Black Puppy Drum Fishing

Black drum are often overlooked when it comes to the quality they provide in terms of table fare. Even though you do not get a larger fillet off the fish, their meat is very tasty. Now, the smaller or “puppy” sized fish are your choice for keepers. The larger fish, those over 30'', start to have worms in the meat, so you want to avoid them. This inshore fish is certainly underappreciated for their light tackle sporting quality. When venturing out for some wintertime inshore and backcountry saltwater fishing action, knowing how to target black drum selectively can help put more fish in the boat and food on the table.

What we are trying to do with this In The Spread instructional video is to take the learning curve out of the process for you. We are going to be targeting mid-winter “puppy” drum in deeper spots on the Homosassa River. You can certainly target these guys from Texas all the way around Florida and up the East coast.

Capt. William Toney is going to share fishing tips and tactics to help you catch more eating sized drum. William is a Florida light tackle fishing expert with a lifetime of experience fishing inshore and backcountry waters.

As bottom feeders like their cousins the redfish and seatrout, they tend to feed on shrimp, fiddler crabs, smaller blue crabs. You can see what black drum baits we use and how to hook them in the video. If they are feeding heavily, you can even catch them on artificial lures.

Homosassa fishing benefits from the spring feed headwaters being a constant 72 degrees and as the tides move out this warm water is pulled out of the river. So, the holes and deeper channels near the rivers edge will hold warmer swirling water and thus quality bait. This is where your black drum will hold. See how we target them, what tackle we use, the fishing rigs, boat positioning, where to cast your baits and how to work them.