Fish Identification (Photo Inside)

[tomustang]

Down by the marina in Presque Isle Bay, wife caught onto a fat boy but we don't have a clue what it is, have photos with my son holding it. It's got more of a sucker mouth from what I could see.

[TerryR]

Looks kind of like a sheephead to me. I don't know what the real name of them are, sorry.

[Lake Forest Bassin]

Yeah that's what it looks like to me also. I think they are called freshwater drum, was it making any noise like a grunting or thumping sound?

[J Francho]

Drum, sheephead. They get big, and put up a fight.

[Bluebasser86]

Goo! It's a drum. Looks like it swallowed the hook, typical. I could catch one of those things out of a mud puddle in the middle of a dirt road it seems like.

[tomustang]

That's for the identification. As for any sound, there was none. When we got it up from the water he didn't flop around and was quiet, like he played dead

[clayton86]

There's tons of them things in the lake I fish they like bass jigs by the way

[basscatcher8]

They like crankbaits in the river i fish here lol

[fishingkidPA]

sheaphead

[northern basser]

We call them sheephead up here also. A friend of mine talked me into trying one that he cooked up (and he cooks them often). It was surprisingly very good! Before that I would have never dreamed of eating one and used to laugh at people that kept them. At the time he had a plate of walleye and a plate of sheephead. The texture and taste was a little different in each, but they were equally tasty.

Last summer I thought I had hooked a nice largemouth with a crankbait and it ended up being a 6lb. sheephead. The answer to someones next question is no, I didn't keep it. I don't have a livewell and didn't have a stringer with. I wish I could have kept it though.

[TerryR]

We call them sheephead up here also. A friend of mine talked me into trying one that he cooked up (and he cooks them often). It was surprisingly very good! Before that I would have never dreamed of eating one and used to laugh at people that kept them. At the time he had a plate of walleye and a plate of sheephead. The texture and taste was a little different in each, but they were equally tasty.

Last summer I thought I had hooked a nice largemouth with a crankbait and it ended up being a 6lb. sheephead. The answer to someones next question is no, I didn't keep it. I don't have a livewell and didn't have a stringer with. I wish I could have kept it though.

You actually thought it tasted good?! I ate one one time, and thought it was the most foul thing I ever ate. Almost as bad as fallfish, and that is saying something. But I have also heard they are good if you get them from someplace other than Lake Erie too, so who knows.

[clayton86]

You actually thought it tasted good?! I ate one one time, and thought it was the most foul thing I ever ate. Almost as bad as fallfish, and that is saying something. But I have also heard they are good if you get them from someplace other than Lake Erie too, so who knows.

There's actually a don't eat list for most the great lakes and there tributarys I think the sheepshead(freshwater drum) ia on that list I'm not 100% sure though but I wouldent be surprised.

[tomustang]

Regardless of taste, my wife had a blast reeling him in while using spinning gear

[Bluebasser86]

You actually thought it tasted good?! I ate one one time, and thought it was the most foul thing I ever ate. Almost as bad as fallfish, and that is saying something. But I have also heard they are good if you get them from someplace other than Lake Erie too, so who knows.

Drum are a really popular food fish around here. If you get them out of the right body of water were they eat almost nothing but crawdads they really aren't that bad and I'm not a big fan of eating fish. I wouldn't compare them to eating walleye but I'd eat a drum before I ate a catfish any day.

[TimJ]

maybe like Blue said "the right body of water"...I tried one out of Erie many years ago and NEVER since! MAYBE in a survival situation...lol

we have caught some big sheephead/drum on x-raps, tubes and hopkins. lots of fun.

[northern basser]

The one I ate was caught out of a southern MN lake. I won't eat just any fish, but I tried it because my buddy wouldn't shut up about it. If I had to choose between the walleye and the sheephead I would pick the walleye. However, the sheephead was good.

I caught some crappies out of a local lake a few years ago that tasted horrible and I love crappies. Different areas, time of year, bodies of water etc.... probably play as big a role in taste as species some times.