I'm new to the smoking game so I need all the info such as, do you smoke it whole or cut into steaks? How long and at what temp. should you smoke it? Do you brine it, and if so, how long should it be in the brine or do you smoke it without brining? As I said, I need all the info availabe.

I would soak the blood out in a sink of cold water, then rinse and pat dry, season, and smoke. Try a little lemon pepper, paprika, olive oil, whatever you like. It shouldn't take over an hour at 200*. You might want to filet both sides then have one big steak left over at the big end. I would go easy on the wood. Maybe a very small 1 oz. size or smaller mild wood like apple. Get it smokin', then add meat.

I always just clean and filet them, season a little, then 3 minutes in the George Foreman per large filet.

GLH,
Thanks for the info. Can the catfish of that size be cut into steaks, also, skinned or not.

Sure you can cut it into steaks or smoke it whole. One thang you better do is skin it. Have you never prepared catfish? You do not eat catfish skin.

GLH,
Nope. Never did prepare a catfish.The few that I have caught in my lifetime, I threw back. The fishing that I do is just for walleyes and saugers (sand pike)on Lake Winnebago. Now that I have a smoker, I will be paying a little more attention as to what I will be throwing back.

...or you can smoke two big fillets. The approach GLH suggests is simple and great results. I'm not sure about brining that catfish. He's got nice white flesh, right?

Deep fry! That's what us Crackers do.

ljk, Catfish is for frying!! You can bake, smoke, broil or what ever if you have the right kind of catfish. For instance, Blue cat can have a very strong fish taste if you bake it. Yellow cat or Flathead and white river are the best if you are not going to fry. There are a lot of varieties of catfish with their own slightly different taste. Water and food can effect flavor also.
I would fillet the fish to get away from the oil along the back bone. You will find it is easy to fillet a catfish. Same as scaled fish except you cut up to the rib cage and then trim out the strip of meat along the top of the fish and then down to the rib cage. Don't cut rib bones. Then cut off the belly flaps. Don't give up on catfish until you try frying cause they are really good!!
YOU MUST SKIN!!!!! Good Luck

I darn near cut my teeth on fried catfish, but now I prefer grilled. I have not smoked catfish in the Cookshack, but I have smoked it over an open wood pit shoreside, trout also.

That old ten pound cat fish goes a long way! 5 days, and he's still here.

LJK, where'd you catch the fish? A clear lake? A river?

That's a big dude.

A 10 pound catfish would definitely be considered small around these parts. I think I know what you mean though......

The 10 lb. catfish was caught in a fresh water lake, Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin, a great walleye lake.