Winter Black Drum Fishing on Florida’s Nature Coast

Winter black drum fishing on Florida's Nature Coast runs from November into March, sometimes early May, when cold water pushes eating-size drum up our spring-fed rivers. Fish the deeper holes along the channel edge on an outgoing tide, the day or two before a cold front, and keep moving until you find the water temperature the fish want. Then write down everything about that bite, because it repeats.

I'm a fifth-generation guide out of Homosassa, and I have fished inshore my whole life. Black drum are not a glamour fish. Nobody gets crazy over them the way they do over a redfish, a seatrout, or a snook. But when the Gulf of Mexico drops into the 50s and you still want to bend a rod and bring home dinner, they are the fish I go looking for. The how-to side, from rigging shrimp to reading the drop, is covered in our puppy drum fishing article. This one is about building a winter drum pattern and repeating it.

When Is Black Drum Season on the Nature Coast?

Black drum season in the Nature Coast rivers runs from November through March and can stretch into early May, depending on water temperature. Cold weather drives eating-size drum up the spring-fed rivers, and it also makes them bite better. In the summer, I rarely catch them in the rivers at all.

That doesn't mean they disappear. Big black drum live outside on the flats and around the passes, and they grow to 40 and 50 pounds and well past it; Florida's record is 96 pounds, from near Fernandina Beach. That is a different fishery, the one Capt. Madison MacDonald and I fished in Sight Casting Big Black Drum on the Nature Coast. The river fish are the smaller ones, the 20-inchers, and they come up the river for one reason: to stay warm. The colder it gets out in the Gulf of Mexico, the more pronounced that move becomes, because the difference between the open water and the river is greater.

Winter is also spawning season. Florida black drum spawn from November through April, peaking in February and March, in deep water inshore, and that spawn is what gathers the big fish into schools this time of year. It's the best reason I know to let the big ones go.

One note on names. Over on Florida's east coast around the St. Johns, they call these smaller black drum puppy drum. Head north to the Carolinas and Virginia, and puppy drum usually means a young redfish.

Which Nature Coast Rivers Hold Winter Black Drum?

Every coastal river between Tampa and Tallahassee holds winter black drum: the Homosassa, Crystal, Chassahowitzka, Withlacoochee, and Steinhatchee. On the east coast, the St. Johns, St. Marys, and Palatka areas produce plenty of drum too. In each river, look for deeper holes near the channel edge, especially where a rocky point runs out to deep water.

Our rivers are old, natural channels with hard limestone bottom and very little dredging, so they all fish about the same way. Out around the St. Martins Keys, you'll see large schools of drum west and north of the keys over deep holes with shell or hard, compacted sand bottom. The bigger fish out there can sometimes be spotted from a distance, and for those I switch from shrimp to cracked blue crab.

Here is the part that ties all those rivers together. In winter, I start near the dock, at the top of the river, and work my way out toward the west until I find the comfort zone where the fish are biting. I guarantee that if you drew a line north and south up the coast, that same line would cross almost every river at the same temperature and depth. And the line moves. I had a good bite a few days before we filmed our Black Puppy Drum Fishing with William Toney video, about a half mile upriver. After a couple of warmer nights, I worked my way down and found them in water the same temperature as two days earlier. They stayed with the temperature, not the spot.

Sun matters in the same way. The side of the river catching the sun runs a hair warmer than the shaded side, and the fish gravitate to it. The same goes for the keys out front: on keys that run east and west, the south side catches the sun and blocks a north wind, and that is usually the more productive side.

Why the Boat That Established the Bite Keeps Catching

I've had other captains call me when they're on a hot bite. I'd run over, drift the same way they did, use the same baits and the same technique, and still not catch fish. What I've found is that the captain who called me established that bite. He got on it when it started, and by thinking through the wind, the current, and the tide, he had the boat position, the jig color, and the bait placement dialed in before I ever showed up.

When someone is ahead of the game like that, it is hard to catch up. That cuts both ways, and it is good news if you are the one who found the fish. Once you have the right color jig head, the boat in the right position, and the bait landing in the right spot, nobody can just pull up and copy it.

Holding that position is half the job. Nothing destroys a bite faster than an anchor slipping or the wind switching and swinging the boat, because the moment the boat moves, your bait is somewhere else on the bottom. It's all connected, and that's why I fish two anchors on the river.

What Weather and Moon Phase Should You Fish?

The best black drum bite comes the day or two before a cold front, and the day the front arrives is usually good too. Once it passes and you get a bluebird sky and high pressure, the bite generally slows. For the moon, I prefer a new moon to a full one.

My ideal drum day is what we had when we filmed: cool enough that you can sit at anchor in a long sleeve shirt and maybe a vest, but cold once you run the boat. Give me highs from 60 to 70 and lows around 45 and I'll take it every time.

High pressure is where the rivers earn their keep. Out in the Gulf of Mexico, when the water temperature plummets behind a front, fish get lethargic, and on a high pressure day out there I'd say bag it and go play golf. In a spring-fed river, you can often get away with a high pressure day because the springs keep the water constant, and when the water is constant, the fish will feed.

On the moon, our better tides come around the full and new moon. A new moon gives you the same amount of water as a full moon, but with a more gradual push. Around a full moon, especially in summer, the tide can come in really fast and get hard to fish. The new moon is the same water, easier to fish. For more on how the stages work, see our breakdown of how tides affect saltwater fishing.

What I Rig for Winter River Drum

My river setup is simple: a 7'6" G. Loomis inshore rod, a Shimano 3000 spinning reel, 10 pound PowerPro, and a 20 pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader 18 to 26 inches long, joined with a surgeon's knot and no swivel. On the end goes a 1/8 ounce short shank jig head with a select shrimp threaded on it. When I'd rather fish a knocker rig, it's a 1/8 to 1/4 ounce sliding sinker over a 2/0 hook with barbs on the shank to hold the shrimp. How I thread the shrimp and where it lands on the drop are in our puppy drum fishing article.

Let Everyone on the Boat Fish Differently

If I haven't fished in a day or so, I start every angler on my boat with a different color jig head. As the day goes on, you find out whether it's the lure, or the angler using it, or just the guy who's got the most luck. On our shoot, Capt. Chad Bryson was catching drum on a red jig head while I threw chartreuse. I switched to red and started catching. Subtleties like that make a difference in all fishing, fresh or salt.

Retrieve works the same way. I like to let a shrimp lie still on the bottom and let the drum find it with their nose, especially on snaggy bottom. Chad was barely crawling his across the oysters and rock, and that slow drag put fish in the boat, because now the drum had smell, sight, and movement all at once. On mud or gravel bottom you know well, bumping it along is fine. On rocky bottom you don't know, let it lie, or you'll spend the day retying.

When the water is really cold, drum school up tight, and 5 or 10 feet can be the difference between hot and dead. That is why it pays to have a few anglers fishing a few different ways. Sometimes the guy in the back of the boat is catching every fish. Maybe the fish are in the back.

How Do You Repeat a Black Drum Bite Next Year?

Keep a log. When the bite happens, note the tide stage and direction, the water temperature, the moon phase, the time of day, and exactly where the boat was sitting. Fishing changes every day, but there are patterns, and the same conditions next year often bring the same fish back to the same spot.

When you're catching fish, don't lose the moment in your head. Check your surroundings. Is the tide outgoing, incoming, or at a stand? Is it moving toward you or away? On our shoot, the bite was around the 60 degree mark at 2 PM on a hard outgoing tide, on a quarter moon. That goes in the log.

Next year, when you've got three days you could fish, look ahead for that same moon phase, keep your fingers crossed for about the same weather, and go. It may not happen every time, but more times than not, it's deja vu. Keep an eye on the incoming tide in your notes too. In a spring-fed river, the tide pushing back upriver can shut a bite down with cold Gulf of Mexico water, or it can trigger a new bite somewhere else on the river. Knowing which, and where, is what the log is for.

Handling and Cleaning Black Drum for the Table

Black drum have sharp spines, so treat them with some respect. If I'm releasing a fish, I bring it to the boat and grab the leader. If it's a good fish I'm keeping, I net it. Don't try to lift a heavy drum over the gunnel with your rod. The jig can pop out and lose you the fish, stick in you, or break your rod.

They aren't long runners. A drum fights with a downward pull toward the deeper hole, so I keep a constant drag, not heavy and not light. When the fish is pulling drag, don't reel against it. That twists your line and puts extra stress on it, and that is how fish get broken off. Let it run, and when the run stops, get back on it.

Size decides what goes in the cooler. Drum in the 30 inch range and up carry worms through the meat, and you're better off filleting the worms and eating them. The smaller fish are the ones you want. Florida's rule is a 14 to 24 inch slot and five fish per harvester per day, and one of those five can be over 24 inches; it counts toward the five, not on top of them. Snatching is illegal, and so is using any multiple hook with live or dead natural bait. Rules change, so check the current regulations at myfwc.com before you keep anything, and let the big breeders go.

Everything I keep goes on ice right away. I add a little river water or salt water to the ice, which stiffens the fish, makes it easier to clean, and preserves the meat. At the cleaning table, I skin them out completely and debone them. They're great fried, blackened just the same as a redfish, and not bad at all baked.

Winter Black Drum FAQ

Common Courtesy on a Winter River

A nice winter day brings everybody out, and in a narrow river you'll often find two or three boats fishing the same stretch. Show some courtesy. Even if it's legal to run by, slow down for your fellow angler, putt past, and wave. It won't cost you more than two or three minutes, and you might learn something, maybe a spot where somebody's catching fish. Remember that you're responsible for your wake. If you knock someone down in their boat, that's on you.

When you're ready to see how it all comes together, every black drum trip we've filmed, from winter rivers to big fish on the flats, is in the black drum fishing videos library.

Captain William Toney In The Spread, Instructor