Yeah, it sucks. Hard to fix with headers and a cam. Edelbrock carbs seem to deal with it worse too. I never got mine to stop behaving exactly like yours and it was the number one reason I went to efi.
Replace the fuel filter, should be cheap insurance, but I wouldn't expect it to cure everything.
The "smoke" is fuel vapor from the accelerator pump.
I'd expect non-edelbrock carb to probably work a lot better since plenty of folks drive with carbs still, even in the heat, and don't get stranded every time.. But I have little experience there.
