More Giant Black Drum

We finally landed one of these huge fish this morning. I posted a report and photos of the massive school of drum we found last week, but I never got one into the boat until today. I hooked it off the bottom while fishing with my dad near McCardle Island, just a few miles south of Matlacha.

This is an impressive looking catch in the photos but it didn't require any angling skill. Unlike their close cousin the redfish, black drum of this size fight like a bag of cement, and taste like one, too.

The most exciting part was seeing hundreds of his schoolmates tailing all around us on a two-foot deep oyster bar earlier that morning. The acre sized school was a ignoring everything we tossed their way and was totally indifferent to us driving all over them. They had no fear of my boat and if shanking a black drum with a bow and arrow was legal in Florida, then I could have fed our entire island for a week.

This particular thirty pounder finally sucked up the wrong bait. I caught it in ten feet of water while I was casting at some beautiful rolling tarpon. I had it to the boat in less than ten minutes and released him right after these photos. So after a week of trying, I finally got my picture taken with one of the ugliest fish that swims around Pine Island. Mission accomplished for now and I'll be back to the reds and snook for the rest of the year.