Great day of fishing-Merrit Island Florida

[Capt Sal]

Fished the Banana River for black and red drum with great results. If you like light line fishing in calm water this is the place. The black drum fight hard and take a small jig head tipped with shrimp. Went down to 12lb pound test and that is all you need. Caught some reds and a few blow fish also. Only kept two for dinner and we put the other thirty back. It is only 72 degrees here and the locals think it is cold lol. Fun to catch and great eating!

[RussA]

That's awesome! I am sitting here still in the frozen tundra, but you're getting it done in Sunny Florida!

[TomKaye]

How are those smaller Black Drum for eating Capt. Sal ?
My son caught one in Raritan Bay, upper teens, maybe 20 lbs.
We baked then broiled some filets with butter / lemon.
They weren't very good, but the fight was outstanding on a medium fluke outfit.
Maybe you have a recipe you would share ??
I'd love to try for them again this summer, but will release if
I can't get them to taste better.

Thanks Capt.
Tight lines & safe travels
Tom K.

[kcritch]

Sweet. I love that kind of fishing. Nicely Done Capt.

[Capt Sal]

Originally Posted by TomKaye

How are those smaller Black Drum for eating Capt. Sal ?
My son caught one in Raritan Bay, upper teens, maybe 20 lbs.
We baked then broiled some filets with butter / lemon.
They weren't very good, but the fight was outstanding on a medium fluke outfit.
Maybe you have a recipe you would share ??
I'd love to try for them again this summer, but will release if
I can't get them to taste better.

Thanks Capt.
Tight lines & safe travels
Tom K.

The smaller ones taste better.Here in Florida they eat shrimp and the flesh is whiter and quite tasty.We do not catch hughe ones here like back home.The red drum taste the same and the size limit is 18'' to 27''.Even the small blues taste better here because they eat shrimp.They can not believe we land blues over 20lbs!!A big blue here is 3lbs.The size limit on black drum is 14-24'' with one over 24''.Still love my Stripers but having some fun here and not missing the weather back home.

[tombanjo]

Originally Posted by TomKaye

How are those smaller Black Drum for eating Capt. Sal ?
My son caught one in Raritan Bay, upper teens, maybe 20 lbs.
We baked then broiled some filets with butter / lemon.
They weren't very good, but the fight was outstanding on a medium fluke outfit.
Maybe you have a recipe you would share ??
I'd love to try for them again this summer, but will release if
I can't get them to taste better.

Thanks Capt.
Tight lines & safe travels
Tom K.

Lots of mixed reports on how they taste. My one and only experience was a few years ago with a 50-60lb drum on a party boat off Shrewsbury Rocks. The mate had a bitch of a time filleting it, actually one of the very few times I saw him break a sweat doing anything. Anyway, I digress...... I took home a big hunk of it and didn't really know what the hell to do with it. A rare burst of inspiration hit me and I chunked the meat, salt, garlic & basil, and wokked it up under high heat. REALLY good! Had a monkfish texture.

[shrimpman steve]

Stay down there. Another storm comin thursday

[Capt Sal]

Just cooled off to60 brrrrrrrrr!Next week 80!