My personal favorite hardwoods for smoking fish are:
I tend to avoid woods like Hickory, Oak, and Pecan as these tend to offer too much smoke for the delicate flavor of fish.
I Think Maple is the Best Wood for Smoking Fish
I’m from New Hampshire and maple wood is abundant.
If you’ve never used maple to smoke with, it works really well with delicate proteins like chicken, or things like vegetables and cheese.
The smoke flavor itself is light and in the background. So you’ll taste the rub or marinade first, then the fish, and then the smoke.
Where-as if you were to smoke fish with hickory or pecan, you’re apt to taste the smoke first AND you may even overpower the dry rub or the fish flavor itself.
Cherry Wood
In general, cherry is my favorite wood to smoke with.
You get a light, slightly sweet smoke that compliments most proteins.
You also get the added benefit of adding this red/mahogany hue to smoked meats.
This works especially well with fish as you’ll get this sort of color that pops and is super appetizing to look at.
In almost every case I’d rather use cherry wood in comparison to apple.
Cherry also can be mixed and matched with other hardwoods.
Often I’ll mix it with maple or pecan if I want a little more smoke and color.
Apple Wood
I’m personally not a big fan of using apple wood to smoke with but I’ll stick to using it for lighter cooks like chicken, fish, and cheese.
The smoke flavor is fairly light and won’t overpower the fish.
The biggest benefit of apple wood is availability; No matter where you live there’s a really good chance you can find it in wood chip or chunk form.
If all else fails and you only have apple wood, you can safely use it with any type of fish.
I Like Alder but Can Never Find it
Alder is traditional for smoked fish but I almost never use it because because I have to go out of my way to purchase it on the internet.
With that said, it does pair really well with smoked fish.
It’s similar to fruit woods in that the smoke isn’t super overpowering and simply compliments the fish’s flavor.
If you have access to alder locally, I’d likely suggest using it over Maple.
DON’T Use Softwoods for Smoking Fish!
There seems to be a lot of articles on the internet that tell people to use softwoods like Cedar to smoke fish.
Don’t do this.
Softwoods contain sap and resin – which contain terpenes, the source of turpentine (paint solvent) which is toxic when ingested/inhaled.
Instead people like to use cedar planks (pictured below).
In this case the fish is placed directly onto the plank. The wood isn’t smoldering and no smoke is produced.
