Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Looking to buy Freshwater drum fingerlings

Anyone have a good source?

Anthony, welcome to Pond Boss. I'm not sure there is a real source for freshwater drum yet. The species has been discussed occasionally. They are the one species, that I know of, whose eggs float before hatching. Interesting tidbit when considering how they might do with other species present.

Here's a link of some discussion.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=348773&page=1

I visited the texas parks and wildlife red drum hatchery in freeport, tx last year and it was pretty much awesome. TPWD stocks red drum in the gulf but also in some freshwater (powerplant) lakes. Even the saltwater drum can live in freshwater.

The guide told me they only release a fraction of what the hatchery is capable of producing every year because the wild population is so strong. He said TPWD has tried to raise the catch limit for them but the local fisherman ask them not to. You get 1 tag with your saltwater fishing license but the guide told me if you send your used tag into TPWD they will send you a new one as many times as you want.

Sorry that is so far off of topic, and TPWD wont give or sell to private people. if you do find a source for drum please let me know. It sounds like an interesting and fun aquaponic/aquaculture experiment.

Now there's a new one. I'm sorry to say that I don't have an source, but I hope you can come up with something.

Welcome to the forum.

I've always wanted to get my hands on freshwater drum. I think they're one of, if not the most under rated freshwater gamefish out there.

They are not native to my area and because they're not a respected gamefish, they were never introduced like do many other species have been. The closest place to catch some is about 2.5 hours away. It's tempting to make a collecting trip.

Found this with some interesting info:

http://aqua.ucdavis.edu/DatabaseRoot/pdf/323FS.PDF

They actual pretty fair tasting as well. I prefer the 5-10lb drums and batter them like I would sea food fish with more a crunchy batter.

I've beat this drum repeatedly (pun intended), but I'll do it here again. Freshwater drum fight harder than largemouth, get bigger than largemouth, taste great if prepared properly, and hit nearly every lure you throw at them. Incredibly underrated fish for sure.

They are good at controlling snails too aren't they Travis? I think I heard they eat zebras and other snails in Lake Erie.

Would there be anything bad (to the other fish) or wrong(legally?) in taking a few from Lake Erie and putting in my pond?

I would think since they are active predators, they would consume some of your bait fish and invertebrates.

If they can or will spawn and survive in a smaller pond I'm willing to give it a try. But would have to be able to sex male/female and catch enough to see any success. I know we catch lots of them in the spring in the still water of the channel or lakes before they exit into Lake Michigan.

The kids love to catch them but they tend to wreck the snoopy and barbie poles. Apparently they hit anything but we find in the stained water of Lake Macatawa in Holland, MI (stained black from natural pigment found in the black river) they tend to hit spoons and they seem to like the bronze spoon with pink coloring or silver spoons with green coloring over any other color combination.

it is hit and miss depending on water temps. I'm sure if water temp was right and the floating eggs have hatched you could somehow net the fry....

As far as legality, it likely varies heavily by state. These days, most states likely frown heavily on bucket stocking...

I would place drum in a similar category to CC. I would be very surprised if they could pull off a successful spawn in a pond. So they will most likely be a put and take fish. They likely would learn to feed on pellets and will be predacious like CC but not quite the level of LMB. Keep their numbers reasonable, say 10-30 per acre and they likely won't affect pond dynamics much but will produce an interesting bonus fish.

It's structly illegal to move live fish from any of the Great Lakes to other body's of water due to VHS. You could also tranfer zebra mussels or other mussel with the water. Not sure if you want that. The larvae free swimming stage of mussels is so small you may not even see them.

And there are a lot of other nasty exotics in the Great Lakes including the Asian tapeworm. Yeah that's the one you've read about in India that grows and grows in the human intestine.

There's also the spiny waterflea that is worthless in an ecosystem and the list goes on and on.

Could a person hold these fish in an aquarium for a period of time to get rid of these problems? Water treatments of some sort? Or is it always impossible to know whether they carry problems until the fish are dissected? Suerely don't want those nasties in my pond!!!!!

I've read that the larval stage of mussels use the Drum as a host fish and attach themselves to the gills so you probably wouldn't see them if the fish is infested.

To go with what Cecil said, the local, state and Federal governments are pretty tenacious in their efforts to keep invasives from spreading. Here is an article about an issue in Minnesota that appreciate appeared earlier this week:
Truck Driver Cited for Transporting Zebra Muscles

These weren't even live, and he was transporting sheeting, not fish.

I'm not a fan of "bucket stocking" either. Just too many issues to take any chances. I've had enough issues with hitch hikers I've gotten from licensed dealers.

But since they are in so many reservoirs in a 200 mile swath of most of the I-35 cooridor, I would expect somebody sells them.

We sure caught a lot of them on our Pond Boss walleye fishing trip to Lake Erie last summer. Up there they call them sheepshead.

And bounce them off the back of the boat "accidentally" on the release.

That's why I thought it would be easy for me to try it. Guys I know could get them for me every time they go out. However, I will forget about it. Just not worth the chances of something going wrong.

Not worth the repercussions of getting caught, either, in my opinion.

FWIW to Anthony above, I have not had luck in finding any source for drum fry around here either.

So Michigan must be unique in causing pond owners angst about putting fish in their private pond that netted, trapped, or caught in a local stream, river or nearby pond/lake??

I see lots of posts from others in other states where they freely discuss catching bass in one lake and bringing them home (HSB in Texas for example), or many discussing various strains of shiners and minnows that are trapped or netted and brought home. Are most other state governments not against this type of thing?

I have been in touch with the head people at Michigan State DNR about what I can and can't do. I"m waiting on more details and have some questions that have not been answered yet, but so far I've been told that if it is not on the prohibited list (which is a very short list of invasive species) that I can freely stock it in my pond.

Because my pond has no inlet or outlet they have no regulations for my pond outside of the prohibited list.

Where the questions remain is how I protect my own pond from unwanted diseases/hitchihikers and how I go about finding the fish I want in my pond (such as freshwater drum if I wanted to go there).

I'm going slow with the folks at the State of MI, would like to keep very good relationships etc. I'm asking to see everything in writing etc.

I've asked to see the specific language of the law (which should be freely available online in the public record) that prohibits possessing a bluegill or bass from the lake down the road and putting it into my own pond. Perhaps that language is out there but so far they have not provided this to me.

I'll start a new thread when I have more to post, but freshwater drum is not on the prohibited species list.

This has always puzzled me. What constitutes an "outlet"? Doesn't every pond have an overflow of some sort, and wouldn't that be an outlet, in regards to fish escaping?

And then like mentioned above, you might think moving a lowly drum fish to your pond is ok, it is legal right?. Then, you are stopped and they hammer you because it is carrying an invasive species unbeknownst to you. That's where trouble comes from, both from those who think they know what they are doing and the ones that don't have a clue. I am sure even the professionals have broke laws without even knowing it, and thus start a rampage of headaches for generations to come.

Ask the DNR how they prevent the infamous waterfowl from transferring fish from one water body to another? If birds don't do it how about a water spout or tornado? I've seen a heron fly away carrying a snake and then soon drop the snake.