In order for wood pellets to smoke, they must be lit. As the old saying goes, where there's smoke there's fire. Well, when there is no fire, there is no smoke. Pellets produce the most smoke when they are smouldering and glowing. If pellets catch a lite then the smoke decreases but the heat produced increases by them increases. Due to the composition of pellets, you can use devices such as cold smoking trays that you can light one side and make sure the pellets catch on fire. After about 3 seconds, blow out the flame and the smouldering pellets will smoulder with a lot of smoke all the way around the cold smoker maze.