This was the second year in a row that Jason and I were invited to do some black drum fishing on our friend Ron's annual drum charter. Last year's trip was slow with only 3 boated with Jason boating one @#70. This year I was looking to score my first.
Left the dock at 2:30 PM and after a 45 minute we joined the fleet. As we pulled up we saw 2 other boats into fish. Had a wind against tide situation to start so the captain said we need to be have some patience until the tide turned. Once baits were in the water in took about 20 minutes before we had the first drum on the line. After a spirited battle the #35 class fish was decked and released. Jason was the next to hook up and soon he he put a #50 aboard. Wasn't too much longer before I finally was into my first drum a fish in the #35-40 class. Even with the wind against tide situation we had a nice pick as 2 more were boated before the slack. Once we had better conditions it was game on. I landed a #55 and Jason put on in the boat #60+. I landed another #45-50 pound class drum to bring my total to 3. Jason ended the trip with 2. Big fish of the day was #70+.
Out of 22 hook ups we landed 18 (all but 2 were released). 2 of the fish lost were due to hooks being pulled at the boat and the 2 other lost was due to line breakage.
These are some powerful fish, that make some strong drag pulling runs and they certainly know how to use the tide & current to their advantage.
Already looking forward to next year's trip.
