Tips for Fishing Drum on the Mississipi Watershed

You Can’t Beat This Drum

OK, I’ll admit it – they’re not the prettiest fish Mother Nature ever came up with, but the Freshwater Drum, a.k.a. “Sheephead”, is one of the most underrated, hardest-fighting, best-eating fish to ever ply the Mississippi River watershed.  They’re often categorized with other less desirable fish like carp and suckers.  What’s not to love?  Drum are prolific, tenacious, easy to catch, seemingly immune to seasonal and weather changes on the water, and delicious table fare.

 

 

For those not familiar, drum are common inhabitants of river systems throughout much of the country.  I’ve caught them trolling crankbaits for walleyes on the Fox River near the mouth of Green Bay, jigging for early spring walleyes on the middle section of the Wisconsin River, and now on the Mississippi where we were actually targeting them.  Drum are voracious feeders that have no problem pouncing on a fast-retrieved artificial or delicately slurping a crawler or minnow right off your jig hook.  A great size for eating would be in the 10″ to 16″ range, but these disc-shaped powerhouses can grow to over 30 lbs.  The day before we fished with Ted he was pre-fishing the same stretch of the river and said he caught and released a “Mongo” (with apologies to “Blazing Saddles” fans) sized drum that was pushing 25 lbs.  He caught it on a baitcasting reel spooled with 20 lb. test Fireline and said it was a 10 minute battle that wore him out.  The biggest we boated was around a 10 pounder, followed by a couple in the 5 – 7 lb. range.  They were all classic fights with plenty of give and take, clicking drags, and rainbow shaped rods.  As Ted pointed out, “If you come to this river with a catch and release ethic and want to hook into a big powerful fish that’ll stretch your string, why would you NOT consider going after a sheephead.

Our shepherd, err… guide, was Captain Ted Peck of Lancaster, Iowa.  Ted is an outdoor writer and licensed guide who constantly reminded us of how cool it is to make one’s living in the outdoors.  He’s also an amateur comedian who has more jokes and one liners than Carter has pills.  With his red hair and mischievous smile, you get the feeling you’re out on the water with a little kid who’s made a career out of playing hooky.  A day on the river with Cap’n Ted isn’t something you’ll soon forget.

So far I’ve only mentioned the larger fish that were released, but we put some smaller fish in the cooler too, and that’s key – Ted says the best way to guarantee a tasty and flaky fillet is to immediately ice down the smaller fish that you keep.  It preserves the flavor and prevents spoilage in the warmer summer temps.  Even a circulating live well can be pumping water that’s anywhere from the upper 60s to mid 80s and can taint the meat.  Ice is the way to go.

 

 

 

I suppose you’re wondering just how those fish got in the cooler?  Well, it couldn’t have been much easier.  We used 1/4 to 1/2 ounce lead jigs in a variety of patterns (some even bare) that were tipped with about a third of a night crawler and a small treble stinger hook.  We followed the bubble line and drifted with the current while vertical jigging in 15 – 25 feet of water, just touching the bottom before raking the rod tip up about 3 feet and then letting it settle back to the bottom.  The most common scenario is that the drum would take it on the drop with a quick tap-tap-tap motion that reminded me of a slow motion version of a yellow perch bite.  Our rods had a variety of line types ranging from 8 lb. mono to 20 lb. Fireline.  Lighter tackle is plenty for the smaller, keeper-sized fish but on the chance that you tie into a hog, it’s good to go towards a stouter rig.

 

 

Remove just the back straps of the drum to avoid the rib bones.

OK, Ted proved drum were easy to find, easy to catch, and they could put a tight bend in the rod.  Now it was time for him to prove his final claim – that drum are as good or better on the table as anything else that swims in the river.  He demonstrated the fillet technique that takes only the back straps, which he calls “fish sticks” while ignoring the belly meat commonly saved on a walleye or catfish.  While we didn’t keep any walleyes, we did boat one small catfish that went in the pan as a taste comparison.  The fillets were rolled in a seasoned breading and fried in a cast iron skillet on a camp stove.  And yes, they were delicious!  I’d eat another meal of batter fried sheephead any day!

 

 

 

 

So, you walleye, perch, and bluegill snobs – stop looking down your nose at a “rough” fish like freshwater drum.  Whether you’re fighting them or eating them, it’s time to march to the beat of a different drummer.

How to take late season spring Turkeys

Eleventh Hour Toms

 

 Turkey hunters seem to have a love affair with being first – first to buy their license, first to try out the latest gee-whiz call or decoy, first one in the woods, and the biggest first of all – first crack at those “uneducated” gobblers each spring.  I suppose there is a certain amount of personal interest in that last one.  When the Wisconsin DNR opened up turkey hunting in my area of the state some 15+ years ago, I usually applied for the first available season in our 6 season lottery each spring.  It just made sense – the most birds, the fewest previous encounters with other hunters – what’s not to love?

 I did kill some early season birds in those first experiences, but that also included having to dust the snow off the decoys and deal with henned up gobblers that preferred the real thing to my futile impersonations.  I also got aced out in the lottery a couple times.  Sitting at home while everyone else has all the fun is, well, no fun.  After reading the season summary reports for how many tags were open in each management unit and how many people had applied for each time period it became clear that the numbers were much more in my favor if I applied for the later hunts.  It was a lesson I haven’t forgotten.

 Nowadays the bird numbers have flourished, tags are much easier to come by, and there are even leftover tags available in my home state (always for the later seasons) that can be bought over the counter or on the internet.  What all of that means is that I have more choices and opportunities to hunt than ever before.  It also means I can go play in the late season with high expectations of seeing and working a gobbler.

 Most people familiar with the turkey’s spring breeding ritual understand the basic stages they go through every spring, regardless of weather or latitude:  The gobblers make a lot of racket prior to the hens being receptive.  It’s a hormone thing, a pecking order thing, maybe even a howling-at-the-moon thing.  It’s rare that there’s an open hunting season, so you just have to sit back and watch and listen.  Eventually a few hens allow gobblers to tag along.  That shuts the big boys up big time.  They’ll happily gobble from the roost, but once they’re on the ground and in the presence of hens, there’s no need to be vocal anymore.  Now it’s all about strutting and drumming.  Hunters hate this period for 2 reasons – they’re competing with real hens in the calling contest, and with no reason to gobble on the ground, toms are hard to locate and keep track of.  Finally, after a few weeks of relative midday silence in the turkey world, the hens have been bred and may be sitting on their nests.  This is when the fun begins.

 

Gobblers have poor scheduling skills.  They don’t understand why the hens aren’t hanging out with them.  They only know that their hormones are still telling them to try to attract and breed hens.  It’s economics 101 – supply and demand.  There’s a shortage of interested hens so demand goes up.  You, the hunter, can take advantage by filling that void.

 

Pattern gobbler’s preferred roost areas and stick close by.  These last birds of the season may be call-wary because of their training by earlier hunters.  Tone down your approach and tactics.  Those long strings of lonely yelps are a thing of the past.  Very often gobblers will sound off mid-morning and go “trolling” by gobbling every few minutes as they search for hens.  Last week I followed one of the biggest gobblers I’ve ever seen on the hoof.  He left the woods and walked halfway across a newly planted cornfield.  I put my binocs on him and let out a modest sequence of yelps from 100 yards away.  He took one quick look in my direction and proceeded to rubber neck his way to the opposite side of the field, disappearing into the tree line.  A much more appropriate call would’ve been a simple cluck or two, maybe some scratching in the leaves to simulate a hen feeding.

 

I learned from that mistake and was prepared to do just that a couple days later when I stood at the base of the big guy’s preferred roosting ridge and listened to his pre-dawn gobbling.  There was only one problem – the finger ridge that was my usual path to the top was blocked by 2 other gobblers that were sounding off nearby.  With 2 tags in my pocket and only 2 days left of the WI turkey season this was no time to be a trophy hunting snob.  I decided to ignore the big bird’s calling and concentrate on what was right in my lap.

 

I heard the flydown followed by several minutes of silence, but the 2 birds started gobbling again from a saddle on that finger ridge that I knew was a good strutting zone.  I quietly snuck up the hill a short distance, using the late season foliage as cover, positioned myself at the base of a large oak, rested my feet on the Turkey Dave Footrest I always carry, and laid my gun across my knee.  The entire calling sequence consisted of 4 clucks on an aluminum pot and peg call, followed by a few scratchings in the dry leaves.  I wasn’t’ really trying to call the birds in, just make them aware of my presence.  It was up to them to figure out the rest of the equation and I wasn’t disappointed.  I could easily hear the low frequency drumming as they marched down that saddle and started up the hill to my little mesa.  When they came around a tree at 25 yards I put my sight on the lead bird and pulled the trigger.  I got lucky and ended up getting a clean kill on both birds with one shot (legal in WI).  One of the birds even sported a huge double beard.  I’m convinced that the subtle calling technique in late season is what did the trick.  Keep it low key and simple next spring when you’re faced with lonely late season birds and you might have the same luck I did.

Pheasant Hunting in the Dakotas