What is the best way to catch black drum?

[paintitup12]

i catch them occasionally with shrimp but not as often as i hope i catch them off a boat ramp what way can i catch easier?

 

[dingbat]

Re: What is the best way to catch black drum?

Around here a 1/2 of a soft shelled Blue Crab is the ticket.

 

[tnduc]

Re: What is the best way to catch black drum?

i catch them occasionally with shrimp but not as pften as i hope i catch them off a boat ramp what way can i catch easier?

I catch them at night with cut mullet.

 

[paintitup12]

Re: What is the best way to catch black drum?

ill give that a try im not sure where to get soft shelled blue crab

 

[tnduc]

Re: What is the best way to catch black drum?

These were all caught on cut mullet at night.

 

[ob]

Re: What is the best way to catch black drum?

These were all caught on cut mullet at night.

Those pics are "red" drum or simply redfish,tnduc.Been catching em for decades here in south Texas.You're right though,the bigger ones bite good on mullet.Plus you can avoid a lot of trash fish hits on the mullet as well.We use a lot of live finger mullet.Nice rack o reds you got there.

Anyhoo,back to the "black" drum.Best baits we use locally for the seasonal run of the big "black drum" is either blue crab as mentioned above or any medium sized indigenous crabs that are locally available.Best to remove pinchers and hook live through the leg sockets.We break off the lateral shell points as well.Makes for an easier to swallow bait and a more sure hookup.
A local favorite bait for black drum is sea lice.We get em either off of the local shrimp boats or bait stands.The lice ,like the black drum run, are seasonal and some years the pickings are slim.They'll readily hit on large fresh shrimp as well as any,but then ,so do the nibblers.And since shrimp are easier to dismantle by little nibblers than crab or sealice,you'll spend less time rebaiting and more time landing drum with crab and lice. Any harder shell crustaceans are prefered as line baits for large black drum.

 

[tnduc]

Re: What is the best way to catch black drum?

Those pics are "red" drum or simply redfish,tnduc.Been catching em for decades here in south Texas.

I know the lighting is bad in the picture, but look a little closer and you will see that about 1/2 of those fish are black drum and the others are reds.

 

[ob]

Re: What is the best way to catch black drum?

10/4.I see that now tnduc.The second and third from the front are clearly black drum now that I look closer.Anyhoo.Nice rack o drums.Red and black.Not sure what time of year in your area that all of the offshore whoppers come in the bays and estuaries for seasonal spawn ,but here the classic time is from mid February thru mid March.Particularly first week in March.That is when the seawater temps are running back up into the mid to upper sixties after the winter chill. They average around 40 plus inches.It's not uncommon to land even larger though.My personal best was 56 inches and around 65 lbs.Some years they have a distinct golden color the first couple of weeks into the run.After that the more merky bay waters turn them to a darker shade of gray,since they injest so much bottom detritis while sucking up crabs and the like.Definately some pole bending fun to catch.

 

[paintitup12]

Re: What is the best way to catch black drum?

the other day i caught i 16inch black drum but i'm a catch and release person

 

[tnduc]

Re: What is the best way to catch black drum?

the other day i caught i 16inch black drum but i'm a catch and release person

I'm a "catch and eat" person, as long it's within the slot limit.