Does black drum taste any good?

Puppy drum - in the 16-22" range are excellent. Even better in S. Mississippi they are not considered game fish - no limits on size or creel.

I like better than redfish.

Drum is fine.

As stated previously above, excellent eating. They do get "wormy" at 25 inches plus, but so do big specks. I tend to throw them back at the 30 inch or larger range not because of the worms, but because I usually end up having to use a damn hacksaw to get through that stiff bone in filleting.

In fact, though, there was a stink around LA a year or so ago when it was revealed that some restaurants were serving black drum but advertising as redfish. I know this for quite some time, but I say who gives a shite. While a redfish is a beautiful, gold and at times tealish mixed in color, and a black drum is plain ugly, black drum is a very pretty white meat, while redfish is bloodier.

In other words, deep fry or marinate with lemon, red pepper and salt and cook on grill. ENJOY!

Yes they are good to eat, the guide you had was a moron at best. When they get really big you need to look for and extract worms in the flesh. It doesn't take a lot of effort to do so, and a pair of hemostats or small sized needle(small in the size of the pincer portion of them) nose pliers can be used to do it.

Fine of you know how to cook em basically a redfish

I kept 15 last weekend and ate them all

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I've been, we've caught a good bit of black drum and just tossed them back since the guy that took us said they were no good.

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People used to think they were no good and you could get them cheap in the seafood dept. Now, they cost as much as speckled trout.

like others have said, the 16-22(maybe 24) inch fish are great. a very white meat that is great for grilling or frying. I'd put it up against all other inshore fish in that size range.