RE: Sheepshead tips....
2008/07/17 18:43:27
(permalink)
The freshwater drum, also known as the sheepshead, thunderpumper, bubbler, grinder, white perch (maybe they'd taste better if you called 'em that), gaspergou, goo, croaker, silver bass or grunt, is a deep-bodied silvery fish with a hump-backed appearance and a range extending from the Great Lakes to Guatemala. It is a bottom-feeding species with a diet of immature insects, crayfish, minnows and mollusks. They even eat live mussels and snails, crushing the shells in the gizzard. Most fishermen use earthworms or crayfish as bait, but you can also catch them using other natural or artificial baits or even wet flies. The freshwater drum is an important commercial and sport fish in the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, so apparently a lot of people do eat them. Commercial harvest in the Mississippi has been over 300,000 pounds each year in the past decade. The problem may be that you don't know how to cook drums. They lose their flavor quickly if they aren't filleted and put on ice promptly, but putting the live fish on ice is another way to preserve them until you get home.