Smoke up them Tullies...

Smoking tullies is pretty easy. Making a salt brine to where an egg will float is the ticket then soaking them for 24 hours is key. Once you have done that it takes 5-7 hours in a smoker at about 225 degrees. There is a difference in timing depending on how large they are. The bigger the fish the longer they take. The trick is to not end up with them too dry or too wet. It does take a bit of practice ,but boy oh boy what a great treat you’ll end up with if done properly.
Thanks to CK for the smoking tip.

I've never caught any myself, but love to smoke fish.

man oh man the old hat days of tullibee up on leech. i think i started growing silver scales back then. they are also good pickled.

P.S. - those little buggers stink bad.  After I cleaned the fish, I washed my hands about ten times and still went to bed stinking of tullibees.  That smell is now stuck to the interior of my nose.       

cant tell me you havent put your hands in other places that stink like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pretty hard to screw up a brine as long as you go by the enough salt to float an egg theory. i like to add soy sauce, worchester sauce and once in a while an envelope of dry onion soup mix.

dont know if you already use the soy sauce, but to me thats a key ingredient, just enough to darken the water. about everyone around my area that smokes anything uses it. just an idea everyones got there own thing going!!

sounds about right. may have to cut the poopshoot off. i use an old toothbrush to clean out the backbone area. i've also filleted them foe pickling and doest work to bad. do you cut the stomach open all the way back to the poopshoot??????? that may help.

oh no, they got a special container for them fish cleaning brushes!!!!!!!

....electric knife...cut of the head then cut back to the butt hole.
Tear out everything and use a grapefruit spoon to knock out the blood pocket....rinse...plug nose!!!
Oooops...forgot to thank CK again.

Another way to handle these fish (If your going to have them smoked or smoking them yourself) is to take off the head and instead of cutting up the belly of the fish, Cut right along the back bone on one side or the other leaving the belly skin to hold the two halfs together. I just cut down to and around the vent and pull it out that way. I like cutting them along the back because some of these fish are so thick that the meat if left together doesn't get fully smoked. I like my fish smoked pretty hard and this is just one way of insuring that they will get done all the way through. Still cleaning out under the backbone with a spoon works just the same. Just one other way of doing it I figured I'd throw out there.

Tullibees the same as white fish or different?  sorry just curious and never caught either 

there different bigwade. whitefish get bigger.whitefish can get 7-8 lbs and tullibee average 2lbs. you can tell by the mouth for the most part. tullibees mouth faces down moreso and a whitefish mouth is upward. i have a 6lb whitefish from leech lake mounted. oh yea another way to tell the difference a tullibee sheds its scales A WAT LOT EASIER than whitefish.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fish/index.html
 Heres a little info.I used to have 2 great ID sites one was a Wisc the other was Mn natural history,desktop failed and I lost em. Now I cant find em I know there posted on the evil site,but doin search I have to login.Cant give away my new IP

Incognito eh?