Fishing Reports: Big Black Drum In Tampa Bay - 3/15/2009

CAPTAINS CORNER

WHAT’S HOT: Large schools of black drum are moving from upper Tampa Bay to the nearshore waters of the gulf. Some of the schools have more than a thousand fish. They are in the 30 to 60lb ranges. Normally they like to stay in the channels of the intercoastal waterway. The schools we’ve been targeting have moved over the flats of lower Tampa Bay. This makes finding the schools easy. The water is a reddish yellow and the surface shakes like a school of redfish. Normally a dark color, spawning drum look more like their cousin the redfish. You can keep one drum over 24 inches, but these larger ones are a poor food source and should be released.

WHAT’S GOOD: Redfish schools are starting to show during the end of the incoming tide. They are spooky and won’t feed when they hear outboard engines and trolling motors. When they do feed you can offer them lures, live and dead bait.

PRO TIPS: Use large jigs on the black drum and gold spoons on the redfish. In areas that are void of pinfish, use a large live shrimp to entice the redfish. If the black drum move into the deeper waters of the intercoastal canal, You will need to wait for them to surface after they sound. More times than not, they will surface in the direction they were heading before the school went deep.