Ruben Lee

Ruben Lee is an old school Florida Keys flats fishing guide with a specialty most anglers overlook: sight casting to black drum in skinny water. Fishing the upper Keys flats, he has learned to spot these wary, bottom-feeding fish, read whether they are actively feeding, and place a bait where a drum will actually eat it. In his In The Spread video, Lee teaches sight casting for black drum, from spotting fish and reading tides and conditions to presentation and bait selection on the flats.

Instructor's videos

Ruben Lee is exactly the kind of angler the Florida Keys quietly produces and rarely advertises: an old school flats guide who has spent enough time poling the skinny water of the upper Keys to see things most anglers walk right past. His specialty is one of them. While everyone else is chasing bonefish, permit, and redfish, Lee sight casts to black drum on the flats, and he does it as well as anyone.

Black drum are an underrated flats target, and a genuinely difficult one. They tail and root in inches of water like a redfish, but their downturned mouth and deliberate, heads-down feeding make presentation everything. Put the bait in the wrong spot and the fish never sees it. Lee has learned to read these fish, to tell at a glance whether a drum is actively feeding or just cruising through, and to place a bait where the fish can actually eat it.

That is the heart of what he teaches. Sight casting on the flats is a game of observation before it is a game of casting. Lee breaks down how to spot black drum in skinny water, how tide and atmospheric conditions position and turn on the fish, which baits produce, and how to set up the presentation so a wary drum commits instead of spooking. It is detailed, hands-on Keys flats knowledge, the kind you normally only pick up by spending years on the bow with a guide who knows.

In his In The Spread video, Lee takes you onto the upper Keys flats for sight casting black drum, from spotting and reading feeding behavior to positioning and bait selection for a fun-filled day of skinny water fishing. If you want to add one of the flats' most overlooked fish to your game, learn it from a true Keys veteran.