I have tried various woods over the years and to my taste can tell very little difference. The length of time in the smoker to me adds a stronger taste. So I use any wood that I have on hand hickory,apple but mostly oak. Years ago in Florida I used to take fish that I caught to Mrs Peters fish house. If you gave them 20 lbs of fillets they would smoke them and give you 10 lbs back and sell the other 10 lbs in there store. The taste and texture was better than what I could do using hickory, and they used southern pine which was local wood.