Giant Black Drum off Pine Island

These pictures aren't the best but they show one of three huge black drum we hooked yesterday. We were fishing an oyster bar south of Matlacha when I saw a wave of huge tails swimming our way. They were some of the biggest fish I'd ever seen around Pine Island. There were over a hundred fish in the school and none of them were under twenty pounds. Black drum are closely related to redfish but not as well known, probably because they're one of the ugliest fish on the flats, but they get huge. I hooked two of them on a shrimp fly and one with a Gulp. The one we actually landed easily weighed over forty pounds and I couldn't even lift it on the boat for a better photo. That's what I get for going out without a net or Boga Grip.