Black Drum Fishing

Every spring – actually late winter and early spring, the black drum make their way into the inlets up and down the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. This is the time of year that the big breeder fish come in to spawn.

Black drum fishing enthusiasts make plans months ahead of time, tuning up their tackle, and their boats. Although the average “big” drum catch is around 40 pounds, these fish can reach weights over 100 pounds, and annually many fish that size are caught.

This is really a relatively simple fishing experience. You don’t really need any special tackle other than a heavy rod and reel with 50 pound test line. Simply put a bait on the bottom and wait.

Each inlet has specific spots that anglers have found over the years that seem to produce more fish. The easiest way to find one of these spots is to get out there on a weekend and look for the gaggle of anchored boats. With channelized inlets, they will generally be anchored along the edge of a channel that is often the deepest water in the inlet. Sometimes they will be just inside the inlet, around an eddy that slows the current a bit.

In non-channelized inlets, they can be found fishing the deep holes on the inside of the sandbars. The breakers are crashing the bar in front of them, and they have baits down in the deeper holes.

Speaking of bait, there are two primary baits that the “experts” use. While anglers usually prefer one or the other, both baits will work equally well. These baits are clams and crabs.

A whole or half blue crab on an 8/0 hook is about as good a bait as you can get. If the crab is small, use the whole crab. If it’s a big crab, cut it in half or even quarter it. Some anglers say that the cut crab works better because it can be found easier with the scent in the water. Some of them will crunch a whole crab to release those scents.

Clams have to be cut out of their shell and tied to the hook. Bread tie twists work here. If the clam is big, you only need one, but smaller clams mean using the meat from several of them.

While these are the primary baits, these fish can be caught on other baits. Sometimes whiting fisherman , fishing with small shrimp will hook into a big drum. I think about the only bait I have not seen work well is cut bait. That said, I will now get a ton of people telling me that cut bait works just fine. Maybe so, but not in my experience.

The technique is simple. Anchor over the fishing spot and put a line or two on the bottom. Set the clicker on the reel, and then sit back, drink a cup of coffee and wait for the bite. It is really a relaxing fishing experience – until that reel goes off!

Fighting a big drum is something akin to fighting a big rock. You have to pump and grind and get them off the bottom. They fight hard, but they also fight slow. You won’t have any long fast runs. You will have a slug fest to get him to the surface.

The fishing is fun, but the fish itself is, in my opinion, not so much fun. There are anglers out there that swear by the meat from these big fish. Many of them ‘pickle” the meat and can it for later meals. In my experience, the meat is extremely fatty and coarse. I had a hard time getting past the smell after I cleaned one – and all it took was one for me.

I do eat smaller drum – those under ten pounds. They are actually quite good. But, the big boys are not even on my radar. I will take someone drum fishing for the experience, but I do everything in my power to convince them to take a picture of it and let it go. Some of those who kept one anyway ended up calling me and telling me I was right.

But – as the saying goes – to each his own. To all you folks out there that love them, I say more power to you! I hope you catch a record fish! To those who don’t want to eat them, I say take care of them and release them to fight again another day!

Making Custom Fishing Rods

Everyone has seen them. Those hand wrapped beauties in the rod holders just begging to be handled. A snakeskin butt wrap glistens in the sun. Custom made rods: who wouldn't give just about anything to have one.

In my early fishing days, a loose thread on a guide wrap getting caught in my line frustrated me so badly I tried to rewrap the guide. After several attempts I actually got pretty good at it. That gave me the urge some years back to build a rod of my own. It was before all of the components were available to make building a rod easy. I literally hand wrapped the first one, with a spool of thread coming through the pages of a heavy book for tension and a rod blank in my lap. I knew nothing about backbones or splines. Had no idea where the guides should be placed or why a wrap should be clockwise in once instance and counterclockwise in another. But wrap one I did, and you know, I actually caught fish on it.

Over the next couple of years I purchased several rod building instruction books and learned the theories and rules behind good rod construction. I built a number of rods for myself back then. Components were reasonably priced and the rod was not that much more expensive than comparable commercially built rods. The difference was the pride factor.

I even began to get some requests to build rods for friends. One Christmas all of the guys chipped in and paid me to build a matched pair of heavy spin rods for the boss. It was time consuming, but fun building them. I figured I might be able to make some money at this!

Let me tell you about work versus fun. Sometimes what you like to do can become a real burden when you suddenly have to do it. Rod building had became a real burden. Everything was manual ( the great wrapping blocks we now use were nonexistent). I was spending five hours building one rod, and selling it for $20 more than the parts. That's $4 an hour folks! It didn't take much of that for me to revert back to "fun" building.

I still mess with building rods every now and then. Its good stress therapy. I even came up with my own snake skin pattern for my butt wraps. But mostly now I simply put my own butt wraps on store bought rods. Even at wholesale discount prices for parts, I can't approach the price for these store rods, and most are really well built.

There are a lot of places to get quality parts for building your own rod. Lots of them are here on the Internet, and I've linked to a number of them for you on the Custom Rod Building Page. Try building one for yourself. Start by rewrapping the guides on an "old but good" rod. Perfect your wrapping skill there and take on a whole rod. Even if you don't want to get that involved, it's really nice to have people look at the butt wrap on your rods and drool!!

Ever made a rod? Still making them? Got a question about rod building? Tell me about it. Email me your experiences and questions.

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