Prepare your grill to to a high heat. Filet redfish while leaving skin and scales on. Make a marinade of olive oil, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, dried thyme, garlic salt, and juice of 4 lemons. Rub the marinade into the flesh side of the filets. Melt the butter until it's soft and mix in the juice of the remaining lemons and the chopped parsley.
This can make them challenging to cook, but the Gulf anglers’ technique of redfish on the half shell is the answer. You fillet the fish, but leave the skin and scales on. You do this with redfish because the scales on a drum of any color, red or black, are big and tough.
At many of the higher end restaurants in New Orleans you’ll find BBQ fish on the half shell on the menu. BBQ fish? Huh? In fact what this is is a filet of fish with the skin and scales lefts on that is seasoned with lots of butter and herbs and grilled over open flame, and don’t worry there’s no BBQ sauce.
Try it with any large, bass-like fish: largemouth bass, snapper, grouper, big black seabass or sheepshead, and of course black and red drum. This recipe is designed for large fish, originally the redfish of the Gulf States.