I've been trying to learn some of the lakes around here at my new place in Missouri. When I fish unfamiliar water one of my "go to" lures is a Mepps Black Fury. I've put a lot of bass fillets in the freezer since I got my boat registered in early June. Three days ago I was fishing the Mingo River and I got a hard hit and it was a fighter. It was a drum that went about 5 pounds. I normally toss those back because I've always thought they were trash fish unworthy of the dinner table. This one, however, hoovered my last Black Fury way down into it's throat so I cut the line and put it in the livewell. When I processed it I had to do a lot of trimming to get the red meat off and ended up with two pretty, clean strips of fillet. Normally I like my fish southern fried, but today I decided to try smoking/grilling some on the Pit Boss pellet grill. We marinated the drum and two decent bass fillets, smoked them for 45 minutes and then cranked the grill up and cooked them at 350 for a few minutes. I never thought I would say this, but the drum fillets put the bass fillets to shame. They were absolutely delicious. I need to go drum fishing.
I caught one in middle school and had no idea what it was. It was my first time river fishing and the only fish I caught that day. Threw the ol boy back though
caught a big one on Lake Barkley a couple years back along with some bass. Beautiful hues, had to look it up as I hadn't seen them before. As others noted there's a ton of bones but the flavor was very good. We just grilled them all in aluminum foil with lemon and spices
