Thx YLR for your input, Choking out the fire is what I was leaning toward, but not to the point where it goes completely out but to maybe get a bit more smoke out of my pellets. I did purchase a smoker tube about a month ago and that really worked out good for those low and slow cooks. And your right about the Hickory and mesquite pellets producing more smoke, those 2 have been my go to lately for extended long cooks reserving my smoker tube for cooks when I want to use something like apple. I will try plugging the vent holes one of these days, i'm really curious to see what happens?