Freshwater drum

[Fisherboy0301 0]

Staying in Alabama this summer with a friend, we went down to the river yesterday( I don't even remember the name.) and did some fishing. I started with a rat l trap and almost immediately had a hit. The fish came up to the surface just enough for a quick look and let go. Only bite of the day. I said: " what was that? Did you see it! I've never seen anything like it before!" To which he said: "just a little drum, fun fight but no good to eat. " since then I've been reading up on fly fishing for them to try and wade the river and give it a go. I already know go use heavy flies that will bounce the bottom in the current. I plan to cast upstream and let the current bounce the fly along the bottom. The only info I could get is they eat crayfish and clousers. Does anyone have any info on catching these fish on the fly, or what flies to use?

[ditz2 0]

Try a small white streamer. Inch or inch and a half long. I have heard they work on drum in northern Ohio.

[SILKHDH 0]

The drum around here (being Kansas) are actually pretty, no, very aggressive. I have sight fished them at a local small lake with small clouser minnow type flies tied with nothing but blue and silver flashabou. Not chrystal flash. flashabou. You want it to dance and wiggle. Like a size 8 or even 10. Probably 1 to 1 1/4" long. I suppose bead chain would work for the shallow water sight fishing I was doing but these were lead bumbell eyes painted copper. SMALL!!!! I make (cast) the lead eyes myself in a mold I made. Throw it in front of them, wait, when they come up on it, give it a little twitch, make the flashabou dance, just enough to cause it to flicker. I don't mean jigging it. Just make the flash wiggle and put off some twinkles of light. Seems too much movement for me and they book it out of there. When it happens I mean BOOM, they will strike with ferocity! Fast pounce on the fly. If I was river fishing I would absolutely throw 45 degrees upstream, preferably at the edge of some moving and slack water, let it sink to bottom, hold rod tip high, keep the line tight, you want to FEEL the fly ticking the bottom as it is carried by the current. If you don't feel this ticking of the bottom , you won't feel the strike either. You might only feel a tiny tick. It will seem different than the bottom ticking you will feel. Set the hook!!! F.Y.I. If I am correct drum and redfish are related. The lake I fish has drum close to five feet long. Yea I said five feet. Huge!! Have only seen the big ones one day while walking along the damn at close to water level. I saw there faces! I was like "what the #*%$ is that?" FACES in the water. Looking right at me. The size of a person!! Was I crazy? When I walked up the damn to get a higher view to better look down into the water is when I realized they were huge drum resting on the water surface. Seven of them to be exact. NOT CARP! Drum. Will never forget it. I have never got one that size yet, but I tied some angel hair baitfish (saw on you tube) just for these brutes. My biggest was not on a fly but a 1" long sassy shad on a 1/64 oz. jig head on ultra light spinning rod and four pound test. The wind was too bad for a fly rod that day. There was a 4 to 6 feet wide scum layer pushed up on the damn that day. They were hiding and feeding under the scum layer. Couldn't see them, but when you flicked the sassy shad into the scum, let it fall to the bottom, and just twitched it, you felt the little tick and SET THE HOOK BABY!! Amazing how such a big fish can have such a light tick strike. It was around three feet long. Was from my waist to the ground. He walked me back and forth on that damn for a long time before landing him. My props go to Diawa reels for the drag on that reel. Worked flawlessly. Buy the way, that same rod and reel "rest in peace" at the bottom of that same lake. My daughter had a fish pull it off the bank and into the lake while bluegill fishing. Never to be seen again. I was so sad. Took off my hat, put it over my heart and said farewell. OK, Back to the huge drum. The shore across from me lit up in a roar from all the people seeing me hoist him up. As long as my leg. Was awesome! I bet I caught 40 to 50 drum that day. Mainly 16 to 20 inch long range. Shad is the primary food source in this lake buy the way. Fish the side of the water where the wind is in your face. Washing up scum or debris at your feet or stirring up the dirt and water. They hunt in this shallow water pecking at the bottom. Now if the timing is right and I can ever see the huge ones again, the hunt is on Jack!

[mikechell 0]

If I am not mistaken, fresh water Drum and Gaspergoo are the same fish. In Texas, we'd catch Gaspergoo on the same lures you'd use to catch White Bass. Small minnow imitations. The mouth looks like they'd be bottom feeders, but most were caught in the water column going after minnows.

[SILKHDH 0]

I'm googling gaspergoo right now...lol What a crazy name. I'm going to see if they look like the drum here.

[SILKHDH 0]

Well Mike,

I can't say whether they are genetically the same thing but they sure look like the same thing to me buddy. My vote is yep same thing. When I googled images gaspergoo I saw some pics of a couple of big ones like what I have caught. But none as big as I have seen. In the bigger reservoirs we have tons of smaller drum. We catch them when we are jigging with night crawlers for walleye. On the bottom. They are actually a pest fish to me, but the big ones are fun. I have never eaten one but some people say they eat the same as a white bass around here. Some people eat carp too, but I'm not going there ..lol

[SILKHDH 0]

Yo mike, Do the gaspergoo make a rumble sound when you got them in your hand removing the hook? Is why they are called drum here. They make a drum rumble sound. Kind of a grrrrr...grrrr...grrrr...noise. You can actually hear schools of them at night go under your boat. Is muscles within the body cavity that vibrate against the swim bladder. I'm not joking here either. They make a noise. Do gaspergoo make the same sound.

[mikechell 0]

It's been 5 years or so since I was regularly fishing the Houston area. I can't remember if I ever heard a Gaspergoo "grunt".

[Fisherboy0301 0]

As far as I know, drum, gaspergoo, and sheepshead are all different names for the same fish, which caries by location.

[atxdiscgolfer 0]

No those are 3 completely different fish Fisherboy

[Fisherboy0301 0]

Really? I know drum( Aplodinotus grunniens, not its cousins the red and black drum of saltwater) and gaspergou are the same thing, and I've heard them called sheepshead, even though that is a saltwater fish. Just like how people call tilapia "Nile perch" but a Nile perch is a large African predator fish that actually eats tilapia.

It all depends on who you ask and where they are from. Many websites call them drum, many call them gaspergou, and some call them sheepshead. Take your pick, but can we get back to what flies they will eat please?

[Philly 0]

I used to fish for them when I was in college in NW Tennessee, caught a lot of them when fishing for crappie either on minnows or small minnow plugs, so small clousers, bait fish patterns, white estaz bugs, should work for them. As for not being good to eat, back then anything we caught went into the pot. Small ones in the 1- 2 lb range were filleted and then cut in pieces and tossed in the pot and ended up as either fish stew or fish chowder.

[atxdiscgolfer 0]

Fisherboy- I should have stated that the Gaspergou and Freshwater Drum are the sam thing but the Sheepshead is a different fish, a lot of people get the 2 confused, Sheepshead have human like teeth while the Black Drum don't - read this and it will all come clear - http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=170230

[Fisherboy0301 0]

I know sheepshead are saltwater fish, and I've seen and caught them before, but in some parts of the country that is a nickname for freshwater drum too. I'm not trying to argue you by any way sir, just trying to explain something.

 

As quoted directly from Wikipedia.

"Sheepshead, Sheephead or Sheep's Head, may refer to:

 

Fish

Archosargus probatocephalus, a medium-sized saltwater fish of the Atlantic Ocean

 

Sheepshead porgy, Calamus penna, a medium-sized saltwater fish of the Atlantic Ocean

 

Sheepshead minnow, Cyprinodon variegatus variegatus, a small brackish-water fish

 

California sheephead, Semicossyphus pulcher, a medium-sized saltwater fish of the Pacific Ocean

 

Freshwater drum, Aplodinotus grunniens, a medium-sized freshwater fish of North and Central America"

[agn54 0]

I get why the saltwater fish are called sheepshead. One look at their teeth and you see that they look a lot like sheep's (and human!) teeth. But why the freshwater drum? Does it have large similar type teeth? It looks an a lot like saltwater drum and reds and whiting none of which have those types of teeth. It's funny how fish names differ so much by region