I was in the Twin Cities area of MN visiting family this past week and was able to sneak away one evening and got in a few hours of fishing the mighty Mississippi River. It was my first time ever fishing he Mississippi River so I was excited for the chance to catch a few new species to add to the life list. I was able to add two new species, freshwater drum/sheepshead and black bullheads, neither of which are found here in the east. I also caught a few other species I have caught before. I was very impressed with how hard the freshwater drum fought. The largest one I caught was maybe 14"-15" and 1.5 pounds but fought like a tank. I didn't keep any fish, but if freshwater drum taste anything like their saltwater cousins, I wonder why anglers think of them as trash fish?

That second pic looks very similar to saltwater black drum we catch occasionally when targeting redfish ( red drum).

They get huge on the flats, must be very closely related, b/c they look almost identical

Saw this right after I asked you what you caught.

Always cool to add a new species or two. The drum fight nicely don't they? Surprised you don't have them. Thought they were native just about everywhere.

Freshwater Drum are decent eating but have to be iced immediately. This is why they are not marketed, flavor can break down too fast

CJ, it took dang close to a year to get Omaha to keep his eyes open for fish pictures. How 'bout a smile???

Yes, freshwater drum, red drum, black drum, Atlantic croaker and spot are all closely related. I will have to try some freshwater drum the next time I am out that way and compare it to their saltwater cousin.

I caught one while striper fishing on Lake Texoma. It put up a good fight. I thought I had a decent striper but after reeling up in 80 feet of water. I didn't recognize it at first.

Never knew there was any such fish in freshwater, and I'm glad to see it.

Not like a sheepshead at all though, from what I know.

Just look at the fish Sunil!

Take it for what it's worth but I had a charter boat captain on Lake Erie tell me when he worked on a trawler the sheepshead went to McDonalds for their fillet of fish sanwiches. He didn't seem to be pulling my leg.

This was back in the 90's if it matters.

Well, red drum their close relative were almost fished out they taste so darn good. It wasn't until extremely strict fishing regulations did they start coming back. I wonder if they just got a bad reputation and it has unfairly stuck? If you gave someone freshwater drum and told them it was something else, they may be more open to eating it? I caught fish in the 12"-15" range and they seemed like they would produce a decent fillet had I kept them... Not really sure I would want to eat a bottom fish out of the Mississippi to eat though. Maybe it isn't as badly polluted with contaminants as I think it is?

About 10 years ago I was fishing on the Gasconade River drinking ice cold Budweiser. Something kept stealing the crawdads off my hook. I could not hook whatever it was for nothing. Finally after about 10 empty hooks I decided I would just drink beer and enjoy the scenery. I grabbed the biggest crawdad in the bucket. Not sure why we even put a crawdad in the bucket that big. It was a small lobster and mean, but the beer was tasting extremely good at this point. I tossed that thing out thinking nothing would mess with it being so big and interrupt the atmosphere I was enjoying. That crawdad had to 5". Boy was I wrong. One of the best fights I ever fought but after about 10 minutes he gave up. Went from peeling line to reeling right to the boat. Wish I would of had a camera and scale on the river with me that night. I would have let him go. But I ate him instead. Ended up being an 18 pounder. The drum are are pretty thick on the Gasconade River ranging mainly in the 2 pound range. Crazy night.

Awesome fish! I'd like to see drum offered for pond stocking. I am not sure they could reproduce in a pond with the way they reproduce. Could make them an easy species to manage under pond conditions.

Another cool thing about them is each one comes with 2 souvenirs. They are calcium deposits inside the drums head. They are called lucky stones. People make beautiful jewelry with them.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lucky-Stone-Jewelry/180444450449

See? Good things do happen when you drink beer.

A few things about the freshwater drum. We catch them often around here. To me, they are possibly the most underrated freshwater fish. They regularly hit lures and baits, anything you throw at them. They fight much harder than a largemouth of the same or even larger size. And, as previously pointed out, if prepared properly, make excellent table fare. Their bad rep might be due to their shape, especially their mouth. It's pointed down so people might automatically assume they're some bottom feeding trash fish.

I believe we had discussed drum in a pond setting and, in theory, should work. Floating eggs (only freshwater fish that does this I believe) should result in not too much recruitment. I don't think we ever found anyone willing to intentionally stock them yet. They would have to be caught and transferred. I think Travis confirmed there was no source for them.

Another thing, I think Bruce mentioned this when we were talking about them maybe a couple years ago, but when cleaning a freshwater drum, their otiliths are commonly used to make jewelry.

Here's a goofy smile for you Sunil!

Always known as trash fish up here. That's because they always got in the way of the more desirable fish like YP and WE.

I see some references to them on fishing reports, and how fun they are to catch. Caught many myself off the pier's on Lake Michigan, but never target them.
Round Goby's are the new trash fish!

Considered trash fish around here as well...likely as mentioned due to the mouth. I've caught a couple lake fishing over the years...heck of a fight. Next one I catch I'll be finding out how it tastes.

I've found the ones in the damed lakes around me taste awful compared to the clear water streams like the Gasconade River and Big Piney River for example. The ones out of the Lake of Ozark's taste like dirt. Maybe pollution. Not sure. The lake ones for reason are more rubbery textured also.

I would like to get some for the pond and try. Closest place that would have them is probably 6-8 hours from me. Long trip to just get some drum, but with as hard fighting as they were, might be worth the trip in my mind.

I wonder if you fed them pellets if the taste wouldn't improve.

They are tough to keep alive. They will die in the live well. Seems like they do better on a stringer. The gasconade is only 6 miles from my house and Big Piney 12. I will grab a few next week and throw them in pond. My concerns are they might not like the pond environment. I usually catch them in flowing water on rivers. Im guessing they will be floating quick in my small 1/4 acre pond. Pics to come next week if the river don't flood. Rain in forecast everyday through next Friday.

I know I tear them up when I run Juggs on Carlyle lake they'll take a jugg skiing for a quarter mile before they slow down..I always throw them back but they look like they'd have alot of meat on them I always heard they were real boney and a PITA to clean so I've always considered them trash fish aswell.. Cool looking fish though..

Way easier to clean than a gar. Lol! No they clean easy. Not that boney, but we gig sucker every winter, eat them and they are the boniest. Many people consider them trash fish also. A fish scorer, some cold beer, and friends will make this best freezing to death experience ever. Riverside fish fry anybody. Nothing like the lights and spear running the river at night. Spooky! Almost gigged a beaver one time.

My new mission, to raise the drum from trash fish to beloved game fish! HAHA

Things could get interesting.

I've been trying to convince people of this for years now. Caught my first on ultra light tackle targeting stocker trout at a local lake. Had no idea what it was, but the fight was incredible. We have friends who have a very large fish fry every year. A major contribution to this is the freshwater drum. Next to walleye, you cannot tell the difference. And I think the Nebraska record is twice the size of a largemouth.

While we do catch them more frequently in moving water, I regularly catch them in rather turbid water in a city lake. Very shallow, no flow. Other than drum, only one bass has been caught from this area. I've transported in unaerated buckets and kept them in aquariums with no problems.

I think what this is telling us is we don't know enough about them.

Maybe the smaller sized fish are easier to transport and adapt easier than the larger ones?

The first one I kept in a bucket and handled more than I should was 17 inches. Released into an aquarium very much still alive. Eventually released it back into the water I caught it.

Im wondering if the hard fight they give hurt them similar to what others have stated about HSB. Almost every time they grab and run. Then fight to exhaustion. Then they give up and come right in. Maybe this is why they are sometimes hard to keep alive. Maybe they Preety much fight to death in warmer temps.

Jwwann, you might be onto something. With most drum I catch, once landed, their fight is gone. They speed off quickly when released, but don't flop around like some species (bass) when trying to get a photo opp.

Here is a pic of a freind cooking one up riverside. They are delicious like this. Skin peels right off and meat flakes away from the bone. You just have a fish skeleton left. I'm not that hard core. I need some salt and pepper or lemon pepper. He says that takes away the flavor.

Do you still remove the red line like you have to with pike and white bass when you do this?

No we ate them whole like this. I seasoned with salt and pepper only.

Interesting. I have heard two necessary things about freshwater drum, one already mentioned. Must keep them cool. Get them on ice immediately. And also to remove that red line that tends to make the meat taste bad if kept intact. Do these two things and you have a very walleyesque fillet.

Omaha, I had some large CC that were prepared that way, the reddish colored meat was removed before they were cooked on some and not on others. The CC had a completely different (better) taste on the pieces where the reddish colored meat was removed than from the pieces where it was left on the fillet.

Great experiment Scott and exactly what I've heard as well. To my knowledge, I've never eaten fish without the red meat removed.

Intentional typo, funny guy?

Better than the other fat finger typo that I've changed before I hit the submit button!

I've found the smaller ones around 2 or 3 pounds you don't really have a problem with dirt vein. That big one I had to remove the dirt vein while cleaning.

I wish I could find the picture but my uncle cought what was the Canadian record back in the late 80's in the Bay of Quinty (a northern bay of Lake Ontario) and it was 32" long and weighed 26Lbs. At the time we were fishing for Walley and thought we had hooked into a Chinook Salmon that may had wondered into the bay in early summer. The fight lasted over an hour and to this day was one of the hardest fights I have yet to see with a rod/reel! I will try to dig up the picture if I can find it at my fathers.

Ryan

Would love to see that picture Ryan!

Me too!

+1 on removing the red meat. I think it makes the fish taste better and it also cooks better IMO.

Well every river around me is flooded to max. Gonna be a while before my drum experiment.

The Gaconade River is finally coming down and clearing up. They have had all the accesses closed due to the historical flood. Most accesses are going to have to be replaced completely. New all time record. Maybe I can get out this week and catch a few drum to get this experiment started. By the way what is the acronym for drum on forum.

I'm going with drum

FWD or drum

Gallop, FWD would work for you or you could go with Red Drum in your area. I have seen acclimated Black drum into pure fresh in a freinds Giant aquarium. It is doing well ..

I had considered adding these to a pond we had since it was not worth much anyway and one of them was full of Crawfish and the other mussels. I think they would love each of them.

But last year we had the drought and I found out how shallow the pond really was so they would have died anyway.

They are pretty hard to keep alive, but I think if you had a nice stock tank with an agitator on it they may be ok for at least 1-3 hours.

This is still a plan of mine as I would like to add 2-5 to my small pond we feed just to see if they would take to feed, also I think they could help RES out with the snails, and I would not think you would see any recruitment in a pond with any other fish in it as they would enjoy the floating treats as a snack.

Only in Mo !! LMAO

We always gigged suckers in the spring, when they were up running on the riffles.....full moon fun. Canned em', and used them like you would Salmon, in fish patties.

And that's right here in the Hoosier state.

Please tell me you did not get them from White River

During the spring run, suckers will migrate up into smaller, shallower creeks to spawn if conditions permit. Many of those feeder creeks eventually fed into the west fork of the White River, so it's certainly possible that some of those suckers called that river home.

Back then, being squeamish meant going hungry. And still today, many members of my family continue to eat fish from that river regularly. Were it not for having our own ponds, I would also.

Did you read were Spencer got in trouble for directly dumping their waste into the rive without treating it , as ole Ernest P Whorl would say eeeeeewwwwwww haha LOL, ya I know a few fellas who eat what they catch there, and we have a back an forth good natured debate over it, their reasoning nature cleans itself, mine, its in my head and I cant but think about it LOL

Yeah, that caused quite a stir....the fellow that was responsible has done business with me for years....lot of "good ole boys" looking the other way, if the truth were known

And now we have the Discovery Channel showcasing our finest every week, in the name of "reality television"....Embarrassing.

By the way....one of my uncles that lives over by you just left here, he's hitting the sandbar on the White River for a little fishing tonight.

Yeah the Porter Ridge Fiasco, man how far can they stretch the truth, my sister lives over off Porter Ridge