Eating Freshwater Drum 2024
BammerBass reply :
Ive seen conflicting reports saying no they are horrible, and others saying they are quite good actually. What is the consensus here?
desmobob reply :
I brought home a small one (1 1/2 lbs. or so) many years ago and whacked the fillets off it. I cooked two or three other types of fish at that same time. I distinctly remember the drum being my least favorite, by a big margin. I never bothered to try it again, and don't intend to. :-)
Tight lines,
Bob
gardnerjigman reply :
I eat as many drum as I do carp. 0!!! Lol
wnybassman reply :
You can eat a dog turd, but that doesn't mean you should. 
BammerBass reply :
Lol no go on freshwater drum then.
Bluebasser86 reply :
My uncle eats lots of fish and he prefers drum over anything else. A lot of it depends on where they come from like most other fish. If you get them from a dirty, muddy river, they're going to taste nasty. If you catch them from a clean lake where they eat lots of craws, they should taste a whole lot better. I use them for cut bait when I can't find shad and they have a very firm, white meat that looks a lot like a big crappie. Do a Google search, lots of folks out there that love them and they're readily available. Closely related to very popular table fish from the salt like redfish (red drum), black drum, and croaker. I'd suggest you give them a try and form your own opinion. Lots of folks love trout, I wouldn't feed that junk to a stray cat, to each his own.
fisherrw reply :
I probably wouldn't.
Snakehead Whisperer reply :
Eaten it a few times. It's pretty gritty, but not bad if you filet it soon after catching. It's definitely a fish for the fryer, and not the oven/grill.
Chris S reply :
On 12/23/2014 at 11:04 AM, wnybassman said:You can eat a dog turd, but that doesn't mean you should.
unless it Labrador
Alonerankin2 reply :
Gross! Same goes for Bluefish, gross...
cyclops2 reply :
I have caught them on slow moving lures accidently. They constantly are looking for anything easy. Dead & dying stuff. I pass also.
roadwarrior reply :
On 12/23/2014 at 2:23 PM, Bluebasser86 said:Lots of folks love trout, I wouldn't feed that junk to a stray cat, to each his own.
I'll go for a shore lunch on the White River maybe once a year, but that's about it. For anyone interested in loading
the freezer, you can use commercial nets on the Tennessee River and keep all the drum, catfish and buffalo fish you
catch- there is no limit. How 'bout the guys bank fishing for skipjack, do you think they eat them, too?
cyclops2 reply :
Small 12 to 14 " Bluefish are O K.
Dwight Hottle reply :
I'll be eating fresh water drum (sheephead on lake erie) just as soon as I finish my big plate of carp. 
gulfcaptain reply :
If I am correct they have a bit of red meat in the fillet. If you don't remove this then they will have a fishy taste. When I lived in OK, I ate them. They weren't bad. Then again it could be the way you cook them or prepare them before cooking. And if you freeze them, well I won't eat any frozen fish. If I catch something to eat it's going to be eaten fresh, never frozen.
cyclops2 reply :
If you read up on fresh water parasites in particular. You will find that all of them are NOT KILLED by cooking. So the correct way to kill ALL KNOWN parasites is to freeze the meat completely for at least 2 weeks.
Even Sushi fish ARE BY LAW in NYC frozen for the same reason. The freezing at sea time counts. USA has some weird laws at times. But freezing & killing all nasty parasites is a wonderful law & needed............Fresh fish is a relative term. If you have ever looked a some cooked fish, you will see some long skinny brown round worms deep in the fillets. I now hold the defrosted fillets up to a bright light & remove them with tweezers. All protein.
Look how they have affected me.............. 
gulfcaptain reply :
I have yet to see any parasite live through that 350F deep fry bath. But if it does, it deserves to win becaue it's a lot tougher then any of us.
whitwolf reply :
On 12/25/2014 at 11:20 PM, cyclops2 said:Small 12 to 14 " Bluefish are O K.
I guess I'm showing my age here. I grew up eating Bluefish and everytime I go home(coastal NC) I always try to smoke a bluefish or 10. I like them fried also but a smoked Bluefish Is hard to beat.
roadwarrior reply :
Well, this is actually a recipe for carp, but it will probably work for drum, too:
Soak a cedar shingle in water for at least one hour. Fire up the grill until the
coals are white hot. Fill the fish with lemons and butter, salt and pepper to
taste. Place the cedar on the grill and cover the fire. Cook for 45 minutes.
Remove from grill and let sit for 5 minutes. Throw away the fish, cut the
cedar plank into four sections and serve!
gardnerjigman reply :
On 12/27/2014 at 12:23 AM, roadwarrior said:Well, this is actually a recipe for carp, but it will probably work for drum, too:
Soak a cedar shingle in water for at least one hour. Fire up the grill until the
coals are white hot. Fill the fish with lemons and butter, salt and pepper to
taste. Place the cedar on the grill and cover the fire. Cook for 45 minutes.
Remove from grill and let sit for 5 minutes. Throw away the fish, cut the
cedar plank into four sections and serve!
Hahaha! That is great!
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 12/27/2014 at 12:23 AM, roadwarrior said:Well, this is actually a recipe for carp, but it will probably work for drum, too:
Soak a cedar shingle in water for at least one hour. Fire up the grill until the
coals are white hot. Fill the fish with lemons and butter, salt and pepper to
taste. Place the cedar on the grill and cover the fire. Cook for 45 minutes.
Remove from grill and let sit for 5 minutes. Throw away the fish, cut the
cedar plank into four sections and serve!
This is the same recipe I recommend for preparing trout. I prefer to use a hickory plank though because the cedar has too much sap in it for my taste.
cyclops2 reply :
This has been a great topic. There are several fish that are just cooked & have no flavor. Need seasonings & spices to make them edible.
Farm raised fish & some GMO are kind of bland. They are raised for profit & very long shelf life.
Flavor is the first thing eliminated in modern food. Season it to death.
Modern apples sold in chain stores in the north east stores have almost no flavor. But they are kept in giant buildings for years refrigerated.
everythingthatswims reply :
On 12/26/2014 at 9:35 PM, whitwolf said:I guess I'm showing my age here. I grew up eating Bluefish and everytime I go home(coastal NC) I always try to smoke a bluefish or 10. I like them fried also but a smoked Bluefish Is hard to beat.
I may have to get my dad to smoke some blues...He has been really into smoking fish and game for the past year or so, and with the hundreds of blues we catch each year at the beach (OBX), it would be worth a shot.
RoLo reply :
I used to play the drums, but never tried eating one 
Kidding aside, the outward appearance of a fish offers no insight to its value as tablefare.
Though I've never eaten freshwater drum, I have eaten plenty of saltwater drum.
I'm referring of course to the "red drum", better known as a 'redfish' (mighty fine).
I've never eaten a "black drum", which is the other saltwater drum, but their flesh is ill-reputed.
Roger
RoLo reply :
On 12/24/2014 at 4:29 AM, Chris S said:unless it's Labrador
I'm sure that went over many heads 
Roger
BammerBass reply :
Hmm guess based on a lot of the responses, it is not a good idea overall. Given whst they eat, that makes me wary. They like mollusks and things like that a lot, and those srr notorious for being major anaphylactic reaction induces, and given what I went through this past summer with allergic reactions, id be afraid to try it. If the fish has eaten mollusks, then there is a chance of having a reaction to eating the fish that ate it, so I guess nay on drum.
scaleface reply :
I have eaten freshwater drum a few times with mixed results. The smaller the better. Sometimes they were quite good sometimes they were quite bad. I ate a little one freshly caught over a camp fire , impaled on a stick. It was surprisingly tasty .
toufiq reply :
I caught 5 freshwater drums 2 weeks ago and brought home one 10 lb to taste for the first time. I fried, baked and made curry out of the meat. The meat was hard when I cut them and became harder after cooking. I did not like any of the three recipe I made out of it. The worst fish I ate was that one. I will never try again any kind of drum not only fresh water drum.
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