I'm looking into drum fishing, and looking for some basic to advanced tips to help me get started.
I have a catfish rod from what I hear is perfect. My closest lake is Lake Grapevine.
Any tips or pointers no matter how basic would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Austin

I would fish a slip rig with night crawlers or better live crayfish near rocks or rip wrap, while fishing that live bat use a white roadrunner and bounce it along the bottom with another rod. I think dmunsie told me about fishing night crawlers with a bit of tin foil wrapped around the hook as an attractor not covering the point to target drum I could be wrong as it was years ago.

Do you know if there is anyway to fish the rip rap by the dam at lake grapevine by shore? also thank you for the information, are there other fish besides freshwater drum and bass that i might catch on crayfish?

Catfish (especially channel's or flatheads) and possibly carp if they can fit it in their mouth.

I didn't know carp ate em, I always thought they'd be too big, guess I'll just use the tails on them to catch carp if I ever try that!

Alot of guy that target carp on the fly use crayfish patterns. you would definitely have to use a crayfish on the smaller side (3 1/2 inch length max) if you were trying to catch a carp. There are also guys in the crappie section that use mini crawfish replica lures/jigs and catch crappie on them as well. alot of fish eat mudbugs, it just depends on the size of the crawfish as to what will eat them.

what size hook and crawfish should i use for drum fishing?

Are you talking about Gasper gou or Buffalo? I caught Gou with small live shad,small but stiff spine hooks #6? and ran hook up the mouth thru the nose a couple split shot and good to go.Buffalo with crawfish tails and hooked thru the base not wormed on. Same bottom setup with a couple split shot a foot up.I haven't fished for them in a while so may not work anymore.You don't need a big hook,you need a strong hook if you know what I mean.Smaller mouths. By the way,I never caught big ones.4lb on gou and maybe 10lb on Buffalo. I think your talking about targeting big fish,I can't help you there.

Alright, thank you!