Made a mistake

[Ketchn]

nice schools of shad in balls on the surface , really light splashing regularly inside them .
interest got the best of me and was sure it was crappie feeding on them .
headed upstream to the action was me , just to see .....
shortened up my float rig to 2 foot or so and pitched to them .
had to pitch in front of them a little bit, to not spook the shad .
second pitch went as planned and down the float went .
set the hook and KABOOM , the darn thing lit up my reel ......
for sure not a crappie is the word , man did it sizzle my light drag setting .
thought maybe a hybrid striper at first , then it sort of resembled a black bass.
never did jump and began to think maybe a catfish that has not started to roll just yet ?
kept at it for a long time and at one point saw a flash mid river and thought maybe a buffalo ?
finally subdued it and much to my surprise it was a pretty big drum ! sure did have lots of energy for a drum , they mostly give up pretty quickly around here , but I suppose this one did not pay attention in drum school .....

[BuckeyeCrappie]

KABOOM!

[JUNGLEJIMJIGS]

They fight hard at the beginning here and after a minute or so they give up. Don't know how many times I've hooked one thinking I have a big smallie or hybrid striper and then they just give up and then i know it's a drum.

[DockShootinJack]

Gaspergoo