Big red drum school along the shore and on shallow shoals and channels at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Captain Kenny Louderback, of Fish Freaks Guide Service, expects fishing to improve as water temperatures rise into the 70s. Captain Kenny Louderback “The fishing was so good, I could only fish two rods and I was getting worn out,” reported Capt. Kenny Louderback after a recent trip where he landed 23 giant redfish between 44 and 48 inches. “The day before we caught redfish up to 53 inches!”
Louderback was fishing shallow shoals at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay and along Fisherman Island on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
The day of the epic bite, he marked fish on his fishfinder in 30 feet of water and deployed the anchor. The deep hole was close to shore making a natural funnel for redfish to travel into the surf zone.
With two anglers steadily cranking in giant redfish, Louderback was busy baiting hooks, landing red drum and reviving released fish. “Before I release a redfish, I use a fish gripper to hold it in the water,” he explained. Don’t hold a fish vertically with a lip gripper. It can injure them. Once the fish swims on its own, he unclips the gripper and lets the red swim free. The captain laughed, “As soon as the bait hit the bottom, I’d have two more fish to release.”
How to Catch Red Drum on Chesapeake Bay
Fishing with a whole or half hard crab on a 9/0 hook and 50-pound leader, Louderback uses a fish-finder rig with 8 to 10 ounces of lead. To fish the heavy rig and big bait, he utilizes a 6-foot boat rod and a PENN Squall 20 spooled with 30-pound braided line. He threads a fish-finder slide over the mainline and ties the line to a swivel. The swivel is connected to 1 to 3 feet of 50-pound monofilament and the 9/0 circle hook.
Up until recently, red drum fishing has been slow. Louderback reports cold water and bad weather putting a damper on the red drum bite. “A hard northeast wind causes the water temperature to fluctuate.” He might see 68 degrees one day and 64 degrees the next day. When the water temperature stabilizes, usually in late May, Louderback gets consistent action from big red drum. The bite is best and remains good as long as the water temperature is in the low- to mid-70s.
In early summer, Louderback turns his attention to sight fishing for cobia and red drum. He searches the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, looking for the schools of redfish and cobia swimming on the surface. When he spots fish, he casts a 2-ounce bucktail or live eel with a medium-heavy spinning rod and reel. The sight fishing typically continues through summer and into early fall.
Fishing Techniques for Outer Banks Redfish
Farther south, North Carolina’s Outer Banks are usually covered with bull reds this time of year. “Red drum fishing is awesome,” said Capt. Tim Hagerich, from the Black Pearl Charters out of Hatteras Inlet. When I texted Hagerich for a fishing report, he replied, “I’m on a school of drum right now!”
Hagerich finds red drum two ways. When the weather is clear and the seas calm, he heads into the ocean toward Diamond Shoals. Searching the shoals, he finds schools of bull redfish in the clear water. “Sometimes the school has 2,000 fish,” he marveled.
Once he spots a school, Hagerich casts a 2-ounce bucktail toward the fish. “Jig the bucktail anywhere near the school, and the fish will pile on,” he explained.
Hagerich stopped using the ubiquitous soft-plastic curly tail on his bucktail. “It takes too much time to fix the tail after catching a fish,” he complained. Hagerich said it’s more important to cast again while the school is nearby. “Bucktail color doesn’t matter, either,” he added.
Fishing for Big Red Drum with Black Drum
Hagerich sometimes finds big redfish mixed in with a school of large black drum. The water on Diamond Shoals can be crystal clear, and Hagerich has spotted schools of black drum in 20 feet of water.
“Black drum won’t bite, so I drove around the school four times and didn’t make a cast,” he recalled. Another captain took a chance and pulled a redfish out of the black school. Hagerich chuckled and said, “The moral of the story is don’t believe your eyes.” Make that cast, anyway.
When the wind blows, Hagerich fishes behind the islands. “The harder the wind blows, the fishing gets better,” he said.
Focusing his efforts on Hatteras Inlet, Hagerich finds breaking waves on a shallow shoal and anchors his boat. He casts a chunk of mullet on a fish-finder rig into the breakers and along the deeper slough. Fishing in the wind is no problem: “We fished three days in 30-knot winds last week,” he said.
Hagerich expects drum fishing to remain good through the summer and into fall. As the water warms, he turns his attention to slot and over-slot redfish on the grass beds and shallow flats.
