the brine that i use is pretty simple and isn't salty tasteing like some ive had its one large bottle of soy sauce,half of a 16oz.bag of brown sugar and half a bottle of liquid smoke hickory flavor usually. mix that together with about a cup of warm water so sugar desolves.then i add my fish after adding the fish i add cold water till the fish is covered and set in fridge over night.the brine gives the fish a sweet smokey flavor but not over whelmingly sweet.dont worry about the salt theres enough in the soy sauce to cure the meat.as far as smokers i just use a standered size charcoal smoker for about three hours and just enough charcoal to cover the bottom with apple wood.