[KILSONG]

Big black drum fishing just started in Delaware Bay.
Though drum don't fight well for their sizes, it is fun to catch 30-90 lbs drum with light tackles in shallow water. Big drums come into the Bay for spawning in the spring ( usually in mid-May) and stay about for a month.
Big drum is one of few species I couldn't land them on jigs. I don't know it is lack of my effort or they simply don't hit jigs.
Did anybody have a big drum on jigs ?

I highly recommend to release any drum as there is no reason to kill the big drum just for small portion of meat. The drum of 50 lbs or over is usually 30 - 40 years old.

a nice drum estimated at 60 -70 lbs which was released yesterday.

This post edited by KILSONG 04:09 PM 05/09/2008

 

[willie864]

I haven't done drum fishing for several years, but my group used to charter the buccaneer out of cape charles, va. and the area was known as the black drum capital of the world. We caught drum on very light tackle in 60 feet of water. These fish did not make any type of run and only went up and down, and all were caught on fresh opened skimmers. Last year while bluefishing in sheepshead bay I saw two very large drum caught on jigs. The larger of the drum around 80 lbs was caught on as gold hammered jig. which was being bounced on the bottom for stripers. This fish was hooked on the pulpit and was landed in the stern, dont know if the fish made a run or not but the fisherman was running down side as he thought it was a big striper, and he is one of the better fisherman around.

 

[KILSONG]

Willie, good to know big drum can take jigs.
I also used to go down to Cape Charles for black drum around Memorial Day, but I don't go there anymore as black drum run in Delaware is as good as our of Cape Charles in recent years.

 

[KILSONG]

TJ of OTI ( Ocean Tackle International) visited NJ from Texas fro promoting their products. He wanted to go tuna jigging or popping, but I asked him to go black drum fishing as tuna season is still too early. Black drum fishing in Delaware has been great last three weeks, but I was a tittle warried becasue it is time they start to leave the Bay after spawning.
We left dock on the Stalker out of Cape May on 2:00 pm yesterday, but we found very slow fishing. However after the tide change around 7:00 pm, they started biting and we caught nice drum in 40 - 65 lbs range. Capt gave us extra two and half hours.

I fished many captains out of Cape May and they all work hard for customers to enjoy and catch fish.

 

[KILSONG]

more pictures

This post edited by KILSONG 02:10 PM 06/08/2008

 

[mrbill1]

Are those big old black drum eatable? They spawn in Feb and March off the Gulf coast. We have worms in our large ones. You can eat them but most people are turned off when they see the worms exiting.

 

[KILSONG]

mrbill1 wrote:
Are those big old black drum eatable? They spawn in Feb and March off the Gulf coast. We have worms in our large ones. You can eat them but most people are turned off when they see the worms exiting.

We don't see worms in drums here. But I'd rather catch and release them though many guys like to eat big drum. 50 - 60 lbs drums are probably 40 -50 years old and there are not much meat though they are big as they have big heads. TJ released the fish after taking pictures.

 

[paul708]

drum fishing has been very good down here this year

i wish i new you guys were here before i called TJ on the boat
i was right down the street most of the day

looks like you had nice trip
it was really foggy in the morning

 

[KILSONG]

paul708 wrote:
drum fishing has been very good down here this year

i wish i new you guys were here before i called TJ on the boat
i was right down the street most of the day

looks like you had nice trip
it was really foggy in the morning
Where have you been ? He was looking for you two days.

 

[paul708]

KILSONG wrote:
paul708 wrote:
drum fishing has been very good down here this year

i wish i new you guys were here before i called TJ on the boat
i was right down the street most of the day

looks like you had nice trip
it was really foggy in the morning
Where have you been ? He was looking for you two days.
Kil. i was down there from fri, didnt have cell for a few days, when i called saturday you guys were on the boat
i stoped over at south jersey to see capt john (his boat was there), and stoped to see TimmyT (also in).talked with timmy for a while, we are expecting a good tuna season. he is ready to go