Facts
>The Freshwater Drum is a gray or silvery color in turbid waters. In clearer waters the drum usually is a bronze color. The head is darker than the rest of the body and usually the pectoral fins, pelvic fins, and ventral portion of the body are white while the rest of fins are a darker color. While the drums experience a high degree of variation in their color, they all share the same hump-backed appearance. The drum in the picture below is a 24 lb drum caught in the State of New York and shows the different degree of color a drum can have.
>From ages 0 to 4, both male and female drums experience the same growth rate. After 4 years the female drum grows significantly faster and reaches much larger sizes than the male drum.
>One of the most interesting aspects about the the Freshwater Drum is its otoliths. They are sensitive to gravity and linear acceleration. These earbones have been found on ancient sites of Native Americans sometimes very far away from where the drum lives. The Native Americans used the otoliths as jewelry and good luck charms. Some people still use otoliths today for these very purposes!
>Check out this website to see the statistics on the Freshwater Drum that is the world record holder!