I remove the head and tail. The take the knife and cut the bottom fins and belly off. You can easily remove the inners this way. After cleaning (Keep scales on), I brine for 24 hours. Then I smoke them whole for 3-4 hours (3-4 pans of chips). I make up a canning sollution of 12 tbls of olive oil, 6 tsp of Old Bay, 6 tsp of dill, 1 tsp of Cayene pepper. Remove the skin at this point,I fill pint jars with fish(1/4" head space is all you need with this recipe), add 1 tablespoon of the sollution with 2 garlic cloves smashed, 1 bay leaf and 1 yellow pepper.
Pressure cook for 110 minutes at 11psi or so. Let cooker cool naturally or use cold towels soak with water to reduce heat faster. DO NOT vent cooker! I learned the hard way by doing so. The jars in the cooker with start to boil over when you rapidly relieve pressure. You really get a good seal on the jars if you do not rush to relieve pressure. Absolutly the best!
Let me know what you think it you give this a try. Well worth the effort!