Fresh Salmon for Smoking 2021

I've only seen farmed salmon at a reasonable price in Costco.  Costco here did have some wild caught for $29/lb. Bought some pacific cod instead.

Well, It seems the wild sockeye are running small this year, at least so far. Costco had some good looking fillets this week at $11.99 per lb, about the same as lat year, but only about 1 lb per side, pretty small. I smoke 8 oz pieces, so I bought 6 sides to fill two racks of my SM066. Anyway, I'll see what happens tomorrow after overnight brining.

Finished about 6 lbs of sockeye salmon from Costco yesterday. I was surprised that despite the small and thin halves, they turned out very good. I watched the IT closely because of uncertainty about probe placement in such a thin piece of fish, but all turned out well. The fillet pieces actually were moist enough to flake apart in the thicker parts after refrigeration overnight. So I am encouraged that i can make my annual summer goal of 30 lbs of smoked salmon in the freezer for the winter. I've got my fingers crossed.