My First Red Drum Since the 80's

During the booming 80's I saltwater fished right much but since then it has only been a handful of trips a year with most of those trips dedicating to plugging for Blues or Spanish Mackerel off of a handful of Piers.  Last year I put a renewed interest into Saltwater and made 5 or 6 trips last fall.  So far this year I have made 3 with the last one being a trip to the Beaufort area for some inshore Red Drum fishing.

Big Bull Red Drum are being caught all up and down the North Carolina coast but these Bulls are in the Ocean and not inshore. Not saying a bull couldn't be caught inshore but most right now inshore are going to be smaller ones up to 15 lbs or so.

Anyway, my Buddy Rodney has been killin the Drum inshore this year and he invited me down. I couldn't turn down a chance to catch my first Red in a loooooooong time so the plan was made for me to meet him Saturday the 15th of October.

We put in and paddled across a channel and then drug our boats across an Island and into the Marshes.   Instantly you could see and hear Drum smashing bait.   I had a very hard time getting hits but I did manage 1 on a  grub under a Popping Cork and several hits on the bottom using cutbait but I missed those fish.

Not a monster Bull Red(maybe in 10 years) but my first in a long time.

The Rig I used.

I think if I had some Flukes with me I may have had better luck.
Here is a Mullet(Whiting) that was really hungry as he kept pecking at a big piece of cutbait on a 7/0 hook.

Here is Rodney with his best of the day.

And I can't leave his Girlfriend out. A nice one(the fish that is) with 4 spots.

The scenery here was pretty spectacular especially the wild horses .

Thanks for looking...............