Finding and Catching Black Drum | Inshore Fishing

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1:26For those accessories, everything, they make it so easy to get dialed in so that every shot counts. I've been using Cajun for years all over the place down Florida, across the Midwest, everywhere. Everywhere I go, it works because they make stuff that you can trust. Be sure to check out Cajun Bo fishing to see their full lineup. The Captain's Log Radio. With your host, Captain Jonathan Moss. Hey, welcome to the Captain's Log Radio, our tackle box tip segment presented by Icon Cours. I got Captain Alex Hime with me today. We're talking Black Drum. Now listen, if you listen to the show earlier this week, we did a full hour show all about Black Drum, how we're finding them, how we're catching them. Now I want to break it down. Now listen, one thing we didn't talk about on the show was artificial. Let's discuss on the flats making our presentation to these fish.

2:35Regardless if you're throwing fly or bait or plastics, this is our approach. This is how we catch. Number one, you've got to be looking. Whether you're on the platform or on the front with a trolemotor, you need to be looking for movement in the water. Black Drum and Red Fish are very notorious for pushing water. These Black Drum guys are schooled up. Most of the time when we talk about this on Monday in our Monday show, most of the time these Black Drum aren't in big groups. So if you've got a slick doubt day and you get really still and you're paying attention and you're looking, you can see these fish moving, pushing water, or you can see tails popping up. Right? This happens. Off them. Now here's our approach. Either I'm trolemotor or I'm on the pole,

3:36but most of the time when I'm in the flats, I'm on the pole, but regardless, the approach is the same. I don't want to run up on them really fast. All that's going to do is push these fish. It is a silent, short push, slow approach to getting to range of these fish. You need to be ninja. You need to be stealthy. You need to be quiet because you also might bump up another school that might be in between you and the group that you see movement. If they're moving fast in the other direction, you might need to put your troll motor down and do a big circle in getting in front of them. Alex, you're shaking your head. Add to this, buddy. What do you think? Yep. I generally try to not rush up on fish. It's exciting. When you see a school of tailing fish or school pushing fish, it's exciting to try and get there as fast as possible, but I usually like to establish that there either is or isn't fish in between me and that other school of fish.

4:44Because oftentimes, if you rush up on them, you spook out a big school of fish in between you and that school that you were originally looking at and you blew all of your shots. I like to work pretty slow just to find out if there's fish in between me and those original fish. And then, like you said, if they're pushing pretty good, then you might have to try and either pull very fast to get a big U in front of them or you're going to have to put the troll motor down and try and get in front of them and get a quick shot. Now, Alex, you mentioned something that's really important. Guys, listen to that. If there is a school in between you and the fish that you're trying to get to and you spook them, sometimes, all the time, but I would guess now I would say most of the time, that school that you spooked could spook the original group. So it's really important that you're approaching these fish quietly. You're being methodical. You're thinking through.

5:50You're not getting too excited. You're containing that excitement so that you can make the right moves to get to those fish. I can tell you how many times this happened where there's a group of fish and something pop up in between. So think about that approach. All right, we got close to them. We're in front of them. We're in range. Regardless if you throw on bait or artificial or fly. If I've got a group of fish, I want to present to them on the edges. I want those fish to approach that lure or that bait, that fly. I don't want to cast into the middle of the group because what's going to happen? One freaks out. They all freak out. If your line hits them, they're going to take off. If you're throwing a fly and you're line one or you're flying plots right into the middle of them, they're going to spook off. If you're using hut bait, right? A big chunk of lady

6:58fish or fresh mullet or whatever. And you chunk it out into the middle of them, they're going to take off. What's your approach, Alex? How do you do that? Well, this is where patience comes in. With flat fishing, sometimes patience is a big one. We're just talking about, you know, you can't rush up on the school. I think it's good to be observant and watch what that school is doing, watch how they're behaving. And like you said, it's not natural for a chunk bait, a bait, a fly, or whatever to plop right in the middle of that school. So I think you want to watch the direction that they're headed, you know, watch what they're doing and get a bait out in front of them so that it's, you know, a natural presentation. You pop that bait out of the grass, pop it off the bottom or whatever. And it appears as if it's a shrimp that they just spooked up out of the grass and they're going to eat over a crab or whatever. But if, you know, I've heard this said before, and I think we've talked about it where it is entirely unnatural for a, you know, for some

8:04predatory fish to have its prey come runnin' straight at it. Most of the time that prey is gonna be runnin' away from it. So you want to make sure that presentation is key. What's really funny, guys? I'm not gonna mention a name, okay. But I am gonna throw this person under the bus a little bit. I recently got a comment on a video on YouTube and it was throw a shrimp and get a bite, not rocket science. Well, let me tell you guys, you're right, it's not rocket science, but there is thought process that you need to do. You need to be thinking, you need to be paying attention, you can't be slamming hatches shut and run around the boat, you're getting really excited and jumping up and down and all those things aren't gonna make you affect how many fish you catch. So you've got to be thinking about what you're doing. You've got to think about your approach. You got to think about your presentation. Even if you are just throwing a shrimp, you need to do it

9:11correctly or you're gonna miss out on the bite. I don't care what these fish are, what we're saying. I know we're talking about black drum and we focused on black drum on our long format show earlier this week, but when you're approaching fish on the flats, I think that's our biggest tips here, guys, because you need to approach quietly, you need to approach with a plan and you need to be paying attention to what those fish are doing. And then once you get in range, again, your cast, your presentation, all needs to be thought out. Can't just throw it willingly. You can't just throw a shrimp and get a bite. It's not rocket science like this person said. It's throwing correctly in the right spot to not spook the fish to create a natural presentation so that you can get great stuff, dude. Oh, man, this is a great tip, bro. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the

10:11Captain's Log Radio or Tacklebox Pitch segment presented by Icon Coolers. We'll see you guys out on the water. Thanks for listening to the Captain's Log Radio with your host, Captain Jonathan Moss.