Got out on Thursday to do a little scouting before a Charter next Tuesday. Called my good ole buddy Capt. Shawn Neurath to come along. I have been telling Capt Shawn about how the Black Drum are on fire in Tampa Bay right now so when I invited him to tag along he was all excited. The Biggest drum he has caught is 30" but that was all about to change.
Got to Oniels Marina and loaded up on shrimp and off we were. A short ride to where the Black Drum were located. It was pretty easy to find out where they were milling around, all you had to do is look for about 30-40 boats in a big wad and you were likely to hit the spot. It seriously looks just like Boca Grande Pass Tarpon Fishing.
As I pulled up I quickly noticed a Bunch of boats were hooked up already. When I fish these Black Drum I try to use my Trolling Motor as much as I can. I truly believe that using your big motor pushes these fish down deep. I guess it doesnt really matter when the other 15 of the 40 boats are strictly using there big motors.
We quickly found where the concentration of fish were and hooked up. First fish was hooked by Capt Shawn. He faught the fish for about 10 mins and the hook pulled right beside the boat. Now it was my turn. Couple of more casts later bam second fish on. I use a 6000 Spheros reel with 50lb Braid and a 8 ft Heavy action Ohero Rod so it doesnt take to long to get them in. Fish was about 35 LbS. Few minutes later Capt. Shawn hooks his fish. After some zig zagging in and out of boat we landed his fish as well. We were only there for about 45 minutes and got three fish not to bad.
After that I decided to run to the Skyway to check on the Bait Situation. We found bait fairly quickly. I basically had to locate it on my bottom machine and blind throw. We were just about done and noticed a boat of three guys throwing a 6ft net coming up empty. For those of you that get bait at the Bridge 6 ft is way to small there. They asked if the bait was there they had been trying for hours. I dipped the dip net into the well and pulled up a net full of whitebait and said " YES SIR THEY ARE". I decided to go under the bridge a few more times and loaded there livewell up for them as well. That was my good deed of the day.
Next to check on trout and reds. Pulled into the redfish spot and caught a couple small trout on our way in accross the flat. Next we finally get into position and I notice two different schools. One school to the stern and one to the bow just moving back and forth. The fish were not spooky at all. You could throw a bait right in the middle of where they were laying and they wouldnt budge. The problem was they just wouldnt eat. I threw shimp, cut pin fish, live pinfish, cut whitebait, live white bait. We did manage two reds both measuring right at 30". The few boats around us were having the same problem, just picking up a few here and there.
All in all it was a good day of fishing. It's been awhile since I got out with my Ole buddy Capt Shawn, it was good to get out there with him and get him on some of them monster Black Drum.
