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What's with all the drums?

Crow Terminator

Crow Terminator

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 23, 1999
Messages
13,026
Location
McMinn County
I am not joking when I say this...but what has happened that nearly every fish I have caught in the last 2 weeks has been DRUM? Is it some kind of cycle/migration of them or something? Fished Friday and every single fish I caught was drum...about 20 something of them. Went to a different lake entirely on Saturday and it was more of the same. Drum. Drum. Drum. The only time I caught something besides a drum was in a little break of white bass busting on the surface. I've not caught a bass...crappie...not even a dang yellow bass in the last several trips. Only drum. They are fun for about 30 seconds of hard fighting...then pretty much dead weight. Are any of you guys seeing the same thing or know what is going on?
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They really group up in the winter and summer (just like most over fish). They get in the same areas as bass but I find the bass to be on top of the drum. If I am in an area that have both drum and bass, the bass will be on top of the ledge or shallower than the drum.
 
You can hear em groaning and croaking below you Especially if you're fishing out of an aluminum boat. It's a sound we all ignore but, if you ever make a conscious acknowledgment you'll hear em from now on.
Btw their otoliths are very very large if that's a thing for you.
 
Throw a crankbait on Old Hickory and you are almost guaranteed to catch one. I've caught more in the last 2 years than I've caught in the previous 20 years.
 
TheLBLman said:
How do you fix them? Do they taste anything like bass?

You should put on a TNdeer DRUM Supper! :cool:
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Knowing my luck, if I were to set out and TRY to catch them, I would probably not catch any at all. I was actually looking up how to NOT catch them and was surprised by the number of articles and videos with catch/clean/cook for drum. They may be really good to eat but I can't get past them being a drum. It's the same for tilapia for me...I know it's in just about every restaurant menu out there but nope...won't be ordering that any time soon.
 
FLTENNHUNTER1 said:
Looks like a DT10 or 12...
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That particular one is a Norman Deep Little N. Pradco bought Norman out several yrs and they pretty much gutted their whole crankbait lines and cut out a ton of their colors. That green/white flake is one of my favorite colors and it has gotten hard to find. The Rapala DT series has too thin of bills to use for banging off rocks and such...they break too easy. I only use them for open water suspended fish. If I'm in an area with rocks and fishing for reaction bites, those Norman's and Bomber Fat Free Shads are my goto.
 
Just like most fish, the big ones aren't gonna be as good as the smaller ones but there's nothing wrong with eating drum. I had some buddies come visit from eastern NC one year to do some bow fishing and we shot several drum one night. We cl anger them and they took'em home to try because there are no freshwater drum in eastern NC. They said they were good and pretty close to a red drum in taste just a little more bony.
 
One way to fix them is "poor man's shrimp."
Filet them and cut into small strips. Cook in crab boil and let cool. Another way is to filet and fry just like any other fish. We ate a lot and fhem when I was growing up.
The majority of the drum family, all but one, are saltwater fish. Redfish, whiting, and sea trout are all in the drum family.
 
Crow Terminator said:
That particular one is a Norman Deep Little N. Pradco bought Norman out several yrs and they pretty much gutted their whole crankbait lines and cut out a ton of their colors. That green/white flake is one of my favorite colors and it has gotten hard to find. The Rapala DT series has too thin of bills to use for banging off rocks and such...they break too easy. I only use them for open water suspended fish. If I'm in an area with rocks and fishing for reaction bites, those Norman's and Bomber Fat Free Shads are my goto.
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I am impressed in your ability to go out into this extreme heat weather to pursue your passion. Me, not so much. I'll pick it back up in the next couple months…
 
I do eat them but I do not catch them much except for under the dams but I mainly only fish Melton Hill... I have blackened them like a red fish and thought they were very good.... I guess if more people started to eat them it might help with the population... I will have to try what Biggun4214 said and try them in crab boil...
 
m_allison71 said:
People call them a trash fish. The first time I caught one, nobody had told me. They are a little boney, but cooked right they don't taste bad at all.
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I no longer believe in the adage of trash fish. Everything can be good table fare if you know how to clean and cook it.

Caught a big Bonito in Gulf shores years ago. Deck hand said I should just toss it back. It was a little trouble getting the blood line out, but it was fine to eat and was at least 10lb of filets.
 
DeerCamp said:
I no longer believe in the adage of trash fish. Everything can be good table fare if you know how to clean and cook it.

Caught a big Bonito in Gulf shores years ago. Deck hand said I should just toss it back. It was a little trouble getting the blood line out, but it was fine to eat and was at least 10lb of filets.
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Gross!
 
They hit a Bomber Long 24A in the blue/chrome color so much that I had to change out hooks twice because they mangled them. One of the 12 pounders broke my injection molded rod holder from the torque it put on it and the rod. They fight fight hard right as you hook into them...make you think you've got something big and good on the other end. Then they just give up.
 

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