You say you want to catch only trophy-sized black drum, without lots of little fish getting in the way? These fish get rather huge, and if you want to target the mammoths among them, put these tips to good use.
- Offer up hard crab. While baits like shrimp or soft crab might get more bites, they’ll also get more nips and nibbles from small fish and species that have softer mouths. With hard crab, on the other hand, many fish will have a lot of difficulty crunching through that shell and they won’t bother with it. But those big black drum? They have molars as big as ours so the shell presents no problem, and they do enjoy crunching on hard crab.
- Offer up a B-I-G bait. If the crabs are large chop them in half or if the crabs are small, use a whole one. (Crack the shell with a sinker before lowering the bait over the side, so it leaks a bit of juice and the fish can smell it). Either way, tempt the fish with a meal-sized offering that’s bigger than the palm of your hand. Fish in the 50-pound class and larger often won’t even bother with a smaller bait.
- When you’re catching small black drum, consider changing locations entirely. You know that old saying, birds of a feather flock together. While there certainly are times and places where black drum of various sizes will school together, the bulk of the time they’ll he hanging around with fish of a similar size and age.
- Use a very large circle hook, 10/0 at least and often 12/0. Different manufacturers rate their hooks differently so not all 10/0s are equal, but as a rule of thumb make sure the hook looks like it’s almost too big. Remember, these fish have giant jaws and thick jaw hinges. You need a big circle hook to make sure it gets purchase in the corner of that mouth.
- Upside your gear appropriately. Some people say black drum fight like a tire, but those people probably haven’t hooked into too many mammoths. They tug more like a tow truck than a tire, and if you fish with gear in the 20-pound class or lower it will take an extended fight to get them in. Moving up to 30- to 40-pound gear will help minimize fight time and maximize the fish’s survival.
And remember people, those huge drum aren’t good to eat and often have worms in their meat, so it’s best to take a quick pic then put those mammoth fish right back over the side.