Anyone fish for drum or buffalo?

['96 Charger]

I'm a big river fisherman and have had decent luck catching drum and buffalo by accident while fishing for bass. Found out they'll knock the peedoodle out of a green senko here. While I love bass fishing feeling a big buffalo load up and make a heavy heavy with 50lb braid cry for mercy sure gets my blood flowing. Any tips for increasing my luck for these ugly lunkers?

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Anyone fish for drum or buffalo?

Buffalo???

Try trolling an ear of corn or casting out some hay cubes... Penn 80W loaded with 200# spectra, fighting chair mounted in the bed of an ol' Chevy PU...



Honestly I have no clue, never fished for them. If they are anything like carp, try a ball of oatmeal with a small treble hook burried inside, loads of fun on a 4-6# trout rod!

 

['96 Charger]

Re: Anyone fish for drum or buffalo?

lol one thing I love about the river is you never know what you're gonna catch.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Anyone fish for drum or buffalo?

While I love bass fishing feeling a big buffalo load up and make a heavy heavy with 50lb braid cry for mercy sure gets my blood flowing.

#50 braid for bass fishin? Good Lord.

 

[hoytvectrix]

Re: Anyone fish for drum or buffalo?

I like bow fishin them, but thats bout it

 

['96 Charger]

Re: Anyone fish for drum or buffalo?

#50 braid for bass fishin? Good Lord.

Muddy water around major structure. I usually use 8-12lb test mono in clear water.

 

[Dave Barnett]

Re: Anyone fish for drum or buffalo?

Although I've never intentionally went after drum or buffalo, I have caught quite a few on Shad and an ole night crawler. When we fish the lake of the ozarks (trolling) I have noticed the odd drum that will go after our silver colored Rapalas. These baits seem to be what attracts them the most.
I do understand your enthusiasm of catching them. They are a fun fish to fight.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Anyone fish for drum or buffalo?

What the heck is a buffalo?? Just curious.

 

['96 Charger]

Re: Anyone fish for drum or buffalo?

What the heck is a buffalo?? Just curious.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/sear...gle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF8&p=buffalo fish pictures
It's what most people including me consider a "trash" fish. I think they're a form a carp. My family goes bow hunting for them when they're spawning then cuts the ribs out. I've eaten plenty of buffalo ribs in my day but will take a brim, crappie, or walleye any day of the week for eating. My boss told me the artificials I've been catching them on probably look close enough to live bait for them to hit. I'm willing to bet that some of the lunkers I've lost in the past due to inexperience have been buffalo, drum, and/or carp.
Here's a drum I caught a couple weeks ago. For reference those needle nose pliars are about 8" long.

 

[Dave Barnett]

Re: Anyone fish for drum or buffalo?

Buffalo are a type of sucker. I found a pretty good pic of one online (first pic) and a link to a site that tells about them.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/buffalo+fish

Drum are a species all their own here is a link to a site that tells about them. It is a rather opinionated site but it does a good job of explaining them.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1839/is-the-drum-fish-the-worlds-most-useless-fish

The second Pic is of my son Dave Jr. with a drum he caught this summer on the Gasconade river here in MO. He was using a night crawler fishing it off the bottom by a log snag.

 

[dlngr]

Re: Anyone fish for drum or buffalo?

... and the 1st picture is a carp,just to save confusion. The Illinois river is loaded with drum,we also call them buffalo,or sheephead. They are fun to catch,but too much trouble to clean[in my opinion]too many small bones..They do have a very good flavor and texture though.
It's impossible to fish the river with a nightcrawler and not be overwhelmed by these pests.