Sheepshead fish.

[LBrandt]

Anyone ever tried eating it. Watched a lot of vidio's on cleaning and eating the fish but there was a lot of trailer houses in the background and a lot of southern drawl involved in the explaination. Just saying.

 

[bigcatpike]

Yup most people call them drum in ND. I have eaten them out of the Red. They aren’t bad as they don’t have a fishy taste but the fillets have a bit of a rubbery texture. I don’t keep them as there are so many more fish in ND that I would rather eat. They also make good cutbait for catfish if goldeye or suckers aren’t available.

 

[LBrandt]

They are fun to catch, they are one fighting SOB until you get them out of the water then they hardly move. Wife and I must have caught a doz. of them last Thursday. Most weight about 5 to 8 # I would guess.

 

[Twitch]

I believe [MENTION=193]MSA[/MENTION] has said they are delicious if I’m remembering correctly

 

[MSA]

Yup, I think they're nummy

 

[sl1000794]

I speared many a saltwater sheepshead that looked like this while diving off the California coast. This is not me just a pic from the interweb.

 

[SupressYourself]

They are ugly bastards, but fun to catch. Pretty good to eat, but they go downhill as the water gets warmer. Bleed them out and let the fillets sit overnight in the fridge in water. Deep fry and enjoy.

 

[KDM]

Been known to fry up a few sheepies in my day as well. Beer batter and deep fried is very not icky with the leftover beers. Cut the red meat off the fillets like you should do with most fish and "thems good eats!"

 

[LBrandt]

I got a old cooler to take along next Wed. when we fish that lake again and plan on keeping a few to try. Going to put them on ice right away when we catch them.

 

[gatorbaiter]

"Discussed" this topic with a Lake Erie walleye guide. He said nobody keeps them because they're bad. I said,"Have you tried them?" He said no. Typical response. They have a interesting sharp odor when cleaning them but that's all. Keep them alive or on ice, clean off the red meat and they taste just fine.

 

[Rowdie]

- - - Updated - - -

I tried one a couple summers ago after hearing how good they were. Took as best care of fillet as possible, but wont clean another one.

 

[tikkalover]

I've eaten them out of the tailrace, thought they were good. I think the trick is they need to come out of COLD water and as mentioned above no red meat and keep the on ice before and after cleaning. A couple guys were cleaning quite a few at Parshall bay Friday afternoon. They were going to cook them up for supper that evening.

 

[rhino2003]

I've heard they taste good. I've only took the rocks from their heads.

 

[Allen]

Back in the 80s, we commercially fished Sak and Audubon, drum were one of the premium non-game species we were allowed to keep and sell. They were worth more per pound than anything else we kept other than catfish. We also sold goldeye, carp, buffalo, and pretty much anything back then that was considered a non-game species.

All I know is that commercial fishing ruined me on pretty much every species we were allowed to keep.

 

[Vollmers]

I think the toughest part for me would be the "pointing & whispering" as a guy carried them to the cleaning station.

 

[Allen]

I think the toughest part for me would be the "pointing & whispering" as a guy carried them to the cleaning station.

Yeah, I've been guilty of that. A number of years ago I ran into a group not from around here that were cleaning a large mess of "white bass". They looked amazingly just like goldeye to me, but they were so tickled with their success that day that I just couldn't break the news to them.

 

[Lycanthrope]

Yeah, I've been guilty of that. A number of years ago I ran into a group not from around here that were cleaning a large mess of "white bass". They looked amazingly just like goldeye to me, but they were so tickled with their success that day that I just couldn't break the news to them.

Those goldeye are fun little bastards to catch also, always put up a nice fight!

 

[MuleyMadness]

You guys like fish alot more than I do. The only thing i do is drop the F bomb because they usually fight like hell just like a walleye.

 

[NodakBuckeye]

Texture is closer to shrimp or lobster, meat does not really flake. We dropped some strips in heavily salted, boiling water and took off heat for about 15 minutes, drained and chilled and ate them cold, dipped in cocktail sauce or melted butter. They are good blackened like their saltwater cousins.

Put in ice as soon as you catch them and keep in mind the bigger ones are a bit more chewier than the smaller.

 

[Retired-Guy]

Caught many or sheepshead in the bay at Pensacola, Florida. Even though being walleye aficionados (snobs), wife and I thought they were pretty damn tasty! I doubt the ones in ND are the same sub-species and have never tried to eat one.