Every year around this time the numbers of black drum in the bay increase, adding to the list of species anglers can target. A schooling species with habits similar to red drum (redfish), black drum can be found in many places in the bay, with rock and oyster bars and flooded mangrove lines prime spots to fish.
Fish have been ranging from small pups to some jumbo specimens. They are crab eaters and can be taken with any type of crab, including chunks of blue crab. Live or frozen shrimp also works, and soft-plastic crab imitations can produce well at times. Capt. George Hastick reported taking one last week on a live sardine, however, which is unusual.
The daily bag limit on drum is five fish per angler, with the legal slot size 14 to 24 inches. Some report fish toward the smaller end of this range are good to eat. It’s not unusual for larger drum to carry worms in their flesh. Many anglers avoid eating them no matter the size, catching and releasing them for sport.
Fish of 30 inches or more pull like a runaway locomotive when hooked and are quite the challenge on medium spinning gear. Black drum can be legally taken in cast nets, by spear or gig, as well.
Guide bites
Capt. George Hastick (727-525-1005): Capt. George doesn’t think the cooler air that arrived last week and cool nights this week are going to spoil the fishing in the bay. He expects that as we approach the weekend the bite on snook, reds and trout will rebound to the prefront conditions. He’s been doing well on snook around flooded mangroves, as well as under docks. Fish from 20 inches to slot size have been the norm, with as many as a dozen being boated on some trips. He’s been working the Pinellas side of the bay below and above the Gandy Bridge, occasionally taking a few on either side of the bridge on the Hillsborough side. Redfish have been in many of the same spots, with fish 14 to 28 inches landed on recent trips. Oddly, the little rat reds have been mingling with the bigger fish, whereas they typically run in schools of fish their own size. Over the past week, he’s added black drum to his catches, with fish schooling and some running quite large. He did note that the larger ones have been playing hard to get. Trout fishing has been pretty good, and Capt. George thinks that will hold over the next week. Live shrimp and soft-plastic Sea Shad tails on jig heads is producing slot-sized fish on grass flats with sand holes in 4 to 6 feet of water, but some of the fish landed on his charters have come from deeper residential canals. For fun, schools of jacks are showing up from time to time, with fish from 1.5 to 3 pounds taking about any natural or artificial bait.
Tackle shop roundup
Gandy Bait & Tackle (813-839-5551): Bill reports customers have been having some pretty good days in the bay, with mixed bags of trout, reds and some black drum. A few catches of goliath grouper were made. The reds have been plentiful, but many are weeding through short fish to get the bigger ones. Productive areas include Weedon Island, the Fourth Street flats, and Cypress Point. There also have been some good catches at the top of the bay, with Rocky Creek and the surrounding flats good places to try. Trout fishing on the grass flats in the Gandy Bridge area has been just so-so, with jigs with soft-plastic tails and live shrimp under popping corks working best. Lots of undersized fish has been the norm over the past week. Offshore from the bay, the hogfish bite has been excellent. One customer fishing about 8 miles out loaded up on big ones. He also reported that schools of kingfish were working all around him, with some big fish skyrocketing out of the water.
Riviera Bait & Tackle (727-954-6365): Jacob says the big black drum have shown up in force in the bay, with small, live shrimp the best bait for them. Look for them around bars and running in schools. Large redfish have been taken over the past week just outside of Venetian Isles, with fresh cut bait on the bottom the top fish-getter. Sheepshead numbers have been increasing in the bay, with dock and bridge pilings the place to find them. Live or dead shrimp and live fiddler crabs are the best baits. A lot of snook have moved into residential canals but while they are being seen, they have been slow to bite. If they do bite, it’s been later in the afternoons, but anglers have been contending with lots of ladyfish as they try for them. As is typical as we close in on winter, the mangrove snappers in the bay are working their way to deeper water. Right now, the bulk of the bay fish are in deeper pockets and channels around the Skyway Bridge, and eventually a lot of these fish will head to the depths offshore in the Gulf. Live shrimp is a good bait for them.