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What's with all the drums?

megalomaniac said:
Freshwater drum and saltwater black drum are totally different creatures.

Saltwater black drum are closely related to redfish, and juvie black drum ('puppy drum') are delicious. The adults are slam full loaded with worms.

And the saltwater black drum make the freshwater drum look like babies. This was a small adult saltwater black drum... about 25lbs.
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I caught this one a few years ago in weeks bay. Even at this size they are fighters!
 
Biggun4214 said:
Maybe you should try to catch them. That way they leave your baits alone. Lol
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I told my wife I should drag my video stuff back out and try to do a drum catching video...for the same reason 😄
Terrier said:
Someday soon, you'll wish the drum were biting like they are now when the time comes when nothing is biting.
;)
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I've never know of a time when something wasn't biting.
 
My wife had one on this morning that was the biggest drum I had ever seen. She dropped her rod tip when I went to net it and put slack in her line and poof, it was gone. I've been catching them up to 15 lbs and the one she had on dwarfed those. I bet it was 30+ lb. But today was a better day for stuff besides drum. Caught Smallies, largemouth, white bass, and some 5 to 8 lb stripers. She had something take off like a rocket and nearly spooled her reel. I'm assuming it was a bigger striper. It came off without us ever seeing it.

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Fresh water drum up to 5 lbs are great table fare. First and foremost, they must be iced down as soon as they are caught. Let them swim around in a livewell, especially in the heat and the flesh gets mushy.
Filet them just like any fish and when you filet the skin side, don't leave any fat on the meat. I take two 1/4 inch dowel rods and tape them to my fish cleaning board, flip the filet over between them and let the knife blade ride on top of the dowels.

Batter and fry as usual. Thank me later...
 
used to see folks from KY and points north show up on Cherokee with coolers of crawfish to use as drum bait. they slaughtered them. i catch more than i like fishing for walleye and such in the spring...
 
Finally!! A day without a single drum. Wife caught a 10 lb flathead right out of the gate then a few passes later, had a fish literally spool her reel. I couldn't get the boat turned around to chase it fast enough. It took off and was gone to the next zip code. Legend has it, it's still running 😆 Then I caught a white bass, and decided to cut it up and try to catch a big cat. I had it threw out next to the boils of the water at the dam and decided to pick up a rod with a Foley spoon on it and just throw out and let the current do the work. What happened next was FUN for the next 2 hours. Big white bass kept smashing those spoons. Wife and I sat and caught fish til we couldn't reel them in any more. A boat with a dad and 2 young boys and a little girl were sitting out far from us watching and I hollered and motioned them over. Let em have our spot and we went to grab a bite to eat. They had already caught 2 before we left.

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Crow Terminator said:
Finally!! A day without a single drum. Wife caught a 10 lb flathead right out of the gate then a few passes later, had a fish literally spool her reel. I couldn't get the boat turned around to chase it fast enough. It took off and was gone to the next zip code. Legend has it, it's still running 😆 Then I caught a white bass, and decided to cut it up and try to catch a big cat. I had it threw out next to the boils of the water at the dam and decided to pick up a rod with a Foley spoon on it and just throw out and let the current do the work. What happened next was FUN for the next 2 hours. Big white bass kept smashing those spoons. Wife and I sat and caught fish til we couldn't reel them in any more. A boat with a dad and 2 young boys and a little girl were sitting out far from us watching and I hollered and motioned them over. Let em have our spot and we went to grab a bite to eat. They had already caught 2 before we left.
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Sounds like a great day.. white bass are undervalued fish but they can pull! Been a few weeks since i have been. Probably be october before i go back. Keep at em!
 

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