Giant Red Drum like this can be caught across our sounds from Wilmington to Elizabeth City!
A recent trip to the Pamlico Sound returned me to a pinnacle in my fishing career and reminded me of just how much I love fishing for Redfish. And especially the Giant Bull Reds that come into the sound in late summer to feed and spawn before they move out into the ocean.
Once again, I was out with my buddy Captain Scooter Lilley who practically makes his living from these waters. Scooter guides clients across the Pamlico and Albemarle sounds for Striped Bass, Speckled Trout and Red Drum. We’ve fished with him for each of these species several times on the show but this past week we were targeting big red drum. When I say “big” I mean redfish exceeding 45 inches long and up to 50 lbs!
Captain Scooter Lilley of CWW Inshore Charters uses his side scan to locate “hard bottom” where these big drum like to search for food and spawn.
Typically, we use popping corks and target schools of menhaden but with the recent weather Scooter changed tactics and went with a traditional cut-bait and drum rig set up. The traditional drum rig is large egg weight attached above a swivel with about a foot to 18-inch mono leader and 4/0 or larger hook. Now the rigs have much shorter leaders and circle hooks to keep these giants from swallowing the hook as easily and catching in the gut or where extraction would be too difficult. This type of rig is saving a lot of red drum from being killed and that’s a good thing for everyone!
A modern drum rig with a shorter leader a pyramid weight and a circle hook.
Once we got to our destination, which seemed in the middle of the sound, scooter baited up two rods and we prepared to sit a while and watch rod tips. It wasn’t long before we watched one of the rods start dancing and then almost go to the water as a giant drum had picked up the bait and moved off and the circle hook did its job. After a short battle we put this beast in the boat for the camera to document and then released and repeated. All in all, we caught 5 bull reds, and I was completely whooped!
Back in 1971 our legislature made the red drum our official state fish. That was a fitting designation because these drum are truly special and historically important to us and need to be conserved. Our populations have a “stable” status right now, but we can’t rest assured that the populations will stay at this level. Our waters have the potential to be world class and that’s where our friends at the North Carolina Marine and Estuary Foundation come in. They’re dedicated to bringing our red drum to world class levels and this in turn enhances coastal community economies. In fact, they’re funding a new study on these giant drum and we’re looking forward to learning more about these awesome fish and how we can bring their populations up. We’ll keep you posted on their progress, and we hope that you will check out their website and find a way to support this very important work that’s going on!
The spots of each drum are like finger prints on humans, no two are the same. This bull had a unique marking. Possibly the O.G. "Original Gangster"?
If you want to try big bull red fishing for yourself, give Scooter a call and experience this fishery for yourself! (CWW Inshore Charters 252.799.9536). You won’t regret it!
-Chris
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