January 26-27, 2024

 Drove the 6.5 hours from St Louis to west-central Arkansas to fish with a buddy.  He'd previously scoped out the location, and the plan was to get me my first Striped Bass on fly, and hopefully get both of us our first Blue Catfish on fly.  Goals were achieved, despite the cool wet weather and the water being more muddied up than usual.

I tried a number of fly patterns...but ended up catching EVERYTHING on this trip on the fly below.  Pearl estaz grande body, silver flash and white peacock tail, on a 1/8 oz jighead (Waspi Super Jig Head).  That heavy jig wasn't easy to cast very far on the fly gear.  I did do some fly casting, using a sink tip and also floating lines, but in the end vertically jigging this heavy deal to get down and stay down on the bottom got me the fish, plus I've been having elbow issues in my casting arm, so this technique was easier on me.  I tell you what...when those Drum would thump the jig, and I'd set the hook, those dudes are STRONG and definitely sent pains up my arm!  Fun!

I didn't catch big numbers of fish, but they were strong fighters.  I caught 5 Freshwater Drum, 4 Striped Bass, (3 French Hens), 2 Blue Catfish, 1 White Bass, 1 Largemouth Bass.

Day 1:

Striped Bass on Fly

Freshwater Drum on Fly

Day 2:

Blue Cat on Fly

White Bass on Fly

2nd Blue Cat on Fly

The Striped Bass and Blue Catfish enabled me to reach my goal of 100 U.S. Freshwater Species on Fly.  This also put me at 115 Species on Fly.

Freshwater Drum on Fly

***I haven't shared much regarding techniques for quit a while, my recent posts being more about the fish with which I am so enamored.  I'm going to start sharing more specifically what I've learned for the various species I've caught.

We all know fish in different waters can behave differently and have different preferences.  But I think overall this will give folks who want to try for certain species more info that can hopefully get them started off on the right foot, rather than going blindly.  We can all shorten our personal learning curve by first learning from the experience of others.***

This blog post is about Freshwater Drum.

Freshwater Drum on Fly

Freshwater Drum inhabit a fair chunk of the U.S....from the west side of the Appalachian Mountains, and west through upper reaches of the Mississippi River and Missouri River drainages.

They are reasonably common in most rivers within this range, as well as in reservoirs and lakes.

Near my area of St Louis, MO, I've caught them in most months except middle of winter.  They seem to really get active, possible spawning or prespawn, around the middle of April.  That's when I seem to catch more and larger drum.

I feel it helps immensely if the water is clear enough for sight-fishing....where you can present the fly to an individual fish or spot, and see how they react.  But most often I'm fishing stained water, likely churned up by the drum themselves, since I've cast towards mud clouds and caught drum.  They must root amongst the bottom at times. 

As their favorite food seems to be crayfish, in most locations they can be found near chunk rock and rip rap.  They also feast on minnows and shad when available, so check along drop-offs along the edge of flats.  I've done well casting parallel to shoreline rock rip rap in decent-sized creeks in the Spring.

The flies I typically use for Freshwater are medium to large in size, and heavy enough to sink quickly to the bottom.   I like crayfish, shad, or sculpin-looking flies.  Hammerhead Sculpins have caught plenty of fish for me.  Black color has been my favorite.  A Gamakatsu B10S hook in a size 4 is a great choice to start tying your flies on.  I've also caught some, usually smaller drum, by vertically jigging microjigs near rocks or culverts.  Another great fly for Freshwater Drum is Stu Thompson's DDH Leech.

There are some Hammerhead Sculpins on the left side of this photo.

DDH Leeches

Freshwater Drum are very good fighters...you'll LOVE 'em!  I've caught them on 6wt to 9wt rods...6wt or 7wt is probably the best wt rod for these Drum.  I use a weight forward floating line, and tippet should be 12 lb Fluorocarbon.  On the crayfish and sculpin-type fly patterns, the drum typically just gulp them in and run!  They typically fight hard, but not for long.  Once you've gotten through the first or 2nd strong run, they usually start to give up.

Freshwater Drum are very challenging and fun, a decent-sized one will impress you with it's strength!  I really enjoy catching them on flies. They are a native fish that needs to be appreciated and protected.  Do some research, find some fish near you, and get after them!  Good luck! 

Here's some pics of Freshwater Drum I've caught while flyfishing:

They aren't always big!

Freshwater Drum on Fly

April 17, 2021

 Flyfished an urban creek.

Caught my first Goldeye of the year:

And my first Smallmouth Buffalo in Missouri:

Also caught 9 Freshwater Drum, pretty nice ones, up to @ 20" long.

April 3, 2021

Following some good rains, high water in the MO River and its tributaries, I hoped to find a local creek getting repopulated with fish from the MO River.  The creek looked good!  The big negative was we just came off a few cold days/nights in a row, with low temps in the 20's and 30's F.

A few quick splashes from fish on the surface, but none seen swimming around.  It was like a desterted wasteland for the first hour or two of flyishing.  Then I started missing some strikes.  Then I caught 2 very small Grass Carp on back-to-back casts.

Then 23 minutes later, a nice 21" Freshwater Drum.  And then the action just died.

Further downstream, I managed a Green Sunfish.

Then I drove to a place I'd seen a few Bullheads.  It also has lots of Goldfish.  I didn't see any bullheads this time, and the numerous smaller goldfish were not interested in the fly I was using.  I finally found a bigger Goldfish that was willing to eat the fly.  It measured 11"...beautiful fish!