What's the best way to cook them?

… they gonna have a strong oily fish taste no matter what you do

… of course a Cajun likely to be in here shortly to tell me I’m wrong lol

I'm with Savell on this one...but the Frenchmen here will tell you they're good for "poor man's lobster".
I heartily disagree with them, they are better soybean farmers than they are food critics LOL

The folks I know who do cook them seem to make a gravy with them..of course, that's typical for most cajun dishes..lol

I scale, gill, season and grill. Haven’t found anyone who isn’t crazy for them done that way.

Nope, LOL....I am not eating something that is looking at me as I do it.

The girls and I caught a bunch this last summer from the river, and I chunked up the fillets and used them in gumbo. Everyone loved it.

I fry them like any other fish. Ive always enjoyed it, so have the folks I've fed it to.

Never heard of such a critter. Is there any other names they go by?

Freshwater drum or sheepshead. We always called them welfare walleyes growing up.

Gotcha, thank you!

Place fish on a fresh cut poplar 2x8.. cover with sawdust.. bake at 400 for 1 hour.. remove from oven, remove fish and sawdust from 2x8.. throw fish away.. eat the board and sawdust..

only way I ever had them. They were good. Mild white flaky fish.

Sheepshead…….. we catch a lot of them around here. Not popular….. until I see guys lining up to eat them—I’ll pass. Used to use them for turtle bait and coon bait though….

They get to be pretty good sized around here and are fun to catch …..

Had some when I was kid and best I remember it was good. I catch so many while crappie fishing on the river I wouldn't mind to utilize them every once in a while.

Growing up, we would always bait our trot lines with crawdads after the morning catch to target the drum. We fried them up like any other fish and enjoyed them.

We was poor folk. The Gasconade is spring fed where we live and they were good eating. The ones caught of the Osage had a much different taste and were fed to the hogs.

Father would bring in a few big ones occasionally. Take the backstraps out and chunk up to boil. Then chill and serve with cocktail sauce. Tasted like boiled sheephead with cocktail sauce.