Every once in a while when least expected, freshwater drum send you an invitation to their party. The surprise call comes while hopping a jig for smallmouths, running a crank for walleyes, or pitching a plastic worm for bass. “Check me out,” a big drum might say, as it hits stomping hard and bends your rod double, matching the pulling power of the toughest fish in freshwater. “Just hang with us and you’re in for good times.”

Yet, most anglers RSVP with regrets only, likely because they don’t care to associate with the supposed rough-fish crowd. That’s unfortunate, because the sporting qualities of drum are comparable to many hard-fighting gamefish. They reach a large size, too, with the 54.5-pound world record caught in Nickajack Lake, Tennessee. And those who haven’t tasted drum would be surprised how good properly prepared drum can be.

Drum Curiosities

Freshwater drum have the largest north-to-south native distribution of any North American freshwater fish—extending over 2,500 miles from Manitoba in Canada to Guatemala in Central America—so they’re available to a large segment of the angling population. In the U.S., drum are abundant throughout the Mississippi and Missouri river drainages and inhabit the Great Lakes (except the Lake Superior watershed). While well adapted to rivers, they also thrive in lakes and impoundments throughout their range.

The unique characteristics of freshwater drum make them one of the most curious fish swimming in North America’s inland waters. They’re the only member of the drum family to naturally inhabit freshwaters of this continent. Their extended range brings many local names: silver bass, gaspergou, sheepshead, and grunter, to name a few. They also have extra-large ear stones, which have been collected as good-luck charms and for jewelry. When dug up by archaeologists these bones help piece together knowledge of ancient settlements.

Specialized tendons contract muscles along the air bladder of male drum, giving them the ability to produce their characteristic drumming sound. Drumming becomes more frequent as the Spawn Period approaches and is believed to signal females for mating purposes.

Another unique trait of freshwater drum is that they release floating eggs. Fertilization takes place during broadcast spawning, likely in open water areas. The buoyant eggs float to the surface where they hatch in a day or two. Spawning usually begins when water temperature reaches the mid-60ºF range and can last into mid-summer.

Drum primarily feed on bottom, consuming items such as nymphs of mayflies, caddisflies, and midges, along with other types of invertebrates like amphipods and crayfish. Equipped with powerful pharyngeal teeth, drum can crush hard shells, making mussels (including zebra and quagga mussels), snails, and other mollusks favored foods. As drum grow larger, baitfish can become a component of their diet.

Although drum are well adapted to living in rivers, abundant populations also occur in lakes and impoundments across its range. In fact, the state-record list slightly favors lakes and reservoirs for giant drum.

Auburn University researchers found that in Alabama drum grew faster and had better body condition in rivers compared to reservoirs. Interestingly, this was the case for drum less than 12 years old. The oldest and largest drum (ages 13 to 34) grew better, lived longer, and attained larger sizes in reservoirs. The researchers suggest that the ability of older and larger drum to grow better in reservoirs may be linked to a diet of fish, citing several studies showing that fish such as shad and minnows appear in drum diets in reservoirs and lakes.