years ago. Rather, I light the wood chunks (not chips) by hand with a plumbing torch. It's more labor intensive: it takes three or four tries to get the wood coaled-up enough to carry itself, but as easy as it is to overheat a Chief-style smoker, this method makes for a nice, cold smoke, which is important to me if I'm going to jar it. I've had enough hot-smoked, over-dried, jarred salmon to last me a lifetime. I vary the woods I use between hickory, alder, and willow or use mixes of them. Cottonwood is the worst, imo. To my palate, it makes the fish reminiscent of a Marlboro Light.
Back in the early-'00s I got to spend a couple of weeks fish camping with a Yup'ik family that I became friends with through working in western Alaska, and it seriously upped my fish smoking game. Hereabouts, I try to do as much as I can before the first or second week in July when the flies start laying eggs, then usually hold out until late August or September to do any more.
Brine? I rarely bother with complex wet brines for fish anymore but use about 1:4 salt to brown sugar as a dry brine. Sometimes, I'll just use a salt shaker that I keep filled with canning salt and sprinkle only about as much as I'd use at the table.
Drying? I'll use a fan sometimes, but I prefer to air dry it. If I'm doing dry fish or jerky, I'll hang that stuff for a week or more. Egam, or half-dried, can sit up to three days before I put it on the smoker. And no, not in the fridge.
Smoke? Again, not very hot but for further drying and flavor. I don't roll pans and pans of smoke, either, 2–3, tops. Sooty, bitter, smoked fish is the worst.
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