I am going to try to explain to you how I go about smoking salmon. Get yourself a nice filet from the market and then brine it. You can make a brine using water, half cup of sugar and half cup of Non-Iodized salt. If you want to add some herbs and spices to the brine then that is fine. Try experimenting to see what you can come up with. Brine the filet around 8 hours in the fridge. Make sure it is completely submerged. After 8 hours or longer you can remove it from the fridge and then run it under water. Make sure to dry it off afterwards. Then you want to let it sit in the fridge until you get a layer of sorts on the skin of the fish. Smoke it on low heat for about 12 hours. 160 degrees will be fine. If you see the filet turning white then the temperature is too high. Hope this works for you.