Does anyone fish for spawning drum? The best descriptive I could find in articles is summarized as "they spawn in backwater areas under 33ft deep when the water reaches 65 degrees". Is there a way to catch good numbers of spawners like with other fish? Are they easy to locate? Etc.

Eric

I looked into this a while back, and didn't find a whole lot of helpful information. I've always joked about targeting drum, because I don't know of anyone who does it, or would even know how to target them. I think outside of rivers and running spillways, it would be kind of hard to catch a cooler full of them compared to white bass.

I catch a lot of them below the dam with my fly rod. I use small flies, maximum of 1/32 ounce jig head. I usually catch them tight to a vertical drop off or concrete structure. I let the bait drop to the bottom and pull it very very slowly. It's usually a very light bite. I've caught over 25 in a couple hours on more than one occasion.

This won't answer your question about their spawning habits, but I target them for fun sometimes, and catch them up over 15-20 lbs fairly frequently. They fight harder than a largemouth, and don't make bad table fare. If you are targeting drum, use crawdads. They will always eat crawdads. If you can't catch anything else, drum will eat crawdads. If you want to catch a lot of them, I would rig up several poles with light wire circle hooks on a Carolina rig type leader set up. Space them out and let the fish hook themselves. Put wide gap octopus hooks or a good J hook on the combo you plan on holding onto. If you can find an area with a crapload of mussel shells, that is usually a good area.

I don't know if I have ever seen them spawning or not, but they are always active in the spillways, rivers, and rip rap as the water temps get to the 65 degree mark, but I catch them year round in moving water.

They usually don't move up until the catfish move up to spawn. We catch a lot during the catfish spawn on the rocks using cut gizzard shad.

I have caught tons of them along the rip rap at Ray Hubbard. Like stated they typically show up when the water temps hit 65 degrees and crawdad tails really do make the best bait. I have never caught a big one but you will catch plenty 3lbs or less.

Thanks guys!

Eric