Page 86 - South Mississippi Living - January, 2022

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SPORTS & OUTDOORS
Busting Tackle, Not Budgets
Monster Black Drum Offer Major Sport for Little Cost
Justin Wood holds a black drum caught by his son, Jacob.
story and photos by
John N. Felsher
Typically ignored or even despised by many fishermen, black drum can provide tackle-busting sport for anglers on a budget.
The largest member of the drum family can weigh more than 100 pounds. Mississippi anglers frequently catch massive drum in the 20- to 50-pound range and some bigger ones. Eddie Hansen landed the state record, a 70-pound, 5-ounce fish, in 2005.
Many people avoid the big, ugly creatures because they don’t look good to eat. Larger drum can carry white wormy parasites that look hideous, but don’t affect the taste. The worms disappear in the cooking process. Smaller “puppy” drum taste delicious, very similar to their cousins, redfish. In fact, many people probably ate drum without realizing it if they ever ordered redfish in a restaurant.
“Drum are great fighting fish and easy to catch,” advised Kyle Johnson with Coastal Waters Outfitters, who runs out of Point Cadet Marina in Biloxi. “People can catch really big fish in inshore waters or even off the dock. They are great
for children. Catching a huge drum is something a child will never forget.”
Black drum eat almost anything. Drum regularly scour the bottom looking for any morsels they can suck up such as clams, crabs or shrimp. Anglers sometimes catch drum on jigs tipped with soft-plastic shrimp tails. Drum occasionally hit gold spoons, spinnerbaits and other lures people throw for redfish or speckled trout, but big drum normally want meat and commonly prefer it already dead.
86 | January 2022 www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living