Eating sheepshead/drum

I heard that they are good eating. I caught a small one and cut it up. It was fine. Not great but better than tilapia. Any thoughts on bigger fish? Maybe brine?

Who needs Turkey when you have Sheephead!

I fished with a fella from China who said drum were the best tasting freshwater fish. I didn't argue, he has 3 doctorates, speaks 9 languages, has fished on 5 continents and probably knew what he was talking about. 

Just to make sure that no one misunderstood my post, you don’t soak your fillets in vinegar overnight or anything...

Once you’re done rinsing your fillets, and have your fillets in a bowl of water, add a few ounces of vinegar, and swirl the fish around with your fingers, you don’t have to do it for very long, maybe a minute or so.

You will notice the sliminess go  away almost immediately.

After that, dump the water in the bowl out, and rinse your fillets again with fresh water.

Once you’ve rinsed all the vinegar off, place them in a bowl of water, with a generous amount of ice on top, and put them in the refrigerator overnight.

This will even firm up crappies caught in 80° water.

Im sure they would leave a mark

Caught this dogfish/ bowfin on the Wolf this summer north of Red Banks. Didnt know at the time they are good to eat if eaten fresh.

Phat, is that a northern you caught? I would feel so bad cutting one open and having a couple ducklings like that spill out. Goes to show just how ravenous they are. If that is one you caught, do you have any before pics?

I'll have to try that vinegar trick. I don't tend to deal with soft/mushy fillets, but I'm also keeping them on ice and then rinsing the fillets in ice water. I think I'll take some advice offered and use a few bowls for first and last rinse.  

Hope the fish are biting on Saturday so I can try this out!

The vinegar information is interesting and I will have to give a try.  

In the past when I have pulled fish out of freezer that might be past there prime.  After trimming anything that looks freezer burnt.  I soak fish in buttermilk over nite in refrig in glass container, never metal.   I don't understand why it fixes the fish but it does.  Fishy smell is gone and flesh is firmed up.  8 hours does it.  Quick rinse, straight to breading and fryer.

Pike too!     CARPIO 

I cooked up the sheephead I kept while with my daughter the other day.  She really liked it and I thought it was good too.  The fish was very flaky but not too soft like a crappie.  I'll eat one again if it's not too big or not too small.

Makes sense to be about the vinegar.  No different than pickling fish, the vinegar firms up the meat.  Pickled fish aren't cooked and the meat is firm.

Vinegar?    Absolutely!   CARPIO 

I was going to comment on the vinegar thing but I dont remember if my dad soaked them straight or with water, but he did it overnight. I know  '' now'' it could not have been straight. When I was a kid we would camp at Devils Lake and catch them in Lake Wisconsin and, under the power dam in Baraboo next to 113, and thats what he did while we were there, and we would eat them the next day. I never hesitated to eat them straight up either. We used to get them out of the Wolf in the fall striper run too.  

You don’t need to do anything special to a Sheephead back strap. 

My wife is a very picky fish eater, one bite of a fishy fish, and she is done with the fish fry - and she will eat sheeps any day of the week!  For me, white bass are quite fishy, I don’t much care for them.

The above said, the vinegar trick is a good one!  

When I get done filleting my fish (doesn’t matter what kind, Walleye, Crappie, Gills), I placed them in a bowl, and rinse them well with water.  Then I dump in an ounce or two of vinegar in the bowl, and the sliminess disappears in seconds.  After the vinegar, I rinse them again and place them in a bowl with water, along with some ice on top - it firms them up unbelievably well.

I have never tried them but have cleaned a lot of them for participants of Fishing Has No Boundaries'. The next time I get some I will give  it a try. I had an old guy many years ago tell me to soak whitebass in a bowl of cold water and a cap full of vinegar for a 1\2 hr. before freezing or cooking and the filets will become firm and no fishy taste. Friends could not tell difference between walleye and whitebass. I will have to try this on some sheep.  Jim

My friend Brian swears they are as good a white bass or walleye if you only take the backstrap and keep them cold like others say.  He likes to soak them in milk overnight as well.  Him and his family eat quite a few of them, so I think he knows what he's talking about.  I haven't tried them myself, but I might sometime at his place.