Well yesterday I broke in the smoker, first time smoking for me! I bought a chum from winco that was on sale. Everything turned out great except one important thing....fish had great flavor, great moister, but had wwwwaaaaaayyyyy too much salt flavor. I believe I brined it too long. But not too bad for my first try.
So now that I'm a professional..... Tonight I tossed in a beef chuck roast to experiment on. 5lb roast at 225 deg. Took a little over 3 hours to get to an internal temp of 150.
I also threw in a 1lb of jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon 20 min at 225 deg and bam!!! Freaking delicious!
1 part salt 4 parts brown sugar.
Salty problem solved 
I do essentially the same thing. I used to think that the brine time was crucial. I ran into a situation early this summer where I had brining fish and no time to get it smoked. I decided to just leave it in the brine for an extended period and see what happened. That fish was in brine for 5 DAYS. Rinsed and patted dry and smoked as usual. Some of the best fish I've even made or had. 2.5 cups packed brown sugar, 3/4 cup salt, 1 quart water
