It's been a busy month with a lot of variety. From casting lures for Trout, Flounder and Red Fish to bottom fishing for Sheepshead, Black Drum and Bull Reds.
But, what goes up, must come down. The Trout bite has slowed down quite a bit. This trend of warmer, calm weather combined with a full moon has killed my hot streak. I'm still on them but in less numbers and in smaller sizes. I could work new territory and try to get back on better Trout but, business is back up and I gotta get back on what sells, "Drag Pullers".
I spent a day hitting a number of productive Inlet holes in an attempt to reassess what's around out there. I haven't been spending much time in my usual playground. It didn't take long to figure out that the Bull Reds and Black Drum were pretty thick. Long story short, we've been dropping the hammer on the Drum! It's odd seeing them out there like this in late December. In previous years, we caught Drum this size in February. They normally come in in big numbers preceding the Bull Drum spawn. This makes me wonder if we're going to see the big girls early this year. The water temperature in the Inlet is 70 degrees right now. That's insane with January being only a few days away.
The Drum are holding in the deeper troughs from 45-65 feet of water. I'm finding some on the inside, South trough(inside the South row) but, the more consistent bite has been in the North trough(inside the North row). The Bull Reds are in both areas, and THICK.
The bait of choice has been Blue Crab on a hand tied Dropper Rig. I use a 7/0 Owner, Circle Hook, 30 pound mono leader and a 6oz Bank Sinker. I've been running lighter tackle, 7 foot, Medium action, Star Rods paired with 2500 series Penn, Spinfisher V's spooled with 15 pound Spider, Ultracast. If you run heavier line, you will need heavier lead. If you're running line 50 pound test or higher, you can expect to need 10-12oz lead to hold bottom.
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Danny Pardue