Big Drum

 Some years back I caught my lifer freshwater drum off of a bridge abutment while targeting white crappie in Lake Champlain. It was Noah an my second trip there. He'd caught his lifer on the previous trip, and that was a really nice one. Mine was tiny, frankly pitiful. Ever since I've wanted to catch a real corker of a freshwater drum. 

Aplodinotus grunniens are often considered a trash fish throughout their native range, which is quite a shame.  Often known as "Sheepshead", freshwater drum are abundant throughout the Great Lakes and much of the Midwest. In many cases, they're massively beneficial as they consume huge amounts of invasive zebra mussels. That said, every native fish has its place regardless of our prescriptions of usefulness, and it's a bit absurd to me that a big, brutish, and interesting looking species isn't a popular game species. They really ought to be.  Of course, they aren't always pushovers. And funny enough, that seems to be a criteria. Bass and trout are downright simple and easy fish compared to suckers, catfish, carp, buffalo and other often considered "lesser" species. Doubly so on artificial presentations. I love it, these species are always extremely interesting. 

When I went up to fish with Drew again recently and he was on some big drum jigging, I made it known that I really wanted some of those and ideally on the fly. We went out the first morning and perused a few spots looking for big schools of drum. We found them in the second spot Drew motored too. Dozens upon dozens of drum ranging from about a pound to maybe 18 or more were plainly visible, some cruising and some actively feeding. A big drum turning on its side to pluck mussels off the rocks about 10 feet down looks about like a garbage can lid. Watching them was a learning opportunity on its own, as I'd never gotten to really see freshwater drum do much of anything. They were being quite difficult, but with loads of stationary and calorically dense food available that's pretty much what you'd expect. I caught a number of smallmouth without trying and loudly said "I HATE SMALLMOUTH" so that the nearby bass fisherman might hear it. I didn't really mean it but it was funny to me. I also missed a couple drum, as did Drew, but he won out with two eventually. We moved again as the action slowed and again had fish in front of us. This time we had good lake current and fish in the column. I decided to run an indicator with one of Drew's flies that he had fair confidence in for these fish. It was sort of peachy in color and not all that big. The first fish to eat was another smallmouth, this time a reasonably big one. 

Photo Courtesy Drew Price

At the time, Drew was carp crazy. He'd found some nice fish for Champlain and was locked into them. Having had plenty of carp where they are easier and bigger back at home. I was all about the drum. Eventually, one what ended up being an almost centerpinner esq super long drift, the indicator stuttered then dropped. I struck and came tight to a solid fish. A wow was it ever solid! The fight was a lot of dogging and a few good runs, very authoritative. It didn't come to net easy. 

Not too many casts excessively long drifts later the indicator dropped again. I set into yet another slob of a drum. 

There's nothing quite like finessing a bite from a species I've got more book knowledge on than real fishing experience, especially one that doesn't have loads of literature about fly tackle strategies. And trophy one at that. Drew had put me exactly where we needed to be and he had the right flies as well. I chose a tactic and rigging that I felt fit the situation and behavior of the fish, and I'll was a method I have a lot of experience utilizing in non typical contexts. It worked very well and the reward wasn't just the target secies but two massive specimens. That's just so, so satisfying. It felt really good to finally get my hands on my first big drum. May they not be the last!

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