Black Drum Redemption

Using a heavier weight fly rod (9 wt.) and having someone on board to land the fish all make for a recipe for success. A 3 plus hour fight becomes a half hour fight and your fish actually makes it to the deck. No need for lengthy, amateurish video to prove to friends and family that you truly had an enormous fish on the fly. By noon, we had 5 eats and 3 fish landed.

If anyone would like to take a stab at guessing the weight of these drum then please do. All we know for sure is that the first fish was the smallest, the 2nd fish somewhat bigger, and the 3rd fish the largest. My 30 lb. boga grip was bottomed out so hard that it likely will never be accurate again!

JB's ("pondfisher") 1st fish - vertical
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...Untitled-2.jpg

JB's 1st fish - horizontal
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...m/IMG_2331.jpg

1st fish release
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...m/IMG_2346.jpg


James' ("spoonfly") 1st fish - vertical
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...Untitled-1.jpg

James' 1st fish - horizontal
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...m/IMG_2380.jpg

1st fish release
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...m/IMG_2405.jpg


JB's 2nd fish - vertical
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...m/Untitled.jpg

JB's 2nd fish - horizontal
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...m/IMG_2442.jpg

2nd fish release
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...m/IMG_2493.jpg

Those things are huge! How do y'all get them to come up to the surface? (Im assuming thats how you caught them)

Nice blackies! I'd say you got your revenge!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pez

Those things are huge! How do y'all get them to come up to the surface? (Im assuming thats how you caught them)

---

Pez,

These drum move slowly around the bridge pilings, nibbling on the piling barnacles and picking up shrimp and crabs here and there. Much of the time they are at the surface, lying on their side and chewing on the barnacles. Their giant tails actually stick out of the water while doing this so it makes for relatively easy sight casting. They are not too spooky so you can get relatively close to make your presentation (approx. 20 ft.). The only trouble is that these are resident bridge fish, meaning that unlike some anglers who target them schooled up on the flats in the Spring while spawning, these fish must be muscled away from the pilings in order to avoid a quick break-off. The second challenge is due to the deep water in the bay. Even when you have the fish away from the bridge, you must then deal with him sounding in water as deep as 30 feet in some places. They will take you to the bottom and just sort of hold you there like a giant ray. It can be demoralizing at times. But they're very big fish and stay green for quite a while. Not easy to land....

All I can say is: WOW!

What an amazing catch on fly around structure. Thanks for sharing:full

Sweet Revenge!!!!

Now thats awesome

I'd guess they weigh between 35 to 45lbs+; looking at the photos. It doesn't look like any of them are over 55lbs but I could be wrong. Hard to tell from photos sometimes.

When it gets really hot bridge black drum will come to the surface for air, and in the winter when it gets really cold they'll come up from the bottom to get some sun to warm them up. Either way they're somewhat lethargic then, especially in the winter. On the bottom they'll take what floats by, but they usually go to shallower water to seriously eat, so it's pretty cool that you could get them to take a fly on the surface at that depth.

If you're seeing drum that size around the surface just imagine what the bigger ones on the bottom could weigh! Over here in the IRL our bridge bottom-dwelling black drum can be 90 to 100+ pounds!


Nice! Congrats!

Well done, nice pics & thanks for sharing. Interesting fly. Any chance of more pics of fly? Thanks again for sharing.