In this episode, Chris breaks down how to smoke fish in the field using nothing more than a fire, a few sticks, and some floral wire. Learn what woods to use, how to avoid ruining your meat with bad smoke, and why Magnolia might be your new favorite cooking wood.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Step-by-step method for smoking fish in the field without fancy gear
What types of wood are safe for smoking (and what to avoid)
Why Magnolia wood might be one of the most underrated smoking woods for fish
How to build a simple smoking tripod using green saplings and floral wire
The difference between grilling, roasting, and real smoking in a bushcraft setup
Why floral wire is one of the most versatile tools you can pack in your kit
How to preserve fish while still getting bold flavor at camp
Real-world examples from Mississippi river trips, including stories of pike, bass, and catfish
Field hacks for getting steady smoke without catching your gear on fire
Simple tricks to build a smoke tent for long smoking sessions
Tools and Tips Mentioned:
Magnolia, oak, hickory, pecan, mesquite woods
Avoiding resinous woods like pine and cedar
Building a cooking tripod
Using mechanics or floral wire to hang fish
Scoring fish to cook it evenly
Using sheets to trap smoke without flame-up
Key Takeaway:
Smoking meat in the wild isn’t about perfection — it’s about patience, method, and knowing your materials. When you understand how smoke works, you can preserve and flavor your catch right where you caught it.
Extras:
Grab the Primitive Camping & Bushcraft book on Amazon for full setups and photos
Join the Facebook group and share your favorite smoking wood
(upbeat music)
Welcome to the Primitive
Camping in Bushcraft podcast.
I'm your host, Chris Speir.
So here we're gonna talk about gear,
red and the kind of stories
you only get around the fire.
It's all about learning, adapting
and keeping your faith strong.
So whether you're a seasoned outdoorsman
or just looking to unplug and reconnect,
you're in the right place.
So pull up a chair by the
fire and let's get into it.
All right guys, welcome
back to the Primitive Camping
Bushcraft podcast.
And, but today we're
gonna have a good one.
We're gonna talk about
smoking some meat over an open fire.
We're gonna talk about smoking meat
and the great outdoors.
I love smoking meat.
There is beyond a shadow of a doubt.
It is one of my absolute
favoritest things to do
whenever I'm camping,
whenever I'm barbecuing,
when I'm hanging out
with friends, you know,
stuff like that.
Full disclosure, we are not at the camp
want the heck today.
I was unable to make
it out there this week
due to work conflicts and work schedules.
I've had to cover a
couple of shifts up there
at the restaurant
with my beautiful bride.
Hey, real quick, if you
would go over to Amazon,
pick up a copy of the
Primitive Camping Bushcraft book.
It is $18 I think right now on Amazon.
If you don't mind, go over there.
If you have purchased the book,
please leave a good
review or just leave a review.
Let me know what you think.
If you don't mind, head on over.
Leave a review on that at Amazon
or wherever you purchased your book.
And I would greatly,
greatly appreciate that.
But right now we're talking
about smoking fish, all right?
So fish is always one of those things
that I always have
when I go into the woods.
You know, I'm always
camping on a river or a lake or,
you know, I'm always have access
to some kind of water
and I'm always fishing.
And I typically put myself in positions
to where I am going to be
fishing whenever I head out
into the great outdoors.
So whenever you're out in the woods
and you're spending
your days around camp,
smoking meat isn't just about the flavor.
It's about preservation.
So if you're in a long-term situation
out into the great outdoors,
you're out there to preserve the meat
and keep it from decaying,
from being rotting and
bacteria growth on it, you know?
But, you know, also smoking
actually adds a ton of flavor
and it's a preservation or preservative.
And it stretches what
you caught to last longer.
And so, I mean, I've seen guys,
if you watch that lawn
show, they have one guy,
he was catching all his meat, smoking it.
And he had like 30-some mob fillets,
but he still went
home from malnourishment
because he didn't eat his food.
So fish is one of my favorite things
to smoke out in the field.
It doesn't take long.
It absorbs the full flavor, you know?
It absorbs it like a sponge.
And it just tastes better when you've
cleaned it yourself,
you hung it out there
and there's a million
different ways to do it.
People will get them a couple of branches
and they'll fillet or butterfly that
whatever kind of fish
and they'll hold it over a fire
and cook it from the inside out or
outside in or whatever.
You know, I've seen people,
they'll put a stick through it
and they'll put a couple of sticks
to hold it open on the
front and sides, you know?
And just, you know, cook it in one big,
kind of like what a basket does
where you put the fish in the basket
and you just flip it over and over.
And I've seen people do it that way.
I've seen people just throw it on a rock.
I've seen people wrap
it in an aluminum foil,
put it out there, pots and pans.
I've seen people put
it into pots and pans.
Ain't nothing wrong.
There's no wrong way to do it.
Whatever way that you want to do it,
that's the way, that's
the right way to do it.
And as people can understand
that there's no wrong way
to do all this camping stuff
or hiking stuff or
going out into the woods,
there's no wrong way to do it.
There's a big stigma right now
with bushcraft and
survivalists all over the interwebs
that if you don't do it this
way, you're doing it wrong.
That's incorrect.
There's no wrong way
to do certain things,
but this ain't about that.
We're not gonna be
sitting there beating that down
and we're gonna be
talking about smoking some meat.
So first up, we're gonna
be talking about some wood.
Wood makes the mill.
Now, when you are out
in the great outdoors
and you're looking for
something to smoke a meat with,
smoke a fish, and we're
using fish as the example,
but you could do any kind of meat,
anything that you have dispatched,
you can cut it thin
enough and you can smoke it.
You can make it into
jerkies, stuff like that,
but smoking it's gonna
preserve it and cook it.
If it's a poultry thing, in my book,
I put all the
temperatures, the cooking temperatures
and stuff like that,
but if it's got four legs,
it's gonna be safer to smoke
unless it's a high heat type thing.
The wings is gonna be a little bit,
any kind of poultry is gonna be cooked
to a higher temperature.
Fish is gonna be cooked to like 145.
If it walks on the ground
with legs, with four legs,
it's gonna be cooked up to
155 and that's well done now.
And then 165, 170 for any kind of birds.
But when you're smoking stuff,
here's the thing, not all wood is good.
Not all wood is good wood.
How much wood could a woodchuck cook?
Yeah, nevermind.
If you're smoking meat, you
want a nut bearing hardwood
or a nut bearing
tree, hickory, oak, pecan.
These are tried and true,
they burn hot, they burn clean
and they hold a very steady cold.
They actually give
off a pretty good smoke.
But you wanna steer clear
of any kind of resinous woods
and resinous means like conifers,
always anything that has
a pitch or a sap like pine
or fur or cedar.
Now that's for full smoke.
They'll leave your meat
tasting like chemicals.
They'll leave it tasting
like turpentine and nasty.
And it will have some carcinogens in it.
And there'll be
people out there that argue
smoking your meat causes cancer anyway.
But that's not just
nasty, it's unhealthy.
You don't use pine, any kind
of pine to smoke your meat.
Now folks ask me about cedar planks.
So here we go.
They're great for grilling.
They add flavor.
But for smoking, I don't trust it.
No, it's still a resinous.
Some people will say, but
me personally, this is Chris.
I'll keep testing it out and I'll see.
But here is one that
most people don't think of
and here's one that
most people don't use.
And magnolia.
Magnolia is a nut meringue tree.
It does have like little
nuts on there in the springtime.
It puts off that little
flower, the big beautiful flower.
I know magnolia is
the straight state tree
for several states, but
especially in the south,
I believe it is for
Mississippi, Louisiana.
I can't remember if it's, I mean,
Mississippi, Alabama.
I can't remember if
it is Louisiana or not.
But magnolia is amazing.
It has a wonderful full body flavor
when you're smoking with it.
And my brother and I, we were on a trip
and we were out in the great outdoors
in one of the national forests.
And all there was was
either pine or magnolia.
And so we decided, well,
we're gonna cook our fish.
We caught a bunch of fish.
We caught a pike.
And this pike was about, you know,
hey, Aaron, if you listen,
let me know how big it was.
I think it was close to four pounds.
It was a decent size fish.
And we went ahead and it
was so big that we scaled it,
gutted it, and we hung it up to smoke
and we cut little lines and it scored it.
That way the heat can
get into the fish more.
And it turned out to be one
of the most amazing meals.
But there's another
one that's even better.
And we'll get into
those in a little while.
But magnolia wood to us was everywhere.
I mean, it was everywhere.
They had a magnolia tree
and I've never seen a
magnolia tree this big in my life.
But this tree was as big
around as a Volkswagen Beetle.
I mean, it was huge and it was ginormous.
And this thing is, it had limbs
and branches falling off left and right.
Every time a storm comes, you know,
the branch will die, it'll fall off.
And we used that thing
and smoked that thing.
And I'm telling you right now, man,
it made our fish phenomenal.
Now there are certain things.
When you get out, there are certain woods
that don't taste good with certain meats.
And there are certain, you know,
like hickory doesn't taste
very, very good with beef.
Hickory is not the best
choice to smoke beef with.
Beef is better with
mesquite or pecan, you know, apple,
stuff like that.
But hickory is real
pungent, real strong, real,
and don't get me wrong,
son, I love some hickory.
I love some hickory
and I will smoke anything
with some hickory, but
I will choose a mesquite
or something else a
little bit less bold with beef.
Or any kind, you know, beef.
Pork is great with
all those, all of them.
I haven't found one that
don't taste good with pork.
The only thing that I
found that don't go good
with pork is lemon
pepper for some reason.
Lemon pepper and pork is
just don't agree with me
and I can't stand it, you know,
and I don't want to get
too far off on a tangent,
but magnolia was everywhere.
And it was everywhere down
here in South Mississippi,
but it was everywhere out there
and this national forest was out.
And we was camping on the river
and we had caught some
fish and we caught some bass,
some largemouth bass,
we caught some pike,
and we caught a couple real nice sockele
or white perch or crappie,
whichever ones you want
to call them, you know.
(laughs) They, we got these things out there
and we collected our
magnolia wood, you know.
Magnolia burns smooth, it smells clean,
and when you use it to smoke fish,
it's just like, oh, Lord Jesus in heaven,
thank you so much for this day.
(laughs)
That's just what it's like.
So it's not too strong.
It's just enough to make you look up
after the first bite and go, yep,
that's camp cooking right there.
(laughs)
So, you know, I probably should start
keeping a few chunks of
magnolia on my gear just in case,
but no, there's other things out there.
I mean, anything hardwood
smoke to me is, you know,
oak, oak does a pretty good decent job
with smoking as well,
but anyway, my setup,
it's simple and field
tested and I've used this.
I didn't bring any kind of fancy rigs.
All we did was we made a tripod
and this tripod worked perfect.
I built the tripod
from some green saplings.
I've iced them together at the top
and then we took floral wire.
If you've never, you went to Hobby Lobby
or any kind of little hobby stores,
they even got it at
Harbor Freight in little rolls.
It's called Mechanics Wire.
It's just about the same thing.
Floral wire is green
and it's probably got
a plastic coating on it, but
it's never melted off for us.
So, I mean, we've used
this thing millions of tons
or tons of tons of woods.
But floral wire, we would hang our fish
by the tail with this wire and let it
dangle over the fire,
to the outside edges of the fire
and just let the smoke smoke all day.
Now, if you got a copy of my book,
you will see the actual setup that we use
to smoke these fish.
The fish I'm talking
about on this camping trip
made it into the book and
it has photographs of it.
I had a sheet that I brought because
during the summertime,
I do not sleep in a
sleeping bag or anything.
I slept in a sheet and I
use that sheet to wrap around
the tripod to make the smoker.
And it didn't catch on fire.
We kept the fire small,
but we kept the smoke large.
And that's the trick to
doing a real good smoking.
Now, floral wire is
extremely lightweight.
It's strong and it's about, I don't know,
15 or so uses in a while.
You can use it to
repair gear, which I have.
I've repaired a zipper
that was starting to unravel.
I repair a zipper with the wire.
You can use it for trapping.
You can use it for lashing.
You can keep a roll in your kit.
You can keep a roll in your little bags.
You know, it's
lightweight and it's awesome.
And these things are amazing.
And they do a very
good job at whatever it is
that you need to do.
So once your tripod's up, I
built a small fire underneath it.
And I started adding my wood and we
brought it to temperature.
We brought the flames
and then I let it cook down
to some coals.
And then we started
adding our magnolia to it.
Now, if you're using pine or
a resinous wood, it's okay.
Start your fire with that.
Don't hang your food over it until it
comes down to coals.
Then you can use your
pine and cook over your pine.
Any open fire cooking, you can do that
because once the resin
and this stuff is burnt off,
you can still cook over the coals.
All right, so just to make that clear.
So we had the coals going
and we just threw a little bit
of a little bit of
magnolia in there at a time.
And we didn't have no
large flames, just smoke.
Smoke cooked low and
preserves for very long.
So the thing about smoking is that
you don't have to overthink it.
You keep tending to that fire
and keep throwing some sticks to it
and letting the smoke
smoke, it'll take care of it.
You don't have to worry about it.
Steady, steady, steady as you go.
Steady, smoke, no flames.
Just go ahead and keep on smoking.
And smoke cooks low and
preserves for a long time.
And like I said, you
don't have to overthink it.
You give it a couple hours
of good heat and good smoke.
And you got fish that you will go home
and tell everybody about
and you will always come back
and try the same thing
over and over and over again.
We've done it.
We have gone to the woods.
We have gone camping and many a trips
have we come back and tried
to replicate that process.
And we have, we have replicated it.
We have done it.
It has created something in us.
Enough for me to talk about it
in the book, Primitive
Camping in Bushcraft.
So smoking meat teaches you something.
It teaches you patience.
You can't rush the process.
You're not grilling.
You're not pan searing.
You're not cooking over an open flame.
You're cooking at a relatively low heat
and a lot of smoke.
Now, a fish can sit there
on the edge of the fire,
you know, and smoke all day long.
And by the time you get done to it,
by the time you get ready,
it will, the meat will be
falling off of the bone.
So when it comes to smoking,
you can't crank up the heat
and expect the flavor to soak in.
It's not, it's not gonna happen.
You gotta slow down and you gotta let
that fire do its work.
You gotta throw them logs on there.
You gotta let that smoke come out.
You know, that same thing
goes for how God works on us.
Now, I want you to
picture this for a second.
You've got meat hanging over your fire
and smoke slowly rising up.
And it's taking its dear sweet time.
But that smoke is
changing that meat, right?
It preserves it, it's adding depth to it,
it's making it useful,
it's changing the flavor.
It is really making something out of it
that wasn't there before.
Romans chapter 12, verse one says this,
"Therefore, I urge
you brothers and sisters
"in view of God's mercy
"to offer your bodies
as a living sacrifice,
"holy and pleasing to God.
"This is your true and proper worship."
Now think about that.
Just like we lay fish over
the fire to make it last,
we're called to lay
our lives before the Lord
as a living sacrifice.
Not just once on Sunday,
but we're asked to do it every day.
We're called to do it every day.
Now we're big talk, but with
real action, real surrender.
And just like that meat
changes under the smoke,
God changes us when
we stay near His flame,
when we stay near His fire.
It ain't always fast,
but I guarantee you,
it's always worth it.
Smoke gets into the fibers of the fish.
In God's word, it's
gonna soak into your bones.
If you keep moving, never
sitting still long enough,
you'll never get that full
flavor, that real preservation.
But if you stay close,
if you let Him work slow,
I promise you, He will transform you.
You don't come out of the smoke the same.
It's not gonna happen.
So we used hardwoods,
and we used main oil.
We didn't really touch on
all the other stuff there.
You know, we talked about
avoiding pine and cedars,
and you know, cedars that
barbecuing has the planks,
it adds a flavor to
your fish, or your meats,
or whatever it is you're grilling.
We used a tripod, and I
told you about the floral wire,
and all that I outlined in
the book, how to do all that.
We gonna keep that fire slow and steady,
and how, you know, we
talked about how smoke
teaches patience and depth, just like
walking with the Lord.
So the next time you're
out here in the woods,
and you got your fire going,
and you got fish on the line,
try smoking it, slow it down.
Watch the smoke rise, and remember,
this is more than
cooking, this is a life lesson.
Because I promise you,
every time you come back
out to the woods,
you're gonna try this again.
Now, let's back up just a touch.
You know, we talked about this,
but the temperatures and everything,
but you can smoke different
meats, you can smoke anything.
Anything can be smoked,
and anything can be changed
in the flavor.
If you don't have a lot of
salt and pepper, would you?
You don't have any seasonings with you,
which is silly because
there's seasonings all around you.
You use different things
for different seasonings
and everything, but if
you don't have enough smoke,
smoke, smoke.
There's something about
the smoke, isn't there?
Think about it, smoke
gets rid of the mosquitoes,
smoke gets rid of
bacteria, smoke changes the flavor.
Smoke is amazing stuff, and
it's amazing how it is used
to do things.
Fire transforms, smoke is a
transformation of the fire.
It is what's left from the
chemical process, you know,
of fire combustion, and
the smoke is left over
from the combustion, and
it is what is transforming
your food.
You got the heat from the
fire that is warming it up
and cooking it,
bringing it to a temperature
that's safe for you to consume.
But at the same time, you have the smoke,
which is changing the flavor of it,
which is gonna make it
to where it tastes great.
Now, that was another
thing I wanted to tell you guys
about on this trip.
We got into some small green catfish.
These things, I don't know, they're not
even 12 inches long.
And every time you catch one, they're
always the same size.
Little stubby little things, little
green, yellow, green.
We always call them lug cats.
And these things are, they're plentiful.
Man, we were catching them like crazy.
So we scared them out.
And it was our actual first
time eating this particular
species of catfish.
And we went over there, we
had four, four, five of them,
and we hung them up with
a floral wire right next
to that fire with some Magnolia.
And ladies and
gentlemen, let me tell you,
that was worth the trip right there.
Just the smoke fish sitting
by the little lake or the river
and sitting there just telling stories
of me and my brother.
And we told stories all
our lives of each other,
but it's crazy how
food is always something
that brings people together.
And I feel like
everything's interconnected.
If you look at it all through history,
if you look at it through
the Bible times, all that,
everything's always interconnected.
So, but anyway, those little green
catfish were amazing.
And I've always
called them on little jigs
when I'm out jigging.
I'll be trying to catch some
white perch, some succulae,
some crappie, it depends on where you at,
or over in Georgia, it's crappie.
Over here is white perch, over in
Louisiana, it's succulae.
And them things, man,
people go nuts trying to find them fish
and they're great eating
and they are amazing smoked.
Amazing fried, they're
amazing, no matter how,
I don't care how you
gonna cook them things,
some things are amazing.
Sockalae, but yeah,
that's for good stuff.
But we were catching
these little green catfish
and I usually catch them on a jig.
And man, let me tell
you, they fight pretty hard.
And then whenever you get them up,
they're just those, they're not,
like I said, they're
not even 12 inches long.
Skin comes off pretty quick, you know,
you just go ahead and
get rid of the entrails
and gut them little
puppies and then de-head them.
And then you got bait from the next one.
And then you go ahead and throw them up
with some floral wire and let them cook.
Let me tell you, I cannot explain to you
how good those fish are.
Anyway, that is my take
on smoking in the woods.
You hang something over the fire.
And if you got to, you
can make yourself a rack
with small sticks and you
can weave that thing together
to make a grill and you
can lay you some jerky meat
out on there or lay you
any kind of meat up there
and smoke them things or preserve it.
Do the venison, you can do raccoon,
you can do whatever you wanna do.
And you can go ahead and smoke that,
cook it down and you'll be good to go.
It preserves it, it keeps it,
it gets rid of the bacteria on there
and the smoke drives out
the moisture content from it.
And moisture and bacteria
is what causes everything
to start to decompose and the smoke
is gonna get rid of that.
So the low heat is gonna rid the moisture
and the smoke is gonna rid the bacteria.
And then it's gonna actually preserve it
for a little bit longer.
I wouldn't, you don't
have like a two month
or three month shelf life, you know,
but you can extend it
to about a week or two.
It depends on what it is.
So make sure you do
your research on that.
And find out exactly how
long it is that you've got
on whatever particular target species
that you're gonna have
when you smoke in the wild.
But I'm telling you, experiment around
with different
flavors, with different woods,
stuff like that and let
me know in the comments,
let me know what you think.
Head on over to the Primitive Camp
in the Bushcraft Podcast, I mean,
Podcast Facebook page and let me know.
There's an ongoing
discussion in there about topics.
I have a couple of topics, you know,
where today we're
talking about smoking fish.
And I think the next one
is gonna be about a kit,
carrying your kit and your car.
And I got a new, I
got a new bag down here
that was sent to me to test out.
And we're gonna dig
into it and talk about it
and stuff like that in the next episode.
That'll be the fourth of
July weekend, wouldn't it?
All right, so well anyway,
thanks for sitting
around the fire with me today.
And hopefully this
episode helped you think
it encouraged you a
little bit in your walk
and you know, share it with somebody.
And I really do hope you enjoy it.
And don't forget to pick up your copy
of Primitive Camping in Bushcraft
on Amazon or wherever you buy books.
And go ahead and sign up
for the Primitive Camping
in Bushcraft Facebook page.
And until we see you on the next one,
in all your ways, acknowledge him.
God bless you.
Thanks for sitting
around the fire with me today.
If this episode gave you
something to think about,
if it helped you feel a
little bit more prepared
or it even stirred your faith a tiny bit,
go ahead and share it with someone else
who might need it as well.
We don't go camping
to run away from life.
We come out here to
slow down and recharge.
So grab another log, throw it
on the fire and remember this.
In all your ways, acknowledge him
and he will direct your path.
I'll see you next time.
God bless you.