Trash Fish

After catching the first of my two 6-pound-range drum while smallouth bass fishing on lake St. Clair last Tuesday with my dad and Doug Cummings we started talking about why certain fish like drum are thought of as trash fish. Even though we were smallmouth fishing -- and even though smallmouths are my favorite fish -- the fight with the drum was just as fun as fighting a smallmouth.

For whatever reason, most people hate catching drum when they are fishing for other fish. But it is not just drum or carp or other fish that are commonly thought of as trash fish. Sometimes the same thing happens to game fish. For example, many walleye fisherman hate catching smallmouth bass when they are walleye fishing, even though smallmouth fight harder.

So I guess it is just a matter of what you like to catch the most, and you just decide that everything else is trash. But I don't care what they are. I enjoy the fight with any fish.

And as a side note, I caught about seven fish that day, including a 3-plus-pound smallmouth.

-Nathaniel