Sandy Hook Reef, 86 LB Drum

[giantfan]

We headed out on Sat morning at the crack of dawn and ran to the tip of the hook to see if we could find some false albies in the surf that we have been hearing about back at the dock. The crew consisted of Jeff, Jeffery (canyon boy) Dave O, Frankie, Johnny work boots, and I. We set the lines in and proceeded to troll along the beach for about an hour with nothing to show for it.

Ok… time for plan B, being the bottom fishing junkie that Dave O is, he was well prepared with the wreck anchor, a bushel of clams, a few large squid and a bunch of salted clam for chum. We trolled our way over to the reef and set up on a sticky piece that we have fished many times in the past. As soon as the lines went in we had nice action with all the sea bass and porgies that we could want. There were a couple of blackfish in the mix too. The action was steady and everybody was having a good time.

Out of nowhere I see Dave lift on a fish and the rod doubled over. Oh boy, is this a monster blackfish that ran into the rocks? Nope! Not in the rocks, the fish is taking line. So I’m thinking cownose ray. After about 10 min he gets it close enough to the back of the boat to see a little color down about 15 feet but the fish must have seen the boat and wanted to get the hell out of dodge as quick as he can. Another 10 min of give and take and Dave manages to get him to the back of the boat where I am standing by with the gaff. Holy Crap! It’s the elusive Black Drum, I hit it with the gaff and it bounced off of this prehistoric looking fish like I was trying to gaff a cinder block. Ok, I won’t try to hit that spot again. Dave gets him up again and this time I stick the gaff in the bottom of the fish and its game over.

Finally! After two years of running the boat down to Cape May and getting our asses kicked with the spring winds and rain trying to catch a black drum. We get one right in our own back yard. Go figure.

Not having a scale big enough on the boat and needing to get some fuel anyway we pulled into Pedersons. Neil offered to help us get the fish up to Crabby’s. THANKS Neil! With the fish in tow they dragged it up the hill and it weighed in at 86 lbs.

Dave O and I decided to head back to the reef on Sunday and had a great day with tons of large porgies, big sea bass, and a couple of nice blackfish for the box.

Below are a couple of pictures from Saturday.

[vinntastic]

NICE REPORT..PREHISTORIC CARP:eek:

[Reelron]

Nice fish guys. Got to love fishing in this area, never know what you are gonna find out there.

[Byte Me]

Way to go Dave-O!

[Gr8ful Fish]

Awesome job Dave-O & great report Ted.

The "Ruthless" can now knock yet another target species off its bucket list. ;) :cool:

- Gr8ful

P.S. I left Dave-O a voice mail message to enter this fish into The Fisherman magazine's Dream Boat competition if he is a subscriber. Crabby's is an official weigh station, and that fish would put him in 7th place. :cool:

[giantfan]

Awesome job Dave-O & great report Ted.

The "Ruthless" can now knock yet another target species off its bucket list. ;) :cool:

- Gr8ful

P.S. I left Dave-O a voice mail message to enter this fish into The Fisherman magazine's Dream Boat competition if he is a subscriber. Crabby's is an official weigh station, and that fish would put him in 7th place. :cool:

Thanks Bro!
Smokey isn't a subscriber anymore. :(
Where have you been hiding? I haven't seen much of you this summer. We should get togeather for some bottom fishing soon. I also NEED to go down south and see your brother. I really want to catch a wahoo to knock that off of my bucket list.

[Andreas Toy]

Nice job Ted

[Gerry Zagorski]

Nice catch. Good to see them up this way.

[Fish Head]

Nice!

[Flukemeister1]

Nice Fish! Are they any good to eat? Don't tell me "If you were starving" either.

[giantfan]

Nice Fish! Are they any good to eat? Don't tell me "If you were starving" either.

Sorry but I can't say. I don't eat any fish! I will check with the guys that did take it home to eat and let you know. It sure is a nasty looking fish!

[Gr8ful Fish]

I also NEED to go down south and see your brother. I really want to catch a wahoo to knock that off of my bucket list.

What are you doing tomorrow? ;) ;) Byte Me and I are leaving at 0'dawn thrity tomorrow for a Fri into Sat trolling/sharking/jigging/trolling combo trip. :eek:

Unfortunately, as Dave-O may have told you, I 've been staying on land for a while due to repreated problems with my 14-year old motor. Hopefully, I'll get back to fishing after this trip, and I'll see you again real soon.

Scotty Pierce, the Capt. of the charter "Duct Work" out of Cape May, is heading down with us. We already have 6 licensed fish killers on the boat, but we would gladly have you aboard as the 7th. ;)

Call me if you can get away. If not, I'll catch up with you soon.

- Gr8ful

[giantfan]

Thats a great offer but I can't do it :( Thank you very much.

Too much going on at work right now. I hope it will ease off in a couple of weeks.

Catch em up!!!!!!

[problemfisherman]

WoW! what an awesome Catch dude!!! you must have shit when you seen that sucker surface....LOL Bet you weren't expecting to see something that big on your line and your rod & reel looks like it is on the light tackle side.....surprised the line didn't snap!!!! What kind of line were you using anyway and how long did it take you to bring in??? Congrats!! Tom

[RussH]

I'm surprised the line didn't snap, or the pole didn't snap or any combination. Must have had a lot of patience bringing that bad boy in. I also wonder what that tastes like. Is it a darker meat when cut open, or on the white side like a black fish?

[tombanjo]

I'm surprised the line didn't snap, or the pole didn't snap or any combination. Must have had a lot of patience bringing that bad boy in. I also wonder what that tastes like. Is it a darker meat when cut open, or on the white side like a black fish?

There's no shortage of opinions on a fishing boat and most said it wouldn't taste good. The poor mate was already hacking his way through one so I took a hunk and gave it a try. I cut it into cubes, lightly coated it in pan searing flour and wokked it up in basil, garlic & oil with some veggies. It was great. Had a firm texture similar to monk fish with plenty of flavor. Would love to catch another and freeze some. It was a welcome departure from my usual fish eating.

[LeftyReeler]

JMURR "Drum Parm" - think the recipe is up on the board already, never had it prob never wil but if Murr says its good well....:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Nice fish tho must have been fun swinging that thing up on the scale

[giantfan]

I'm surprised the line didn't snap, or the pole didn't snap or any combination. Must have had a lot of patience bringing that bad boy in. I also wonder what that tastes like. Is it a darker meat when cut open, or on the white side like a black fish?

I didn't catch the fish and it wasn't on my equipment, but I can tell you that it was on a black fish rod so it wasn't as light as you would think and I'm pretty sure Dave uses 65lb braid on his black fish stuff. It took around 15-20 min to get him in the boat.

I never saw the meat so I can't comment on that. After they took the fish to the scale it went right to the cleaning station and I was washing the boat. I can say that from the boat I did see a sawzall being used at the fillet table :eek:

[O'Connor]

nice fish! Congrats


In all honesty black drum are the worst tasting fish I have ever had. I had to spit it out each time I chewed it. I tried drum parm, baked, fried, grilled with all the toppings etc. You can put all the parm and sauce in the world on a piece of chit, but at the end of the day it is still a piece of chit...that is how I feel about eating them. I will never kill another one simply because they are a huge pain in the ass to clean and they taste like hell. Believe it or not though I gave some of the scales to a friend and he uses them as guitar picks. :)

[Reelron]

I think it is all about how you treat the fish. One problm being that with a fish that big it's kind of diffacult to keep it iced down before you get in & cut it. Also not much meat after cutting maybe 30-40%? It may depend on what they have been eating before bing caught. Saw one cut and the meat was kind of splotchy gray with Blck areas. Another had more white meat.

I took some home and cooked it in the Parm. It was good. Wife even said it tastes like chicken. But I think she says that about everything I cook. (She is just happy when she doesn't have to cook.)

I do a Cape May trip, with a few friends, every spring and it is about 90% C & R now as most have taken some meat home and really didn't like it much.


Still a great catch!