Black Drum Haul 6/4 - 6/7, 2011

[MathGeek]

We caught these black drum between the end of the jetties and buoy on the western jetty in Bell Pass last June. The picture shows one day's catch. Crab on a falling tide about an hour before sunset produced similar hauls four days in a row. My wife does a great job preparing black drum and bull reds either as ka bobs or fried (the kids call them drum sticks), and it is one of my kids favorite meals.

The oysters in most of Louisiana inshore waters are really hurting right now, and the black drum can easily demolish attempts to establish new oyster beds. It would probably help the oyster recovery to keep all the legal black drum you catch this year.

[Salty]

Them's some hosses.

[ckinchen]

Looks like the kids had a lot of fun, that is what it is all about.

[DUCKGOGETTER]

Originally Posted by ckinchen

Looks like the kids had a lot of fun, that is what it is all about.

X1000

[shellman]

Big nasty parade....

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by shellman

Big nasty parade....

The kids love the fight these big drum can put up and are plumb wore out 30-45 minutes later when the drum gets to the net. Yes, they are a bit hard to clean, and drum fillets should be added to list of things that one should never see being made. But properly trimmed and prepared drum are one of the kids favorite fish to eat also. The day after the girls caught their big drum, my two boys caught their big drum in the same spot which really helped my older son's (12) enthusiasm after having a big fish break off earlier in the week. I have to admit, I also get the same adrenaline dump fighting a big drum as a big redfish.



The picture above is my brothers and I after our best day fishing in our youth (Calcasieu Pass, June 1977). It was a few days after my 10th birthday. It seemed like my dad would often get a report of where the fishing was hot in the Lake Charles area, and we would get there a day or two late or be using a wrong technique, so we got skunked a lot. (OK, not really skunked, we caught a lot of croaker, hardheads, and puppy drum). When we did occasionally hook into a big fish, our equipment and skill level were not up to the task. I used a Zebco 202 on a red, white, and blue "Spirit of '76" Zebco rod most of the time. My grandpa gave my twin brother and I some higher end gear for our 10th birthday, and we caught the big drum in the picture on our next trip. (I'm the boy holding the smaller drum.)

[Asterisk-Rich]

nice!

[mriguy]

Cool pic.

[Ratdog]

Great stuff
When u cleaned them did u see worms. I been having a hard time wit worms so I been setting crab traps wit dem.
But ya great fights. Good job guys.

Let me know about count. Mine is 22 out of 30 had worms.

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by Ratdog

Great stuff
When u cleaned them did u see worms. I been having a hard time wit worms so I been setting crab traps wit dem.
But ya great fights. Good job guys.

Let me know about count. Mine is 22 out of 30 had worms.

I've never filleted a bull black drum that was completely free from the worms. The ones we caught in Calcasieu the last few years seem to have a larger portion of the fillets impacted than the one's we caught in Bell Pass and the Fourchon area, some of which had very few worms. In the old days, we'd just fry 'em up worms and all and the worms just seemed to disappear in the process. More recently, my wife prefers we cut out the worms. The ones in the picture from 1977 had worms too.