Latitudinal trends are present in multiple groups of organisms. Widely distributed species experience broad environmental gradients with differences in temperature that translate to differences into dynamic rate functions. When evaluating widely distributed fishes in a large river system, one particular interest is the influence of latitude on recruitment, growth and mortality. This study explored effects of latitude and temperature on the population dynamics of Freshwater Drum Aplodinotus grunniens along the Upper Mississippi River. Examination of the dynamic rate functions indicated that Freshwater Drum populations from northern locations experienced greater variability in recruitment, smaller maximum lengths, longer lifespans and lower mortality rates than their southern counterparts. One potential hypothesis to explain these results concerns temperature differences between northern and southern latitudes. Regressions between average annual temperature and population characteristics suggested that temperature is a good predictor of Freshwater Drum population attributes along this latitudinal gradient. This has implications for the understanding of population dynamics of widely distributed organisms in large riverine systems.