Fishing For Drum............

[ozark trout fisher]

Okay.... I realize this is a odd topic, but I'll go forward anyway... Am I the only one on this forum who enjoys fishing for freshwater drum every now and then? Freshly cooked, they're awful good to eat, and they readily hit both artificials and worms. What's not to like. I was just curious, cause I never hear anyone talking about them. I know many consider them a trash fish, but I think they're fun.

I catch most of mine in the Meramec below where the Bourbeuse flows in.

[smallmouthjoe]

One of my friends from work has a nice little stream by her house that I occasionally fish. Besides smallies it has drum and they are really fun to catch. Powerful fish. I've never eaten one but I would be open to it.

[ozark trout fisher]

One of my friends from work has a nice little stream by her house that I occasionally fish. Besides smallies it has drum and they are really fun to catch. Powerful fish. I've never eaten one but I would be open to it.

If you cook them the day you catch them, you'll have some very tasty, firm meat. If you freeze them, they'll still be edible, but the flavor goes way down hill.

Maybe some of the folks who meat fish for bass could switch over to this feisty creatures. Just an idea. They grow large, and fight just as hard.

[Dutch]

Soft shell craws are really good drum bait.

[esox niger]

Soft shell craws are really good drum bait.

i guess you are using bait. .. i was catcin um pretty good in the spring with a fly rod. slow crawlin a small crayfish pattern on the bottom. think you should be able to get em with clam flies too if your into that sort of thing, they got those big crusher teeth in their throat. I havent seen em around for some while, but then again havent been fishing slow on the bottom either, weedless is the way to go with the slow crawl. something to think about maybe.

[Al Agnew]

If you like blackened redfish, you'll like blackened drum...they are in the same family (the drum is the only freshwater member) and taste almost exactly alike.

Guys I know that fish for them usually use crawdad tails, still in the shell, rather than whole crawdads...don't know why.

I've caught quite a few of them while bass fishing. They are good fighters.

[hoglaw]

I posted about this a while back. There's an annual drum tournament in Smackover Arkansas called the"Drum Rodeo." It's not the sort of thing you show up to uninvited, but it's a really great time. We didn't weigh our fish because we saw much bigger ones coming up from the ramp, but we caught one about every ten minutes on eating size live crayfish. I think 35 or so pounds won it (3 fish). After the "tournament," there was a 1600lb crawfish boil. Now that's my kind of party!

[ozark trout fisher]

Yeah, you can get them on flies, no doubt about that. A woolly bugger or a leach pattern will do nicely.

[BredMan]

Okay.... I realize this is a odd topic, but I'll go forward anyway... Am I the only one on this forum who enjoys fishing for freshwater drum every now and then? Freshly cooked, they're awful good to eat, and they readily hit both artificials and worms. What's not to like. I was just curious, cause I never hear anyone talking about them. I know many consider them a trash fish, but I think they're fun.

I catch most of mine in the Meramec below where the Bourbeuse flows in.

Oh my, I thought I was the only guy that fished for drum! I've had some of the best fishing and some of the hardest fights ever with drum. My bass fishing buddy made fun of me for the longest time. He even started calling me "DrumStick" until I took him drum fishing and he hooked into a big one. He just couldn't believe the fight. That changed his tune and he now does some drum fishing too.

I fish for drum mostly in the Mississippi and use any type of a large deep diver rattling lure. Seems to work the best for me and I really get into the big ones. Big drum hang out in the channel currents along the rocked banks. I lost many lures until changing to heavy test line. Now I just bend a treble occasionally. I've had rods practically jerked out of my hands many times. I can't imagine what it would be like using a fly rod. Often wanted to try but have never done that yet.

As far as eating drum, the secret is getting them on ice. I take a large cooler with ice and toss them in the cooler the second they look like they are struggling in the live-well. I fillet them and cut all rough looking areas out including as much of any red colored meat as possible. Deep fry or even grilled.......believe me, they are good to eat and I have changed plenty attitudes about them over the past years.

[ozark trout fisher]

Oh my, I thought I was the only guy that fished for drum! I've had some of the best fishing and some of the hardest fights ever with drum. My bass fishing buddy made fun of me for the longest time. He even started calling me "DrumStick" until I took him drum fishing and he hooked into a big one. He just couldn't believe the fight. That changed his tune and he now does some drum fishing too.

I fish for drum mostly in the Mississippi and use any type of a large deep diver rattling lure. Seems to work the best for me and I really get into the big ones. Big drum hang out in the channel currents along the rocked banks. I lost many lures until changing to heavy test line. Now I just bend a treble occasionally. I've had rods practically jerked out of my hands many times. I can't imagine what it would be like using a fly rod. Often wanted to try but have never done that yet.

As far as eating drum, the secret is getting them on ice. I take a large cooler with ice and toss them in the cooler the second they look like they are struggling in the live-well. I fillet them and cut all rough looking areas out including as much of any red colored meat as possible. Deep fry or even grilled.......believe me, they are good to eat and I have changed plenty attitudes about them over the past years.

How big do you catch them?

My biggest so far was a 7 pounder from Robertsville State Park on the Meramec, on a Bomber crankbait. I bet they get bigger than that on the Mighty Mississippi.