Which salmon and trout are the best size/weight for?

[wiperhunter2]

I've never caught 25-30 pound fish before. How big of smoker would you need to smoke a whole fellet that big?. But I smoke up to 5 pound steelhead or trout. I hate bones so unless I am smoking the Fish I will fellet them and cut all bones out. It works best if they are over 2 lbs. for that. You end up with 3 boneless pieces per side that I deep fry in peanut oil. Smaller than 2, I will cook whole. When I grill them or cook them in a camp fire I leave the skin on and wrap them in tin foil with butter, salt and lemon juice inside. Sorry not much of a Salmon fisher. I only smoke fish once a year, as you get kinda tired of it fast. At first it's better than candy!

Last year I started bottling all my kokanee and the good thing about it is there are no bones, the bottling process dissolves the bones or at least makes them so they are soft enough not to bother you. I smoke the fish first, to give them that nice smoky flavor then bottle them and they turn out great and they will last a lot longer than freezing them. I think the largest koke I've caught was around 3 pounds but even at that size this works great.