Both Julie and I have always liked smoked fish but we had never tried to smoke it ourselves. Our boat painter, in New Zealand, who is a diehard sports fisherman, convinced us that it was really straight forward and we should give it a go.

We looked at the smokers for sale at a couple of camping and fishing stores but most of them require a level surface that would not move which is completely impossible on a boat. Also we wanted to use the heat source from our existing barbecue in order to not add anymore flammable fuels to our boat.

In the Cairns Central Shopping Centre, I found a stainless steel roasting pan with similar dimensions to the inside of our barbecue. It also had a stainless grate in it which would be needed to hold the meat above the wood chips.

Today was the first try with our new smoker and pleasantly it worked better than expected. I bought a small amount of perch at Woolworths on the recommendation of the woman at the fish counter.

The perch was marinated for about an hour in some teriyaki sauce. Then I placed it on the grate with about an 1/8" of an inch of smoker's chips Julie and I had bought in Airlie Beach tackle shop.

I had no idea how long to smoke it for but ended up keeping it on for an hour although next time I will try 2 hours. According to "The Cruiser Handbook of Fishing" by Scott and Wendy Bannerot, 2 hours is about right for a piece of fish 6"x 2"x 3". They also recommend never getting the temperature above 86 deg F. (30 deg C.) and soaking the fish in a 70% to 80% brine solution prior to smoking. I think the temperature was right but I did not do the latter.

Regardless the fish came out very well. I am not sure if this smoking regimen would have preserved it as long as possible but it sure tasted right. With a little lemon and a glass of white wine it was very tasty.