Randyman I also have trouble with smoking white fish such as halibut and cod. I am thinking that the brine time needs to be reduced. I tried my normal smoked salmon recipe brine, but the overnight and even just 4 ours produce rubber planks. I was told to try a 1 hour brine, but that was obviously not enough time. That result was like putting cornmeal in your mouth. I am currently out of of cod, and do not want to ruin my halibut. I am going fishing in Alaska again next year, so I will hopefully get some that I can test with. I had similar problems with the overnight brine with my salmon. I finally found that I have some fantastic smoked salmon with a four hour brine, and hot smoking the salmon to 140 degrees. I use a dry brine with Kosher or pickling salt, dark brown sugar, and crushed garlic. I use 1 cup of pickling salt, 2 pounds of dark brown sugar, and 15 cloves of crushed garlic. This is a dry brine, but it will be pretty wet at the end of the 4 hours. I rinse it and pat it dry, and then dry it on baking racks with a low to medium fan on them. I have been using a mix of alder and apple smoke. I smoke for an hour at 140 and then bump it to 160 after an hour, and take the fish out when it gets to 140 degrees. I let it cool to room temperature and then vacuum pack it and freeze it. When I pull it out and thaw it, I have a moist, tender piece of tasty smoked salmon.