Well there has been a thread or two on this topic ..... so I took one
for the "
team" ............. and ate a
sheephead!
We had a
sheephead from Saturday that would have probably died so instead of leaving it
for the sea gulls, I figured I'll eat pretty much anything once.
I filletted
the fish late saturday night, so it had been dead
for awhile.
The flesh has a bit of a yellow colour, similar to pike, but also had I thin layer of red flesh next to
the skin. It had no fishy smell at all. I trimmed off
the dark red flesh and then soaked
the fillets in milk
for about an hour.
I cut
the fillet into 1" strips. I used Cronzy's Batter and Breading Mix to coat
the fish then fried in Canola oil, until golden.
I also cooked up some walleye, so I would have something else to eat if
the sheephead was terrible.
The Verdict ................
So far I am still alive and was not sick.
Actually it was quite good ....
the meat cooked up very firm, not really flaky, turn whiter, and was actually very mild in taste. It is not walleye or yellow perch, but I would say it is as good or better than most silver, small mouth bass I have eaten.
My wife also try some and said it was fine and would eat it again, and see does not like strong tasting foods (most venison is too gamey
for her)
It's firm texture when cooked would make
for a good poor man's lobster or shrimp or good in chowder.
Anyways there is my report. I would definitely eat it again, and I am curious to try and smaller fish that was bled out after being caught.
JimW