Eating Freshwater Drum?

[Seth]

Small ones are pretty good. We caught one bass fishing that was probably pushing 15# one time that I cleaned and fried up. It was about like chewing on a tire.

[Johnsfolly]

We had those black drum from SC back in march and really liked them. They were all smaller than 5 lbs. Not sure how a freshwater drum would compare.

[tjm]

dead fish are dead fish, where's the beef?

[MOPanfisher]

I have eaten them several times,,however I almost never keep them any more, I would take bass fillets over them.  They are usually skinny for their size so the fillets are not nice thick ones so the amount of meat seems small.  And the taste is not bad, tastes like whatever you season it with, it's the texture that is odd.  If you have 3 or 4 of them some will be just fine and one or two will be like a tennis shoe, seems like a completely different fish and I have been able to tell the difference prior to cooking them.  Also have only fried them, not tried any other way.  I used to collect the otoliths from them when I caught them in creeks, had a wooden box I put them in for absolutely no reason.  Wonder where that old box is now?  monkey dodo version is they aint baf, but they aint on my short list oven medium long list for fish to eat, and I will eat just about any fish.

[jdmidwest]

Small ones are pretty good.  Cut out the red part and blacken on the grill.  Its a firm meat, not for frying.

My Great Aunt used to can the ones we caught and make fish cakes out of them.  About as good as salmon.

[Bushbeater]

I tried a Meramac river Drum once, we grilled it and it was edible. I've never bothered with one since.

[Al Agnew]

Had a friend who sweared that blackened drum was as good as blackened redfish, since they are in the same fish family even though one is saltwater and the other freshwater.  I never tried blackened drum, don't even know for sure how you prepared blackened fish, but blackened redfish was really popular for a while.

[Seth]

8 minutes ago, Al Agnew said:

Had a friend who sweared that blackened drum was as good as blackened redfish, since they are in the same fish family even though one is saltwater and the other freshwater.  I never tried blackened drum, don't even know for sure how you prepared blackened fish, but blackened redfish was really popular for a while.

I had blackened crappie two weeks ago and I liked it better than the fries stuff. All the guy did was season the fillet with Zatarains blacken seasoning and sear in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil. 

[Gavin]

Have never tried, but eaten plenty of redfish, and sea trout...(same family of fish). They eat well fresh..Dog food if frozen and thawed....Crappie & walleye can last a bit in the freezer, but not those fish.

 

[Travis Swift]

I filet them like wallye, crappie whatever and just fry them up.  They are great and i've fed them to tons of people that had no idea what they were eating and loved them.