Took a ride to 16 on saturday and managed to quickly be hooked up on some black drum. Nothing to large with the Biggest being 58 lbs. Many boats out there, the "Armada" brought in a 90 plus pounder. Sunday was about the same a couple fish averaged 50 lbs. Pics to follow

"TEAM PARAMOUR"

Welcome to the board and thanks for the report.
Todd

Thanks for the report and welcome to the board.

Mark

Ive never caught Black Drum and was thinking of going Wednesday(tomorrow). I think I know how, fish finder with clam or crab. Are you fishing the deep water or the channel edge like cobia? Also, my main question is can you eat Blacks? If not, (b/c thats what im hearing), then I guess you take your own scales to estimate the weight? Thanks in advance for the info.

Thanks for the report.

riggnts, you can eat black drum. Minimum size is 16", 1 per person.

You can eat any fish - at least once! However, Big Black Drum (35inch plus) tend to accumulate large parasitic worms in the rear body sections. The worms do not parasitize people and if properly cooked, might be tasty. Personally, I only eat the smaller ones (drum that is) and find them quite tasty. If possible, try to bleed it out from the gills as soon as you decide to keep it. Give them a very serious knock on the head and cut their gills. If done properly, you can see the blood pumping out. Try it sometime. Catch 'em' up.

Bird man

Where is the 16? Is it bayside of the highrise? tx

Mark

ya i wouldn't try to eat a big drum i heard they had worms too

16 is off the concrete ships. 13 is near the Highrise at the south end of Latimer Shoal.

Big blacks can have worms but you can easily cut around them if you want to eat them. I hear it is a tougher meat, like a pork chop.

The big black drum are poor table fare. They are tougher and the meat has a muddy flavor to it, at least the one I tasted did. I don't care for it. I think they are better released to fight another day and repopulate the species. I notice that's kind of a trend among inshore species. The smaller, younger bluefish, red drum, black drum and AJ's are ok to eat while the older, larger fish are tougher and taste strange. Stripers seem to be an exception to that, at least to me they all seem to be pretty tasty. Anyone else find this to be true?

i have found that once they get over 60 lbs the quality of the meat goes down hill quick

And it takes years for them to get big, so I toss them back.

tHANKS TO ALL RESPONDERS.
I GET THE DRIFT ON THE SMALLER FISH ARE BETTER(PUPPY DRUM -VS- RED DRUM RELEASE CITATION SIZE, SMALL CAT -VS- BIG CAT, ETC.) IF I LUCK OUT AND GET A SMALL ONE, I WILL EAT IT, IF NOT, RELEASE. THANKS AGAIN.
BY THE WAY, ENDED UP BLACK SEA BASS FISHING OFF ANOTHER BOAT. IT WAS SLOW BUT THIS CAPTAIN IS THE DEAL ON WRECKS THAT "ARENT REALLY THERE". MEANING, HE HAS HIS OWN SPOTS. THE BASS ARE OBVIOUSLY SOUTH OF WHERE WE WERE TODAY. TODAY WAS OUR FIRST "FISHING" EXPEDITION". BROUGHT HOME 10 BUT LEFT THINKING THE BIG NUMBERS ARE FARTHER SOUTH THAN THE TRIANGLES(WHERE WE ENDED). HE HAS A SITE WITH INFO AT:
http://catchingtheusualsuspects.com/ OR EMAIL AT
mailto:captbillburfield@msn.com
AND I AM NOT A PAID ADVERTISER OF HIM BUT JUST CAN TELL YOU HE HAS PLENTY OF WRECK KNOWLEDGE.
ANYWAY THANKS FOR THE INFO ON BLACK DRUM!

yep i think that too the younger fish got the good meat and the older fish are kinda old!

Around buoy 13 or 16 the water is only 18-24 feet deep on the edge of Latimer shoal. Try to find a bit of a drop off near either of these buoys and set up there. I've experimented there many years with Bird Man. One thing we discovered is that on an outgoing tide buoy 16 is best. You anchor in the deeper water and let the current pull the back of the boat towars the shallower water on the shoal. That is completely backwards of how I thought you should fish that spot. I set up for years on the shallow water and let my baits back into the deeper water without good results. Once I reversed it we started cathcing a lot more black drum. On an incoming tide buoy 13 seems to be better. There are some cuts in and around 9 foot shoals that also are worth checking out-but be careful out on 9 ft. at night-big waves can develop out there and you can't see them after dark.
Throw the big drum back. We don't kill any black drum over 32 inches-but the 18-28 inch black drum are pretty tasty.
Catch, photo and release the jumbos.

In my experience, they are excellent tablefare. They are a pain-in-the-butt to clean properly, and there is some NASTY stuff in there to go through/cut out, and there is a lot of waste for a fish of that size, but the meat of the fish is delicious. Who woulda thought...

Usually not worth the time/trouble, there is alot more "easier eating" out there. Kind of depends on how much of a fish-cleaning mood I'm in