I will fry the rib cage and then watch people fight over it. Nothing wrong with a fried drum.

It's really good eating but I usually throw them back anyway

I would eat them if I was on Naked and Afraid and needed protein to keep from starving to death. If I eat them some poor game fish doesnt get the opportunity to bite my hook with a chunk of that badboy on it and that is not ecologically sound assuming I used cut bait which I dont.

Years ago i was on a camping trip at Lake Ouachita in Arkansas. We were catching fish on square billed crank baits that we thought might be walleye. We filleted them and cooked them up and had an excellent dinner. the next day we asked the locals and were told that they were chain pickerel, and that they weren't fit to eat. If given the chance, i would eat them any day.

Had a chance to catch and later have cooked for us, several 15-20 lb. drum, carp , buffalo, just a load of rough fish caught in a net.
This was from a gravel pit , close to the Trinity River.
We gave most of them away, and kept 2 or 3 of the smaller fish.
She had a large pot of grease, she cut 'em up in 2" chunks, dropped 'em in , and when they floated, were done.
Delicious.
Good stuff !

I'm good!

How do you not know the difference between walleye and pickerel?

I have eaten fried drum years ago and it was actually good.

The first fish court bouillon I ever ate was Gasper goo(freshwater drum) its good. if you have eaten red drum(salt water) no real difference.

I like them fileted, baked with a little lemon pepper. Very tasty.

You can get a nice size filet off a 7 pounder.

Some guys think ducks and geese taste good.

When working for a family farm on the coast, I had to go and clean out the owner's mom's attic. When I finished she asked me what she could do for me. I said I'd love some chicken and dumplings.

Later that evening her grandson showed up with a pot, in it a goose cooked with dumplings. It was friggin' awesome. I can still taste it 25 years later.

Now the ONLY duck I ever ate that was any good was one of those white pekin ducks. Again working a family farm in the Piney woods, a neighbor had these white ducklings. He tied their mouths to a funnel several times a day and using a ramrod, poured and pushed food down their gullets till they almost busted. After six weeks of this he cooked one of them in the oven. He put the cooked duck on a cast iron plate with a half dome lid and a wheel crank on top like an old timey valve handle and cranked the dome down onto the duck. The juice came out of the duck and ran down a trough into a gravy boat. He then took off the dome top and cut the duck meat, placed it on the plate and covered it in the gravy.

Also a very, very tasty meal.

Last story...a buncha Coonies come to fish when I was running LOD in Danbury. They seen a bunch of "pooly doo" ducks and had me get them a shotgun. One shot got ten ducks. Then I got a big pot from a local eatery and a case of "Dixie" beer. They cooked them nasty things and stunk up the entire place. Not the nastiest thing I ever ate, but close.