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Black Drum on the Move

Frank Sargeant

Black Drum

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By FRANK SARGEANT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 20, 2009

Schools of monster-size black drum are still prowling lower Tampa Bay; you can see the mass of fish as they cruise the edges of the flat on calm mornings. Waters around Pinellas Point have been good in recent weeks. These are fish of 40 to 50 pounds—they look like redfish on steroids, but the coloration is a silver gray, with bluish tails.

Black drum eat mostly crabs and shellfish, and a small live crab cast into a school assures an instant bite. But, they also readily take a dark-colored plastic-tail jig, a Gulp!, or DOA crab, as well as plastic shrimp, the bigger the better.

The fish are found in water 4 to 8 feet deep, typically, and there are likely to be other boats working them. To succeed, everyone has to use caution and avoid motoring right up to the school; fish them more like beach tarpon, positioning your boat ahead of the school and allowing them to swim up to you, or approaching by push pole or trolling motor.

Though small black drum are just as tasty as redfish, most people do not eat the larger ones, which almost always have wormy flesh; enjoy the fight, take a few pictures, and release them to fight again.

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