Red Drum
Sciaenops ocellatus
Also called redfish or channel bass, the red drum is the lower Bay's heavyweight. The false eyespot near the tail is the identifying mark — one spot is typical, though some fish carry several, and the old story is that it fools predators into striking the wrong end.
The fishery splits in two. Slot-sized fish work the shallows and grass edges and can be sight-cast in clear water, which is about as exciting as light-tackle fishing gets. Then there are the bulls: fish over forty inches that school on the lower Bay shoals in summer, old spawners that will empty a reel and take twenty minutes to bring to the boat.
Those big fish are the breeding stock, and they are released everywhere they are caught. Fight them quickly on adequate tackle, keep them in the water for the photograph, and hold them upright until they swim off under their own power. A bull red is decades old — it deserves to go back.
Gear for this fish