Printable View
What ever the name they are called,..... up here in Michigan I have never ate one and always considered it to be a trash fish until I was challenged to make a you tube video, which I did,and was pleasantly surprised!
I'll be keeping some in the future, for a fish fry.https://youtu.be/HajIMFDhit8
They are the fresh water cousins of the salt water Red Drum ( redfish) .
they generally get no respect. I remember keeping the ones we caught in Lake Texoma when I was a kid.
I catch a few on Lake Palestine, but they tend to be skinny , poor looking. I throw them back
Mo
Looks good to me, we catch them down here up to 10#, I will try the drum, The jumping silver carp are very good to eat, also!
Ate them as a teen & found them to be no more "strong fishy tasting" than a White Bass, which I also ate quite a few of in my early years. I think the smaller (<2lbs) ones are better table fare than the larger ones, but that's just from a memory of 50+yrs ago.
Also: The White Bass I ate as a youngster were cooked "whole" (not filleted) so the "red meat" was still there & likely the source of the strong taste. The Drum were also cleaned/cooked the same way. I actually never filleted Crappie until I was probably in my 30's.
i have eaten quite a few back in the day myself . medium size around 2 to 3 lbs and fat are pretty good table fare . much under that and or skinny and there just isnt much meat on them . the plus is the 2 "pearls" as they say in the heads of them there fisheez .
i had a puerto rican girlfreind when i was 21 that told me she wanted to cook me a fish dinner one time . we went to the river when it rained a bit and it was muddy and used shrimp and caught 3 really pretty fat ones about 3 lbs each .
i filleted them and dropped her off with the fish at her apt. went home took a shower and went back to about one of the best baked fish split almond cooked to perfection meals i ever ate when it comes to a baked fish . 40 plus years later i remember how good they tasted, so to be sure they are quite edible .
I've heard they are good eating. They are awesome fighters too in my experience
We catch them and clean them and make fish tacos with them!
I’ve cleaned them for clients who asked to keep them. I remember most having meat like yours in the video but one had meat that was gray. I asked the clients what they though? They asked me if I’d eat it. I said I wouldn’t feed it to my dog. We tossed it to the turtles.
Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com
I’ve ate several of them. Around here the big ones are to strong to eat. 2lbs and smaller for me.
They say fried possum is good too, but I haven't ever tried it. With that being said, I think just about any meat can taste somewhat decent when fried.
I'd like to see you boil it. I drew a boater in a BFL tournament one time who told me he boils them and it tastes like shrimp. I'd like to see a video of boiled drum with confirmation of the shrimp taste. When you said calamari in the video, that makes me think that it could potentially have a shrimp flavor when boiled.
I have boiled bluegill in the past with crab/crawfish boil, something like 1 minute. Flake the meat off of the bones and dip in melted butter. Pretty tasty!!
I might have to try that, it sounds really good.Quote:
Originally Posted by tnduxcaller
When I was young we'd eat sheephead out of lake erie. Back then we'd cut the heads off and gut them. Then put them in a bowl of salt water and put them in the fridge overnight. Most of them ended up going into the garden because they were full of worms. Letting them sit like that would draw the worms out of them. Any that had worms got tossed. Got to the point we quit keeping them when caught, was hard to find a sheephead that wasn't full of worms back then.
They make real good cut bait too...
It sure is difficult to get crankbaits out of that little mouth though.
My youngest caught one when he was about 4 or 5, I think it was an old fish, about 22-24 inches and skinny with a big head. He wasn’t going to rest until we cooked and ate his big fish. So I filleted it and fried it up. Nobody needed more than one bite of it and you couldn’t pay me to eat another one.
I caught one out of the Mississippi River one time, and it was the worst tasting thing ever.Quote:
Originally Posted by warhawk
I've cleaned 3 lb drum and the meat is rubbery and nasty, I wouldn't feed it to a possum. The smaller drum are really good in my opinion.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maddog3355
Sent from my SM-J337P using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app
The big drum my youngest caught was at El Dorado lake.Quote:
Originally Posted by DRFISHDUCK
I caught an 8 lb drum at Harvey East a few weeks back on 4 lb test. I released it.Attachment 379977
Sent from my SM-J337P using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app
Dang right! Seems like they always go for the bait with any bit of chrome on it too.Quote:
Originally Posted by DonaAna1
They do like that chrome/blue.