Complete Guide: How to Catch, Locate, & Cook Freshwater Drum
Freshwater drum are one of the most overlooked gamefish in North America but should not be ignored. They are one of the strongest fighting and best-eating fish you can catch in freshwater. In this article, we will teach you how to catch them and then how to cook them to thoroughly appreciate these tough fish.
Freshwater drum can be caught using live bait, dead bait, or finesse lures like dropshots or ned rigs fishing in cool deep water or along current breaks in rivers over rocky, sandy, or gravel substrate. The best time of day to catch them is early morning and late afternoon.
The freshwater drum is a unique species of fish native to North and Central America and can be a great species to target.
You’ll hear freshwater drum referred to as a croaker, grinder, gray bass among other names. Mature males can make a distinctive grunting sound, usually during spawning that is responsible for the croaker or grinder nickname.
Freshwater Drum Range & Habitat
Freshwater drum have one of the largest ranges of freshwater fish in North America ranging from Hudson Bay almost to Panama. In the United States that range from the Atlantic Coast west to Pathfinder Reservoir in central Wyoming and beyond.
While the fish is wide-ranging, it is best known in the upper south in the large lakes and rivers just west of the Appalachian Mountains. It’s estimated that freshwater drum now inhabit more than 40 percent of the freshwater lakes and rivers in the United States.
Kentucky Lake is a haven for freshwater drum, and the largest ever taken, a monster weighing 54 pounds was caught on Nickajack Lake, in eastern Tennessee in 1972.
A more recent big drum was landed in 2004 from Lake Wilson in Arkansas, weighing in at a hefty 45 pounds. Mature freshwater drum usually weigh from five to 10 pounds and are found in almost every large natural lake and many reservoirs fed by water from the Missouri-Mississippi drainage.
They are considered trash fish by many anglers but are gaining more respect with the widespread popularity of Cajun cooking. On top of their flavor, they’re incredible fighters. You won’t find many freshwater fish that can bend a rod like a battling drum can.
Freshwater drum prefer deep, cold water in large rivers and lakes. Drum prefer water 40 to 60 feet deep and become stressed when the water temperature rises above 75 degrees, or oxygen levels deplete. Drum love working the edge of current, but the substrate is key to finding them.
Freshwater drum work gravel beds, rocky outcroppings while grubbing, or digging for food hidden on sandy, rocky bottoms. Their ideal habitat resembles a gravel quarry, deep in a lake with the water temperature under 60 degrees.
What Freshwater Drum Eat
Drum will eat just about anything, from small insects, baitfish, and crayfish to mussels and clams. Freshwater drum have molar-style, grinding teeth in their throats. This allows them to crush mussels, clams, and crayfish shells.
While many consider this trash fish behavior, mature freshwater drum are one of the only native North American fish that can eat invasive zebra mussels. They aren’t reducing zebra mussel populations, but they are holding them in check along the Great Lakes and other infested waterways.
The crushed shells of zebra mussels, native clams, and crayfish often litter the bottom of still water lakes, creating a good environment for bass, walleye, and perch to lay eggs in.
Fingerling drum eat plankton and are a good source of food for walleye, perch, and largemouth bass. Their unique niche in the aquatic ecosystem makes the freshwater drum a key player in a balanced lake or river environment.
Freshwater drum, with their subterminal mouth (meaning the lower jaw is behind the upper, similar to carp and suckers) are designed for bottom feeding. They’ll move sand, pebbles, push rocks out of the way, and of course, crush mollusks, but that’s not their exclusive range.
Drum will feed much higher in the water column, though rarely at the surface. Many anglers tossing jigs, spinners, and live bait in search of both largemouth and smallmouth bass have tied into freshwater drum just a few feet below the surface of the water.
Best Drum Baits
Maybe a better question is what bait doesn’t work with drum. You can throw almost anything in your tackle box at freshwater drum and they’re apt to hit.
On natural bait, they’ll bite on bottom bouncing nightcrawlers, bobber fishing with nightcrawlers, crickets, shad, shiners, and crawdads. Lead head jigs, with rubber minnows attached, jibs with or without spinners, jerk baits, spoons, especially solid silver or gold dimpled spoons, spinners like Panther Martin, Blue Fox, and Roostertail.
In short, freshwater drum aren’t finicky eaters, they’ll hit just about anything you offer. They hit aggressively and their fight resembles big, largemouth bass when you hook one.
Seasonal Drum Fishing
Spring
Freshwater drum spawn in the spring. They’ll spawn in slow-moving pools adjacent to fast water. Look for eddies, or curl backs of slow-moving water near the faster moving main channel.
If there is a rock outcropping that’s a bonus. Gravel or sandy beds in these sections of slow water will bring in spawning baitfish, and the drum will follow, spawning in the same areas and feeding on the baitfish.
Live bait works great in the spring. Worms, shiners, and crawdads should do the trick. If you want to try lures, use highly reflective silver or gold spinners, crankbaits, and jerk baits.
Don’t cast against the current, instead throw your lure upstream and crank evenly with the water, keeping your line tight. You’ll have to cast more often, but this technique will attract the drum. You should cast your live bait just at the edge of the fast-moving water, but still in the pool or eddy.
Summer
Anglers experience the greatest success in catching freshwater drum during June and July. The drum will find deeper sections of lakes and rivers.
You can still find a few in the faster-moving water in shallow rivers, but they won’t hold to the slow-moving sections any longer. In the summer months, they’re more interested in deep-dwelling baitfish and crustaceans.
Live bait works best during the summer. Minnows, nightcrawlers, freshwater shrimp, and shiners work best when dropped into deep river channels or on the edge of deep rock outcroppings.
If you’re fishing from a boat, this is the best time of year to use your fish finder in locating the depth the freshwater drum are located in, but it’s not an exact science. Trial and error in setting baits at different depths is the tried-and-true method.
Fall
Think of it as spring once again, without the spawn. Freshwater drum often migrate up tributaries from large lakes in the autumn months. The backwater, slow-moving pools, circling eddies, and still water next to the fast-moving main channel are again the hot spots for drum.
Drum feeding behavior is similar to hibernating animals during the fall. They eat a lot, in anticipation of lean months under the ice, or in rivers where cold weather prevents insects from hatching. They can be aggressive in hitting spinners, chrome or golden spoons, crankbaits, and jigs in the fall.
They’ll always hit live bait. Minnows, nightcrawlers, crawdads, and freshwater shrimp will bring them in. Use the same techniques as spring fishing, cast against the current, and reel back in with the current with lures.
When using bait, find that magic spot where the fast-moving water is just a few inches away from the slower, the drum will find your bait easier in these locations.
Winter
Surface water can be too cold for freshwater drum in the winter months. If a lake ices over, you’ll find drum in the deeper sections of the lake, up to 60 feet below the surface. The water temperature at that depth is constant year-round.
This is the season to put away your spoons, spinners, jigs and go to live bait. Nightcrawlers, shiners, and freshwater shrimp work well when set to the right depth. Drum won’t be anywhere near the surface, so adjust your rigging accordingly.
Best Time of Day to Catch Freshwater Drum
In summer, the best time of day for drum is early and later afternoon near sunset. During the winter, drum will bite all day long since they are in deeper water.
The best time to catch drum depends on two things, what season of the year you’re in, and what latitude you’re fishing. In summer, the best fishing is early morning just as the sun is starting to lighten the eastern sky, and in the evening, just after the sun sets and the sky is gradually turning dark.
Spring and fall offer similar times for your best chance at catching drum, usually right after the sun sets, for a few hours until it is completely dark. In winter, when the drum are deep in lakes, there are no good or bad times.
The fishing will always be slower north of Kentucky, northern Missouri, and Kansas. South of that line, the fishing can remain good in the warmer southern states throughout the year.
Do They Bite at Night?
Big drum often hit best at night. They’ll hold just outside the tributary to a large lake, waiting for darkness, then move into shallow water to fee. Sometimes anglers can catch 20-pound or larger freshwater drum just a few feet offshore when fishing at night.
An added attraction to night fishing for these big drum is that in the quiet of the evening you can hear the big males croaking or groaning as they move in. It’s a unique sound that has sent chills up the spine of many anglers hearing for the first time.
How about the impact moon phases have on freshwater drum? Conventional wisdom among anglers is that the best time for fishing is during a full or new moon. Much of this practice comes from anglers working the water in bays, and estuaries affected by high and low tides.
Since freshwater drum are never found in contact with salt or brackish water, moon phases don’t have that much effect on them. The one exception is fishing for drum on the Great Lakes where tides come in and out much like they do in the ocean.
There isn’t any scientific research available on moon phases and freshwater drum, but there have been studies done on smallmouth and largemouth bass which have similar feeding habits. No evidence of an increase or decrease in fishing has been found with bass and the phases of the moon.
What Gear is Needed to Tackle Freshwater Drum?
Many anglers fishing for walleye or bass are disappointed when a rousing fight with what they thought was the fish of their life turns out to be a 10-pound freshwater drum.
That should tell you something right away about equipment. Freshwater drum can be taken on baitcasting, spincasting or spinning rods with equal success. the techniques, line weight, hooks, and lures will vary with the rod and reel combination you intend to use.
Baitcasting rods and reels are the best to use if you’re after big freshwater drum. These guys will fight harder than anything you’ve hooked before. The big ones can easily snap four-pound test monofilament line. The braided line on a baitcasting rod is ideal equipment for a long, drawn-out battle between man and fish.
As with bass, or walleye, tie a swivel at the end of the braided line and hook a few feet of fluorocarbon leader at the other end. There is no evidence that freshwater drum are line shy, but you might just hook a walleye or largemouth while you’re stalking drum, so you might as well be prepared.
Live bait works great with the baitcasting setup and with jigs but is not as effective as monofilament line with a spincasting or spinning reel. If you’re jigging, it will be in the traditional style, since freshwater drum don’t frequent weed beds, there is no need to try drop shot fishing.
Spincasting and spinning reels offer the same style of fishing. Live bait works, but if you’re after a big drum, the heavier line-test monofilament can be a problem since it is harder to work with while casting-and-retrieving than six, eight or 10-pound test line.
If you’re after action, there is no greater thrill than hooking a big drum on a lightweight rod and spinning reel. You might use all the 100 yards of line on your spool before you tire a big drum out, but it will provide dozens of minutes of pulse-pounding excitement as your rod tip rips up and down with the fighting fish on the other end. Lures in the ¼ to ½ ounce size work well with cast and retrieve. The good ol’ reliable number 6 hook is hard to beat with bait fishing. A number 6 is substantial enough to hold a nightcrawler but small enough to hook a shiner and not spook a hungry drum.
10 Tips for Catching Freshwater Drum
1. Bass Lures Catch Drum Too
Fish for drum as if you were out for bass in the spring and fall. They’ll come in on the same lures or bait. Focus on finesse bass baits like ned rigs, dropshots, and jigs. These will give you the best chance of catching large drum on lures.
2. Focus on Water Depth.
In summer months they’ll hold down in the depths from 40 to 60 feet in larger lakes.
3. Structure Matters in Drum Fishing
You may occasionally catch drum working along weed beds and cattails similar to carp, but you’ll find them working gravel beds, sand bars, and along rocky outcroppings most often. Drum prefer hard substrate over softer bottoms where vegetation grows from.
4. Find the Bait to Find Freshwater Drum
Look for evidence of crayfish, mussels, and even zebra mussels on the exposed rocks. Freshwater drums eat clams, mussels, and crawdads as often as baitfish and worms.
5. Fish Along Strong Current for Big Drum
On a river in spring or fall, toss your live bait as close to fast-moving water as you can without getting it swept away. Drum are strong fish that can swim against the current, but they’re always looking for an easy meal in the still water.
6. Try Jigs Typically Fished for Walleye
Jig a lead head with a plastic minnow with the same action you’d use for walleye. In summer months, let the jig sink about three times as long as you would when walleye fishing. If you count to five after casting with walleye, make it 15 with drum and begin a slow retrieve, with a quick jerk every other crank.
7. Fish Around Sunrise & Sunset
Drum feed year-round, and will hit at any time day or night, but you can improve your odds by fishing in the early morning and late evening in summer.
8. Don’t Overcomplicate Things
Drum like to cruise the bottom of lakes and rivers. Don’t overcomplicate your fishing plans. Sometimes just tossing a hook with a shiner or nightcrawler on the bottom with a sinker 18 inches above the bait is the best practice. It is the most relaxing on a hot day.
9. Set the Hook Right-Away Once Bit
When bobber fishing for drum, watch your bobber closely. They hit hard. With their sucker-like mouth they’ll take the bait and swallow it right away. Your bobber will disappear and not come back up, so don’t wait to set the hook. The same is true if you feel the bite on a ned rig or weighted bait.
10. Certain Shorelines Attract Big Drum
The shoreline is as good a spot as the middle of the lake if the structure is right. Rock outcroppings in a deep lake usually extend down a long way. At the base of these rocks sand and gravel pockets from creating good structure for drum.
How to Handle Drum Once Caught
Don’t grab a fish by the gills ever. If you’re going to catch and release a freshwater drum use a net to remove them from the water. Unhook them while in the net and put the net back in the water to shake them loose. If you want a photograph of your prize catch, unhook them as above. Reach into the net, placing one hand under the belly of the fish, and grab the upper jaw with a finger and thumb on your other hand. Take a quick picture and get them back in the water in a few seconds.
Are Freshwater Drum Good to Eat?
Freshwater drum are perhaps the most misunderstood, maligned freshwater fish in North America. Just because they resemble carp and suckers doesn’t mean they’re the same. They have firm white meat, are free of bones, easy to filet, and best of all they taste great. They may be the best fish in the continental United States to cook on the grill. They are popular in Cajun cooking and are the same species as the highly-priced redfish. People pay top dollar in seafood restaurants for redfish. With just a little time and effort you can have that same experience waiting for you at a nearby lake or river.
Here are some great recipes worth testing out.
Pan-fried freshwater drum:
Take an 8 to 10 ounce filet
Dip the filet (s) in a beaten egg
Roll the filet in a mixture of ¼ cup of Panko bread crumbs, ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper, ¼ teaspoon of black pepper
Make sure the filet is evenly coated on both sides
Line a hot skillet with olive oil.
Fry the filet on each side for five to six minutes. If it is a thick filet, cover it with a pan lid for the first three minutes on each side, then fry in the open until the filet is golden brown
Broiled Drum:
Take four eight to 10-ounce drum filets and arrange them on an oiled baking pan.
Mix two tablespoons of Dijon mustard, one cup of fresh cilantro, ½ teaspoon for fresh peppercorns, and four ounces of white wine.
Blend all the ingredients together.
Pour the blended ingredients over the four filets.
Preheat the broiler of your oven for 10 minutes.
Place the baking pan four inches under the broiler.
Broil for about 10 minutes.
Watch them carefully so they don’t burn.
Test the filets with a fork for flakiness.
