Thanks, Capt. Fran! by Dave Spendiff

Posted on May 12, 2014 by VHFC

My neighbor, Lee and I left the dock at 8:00 am on Monday, May 12, 2014 to test the new found information we all received Friday night from Capt. Verdi. I bought a dozen fresh clams, a 21/2 gal. bag of frozen clam belly chum, make myself a 3 hole bucket and headed for the middle grounds.

We got there about 9:00, anchored up and started fishing. The outgoing tide was just starting, so I decided to fish for awhile without chumming until the tide really kicked in. The bay temp. was 60.3 degrees and the wind was out of the South, opposing the tide. After about an hour or so I threw the chum bucket over and within 40 minutes one pole went down. This rig had a circle hook and I got a 15 second line ripping run before the fish spit the hook! Exciting!

Shortly before that run off , while pulling in the line to check the bait, I discovered I had a skate on – great, no skunk today!

Around 11:30 another pole went down, the one with the J-hook. FISH ON! After a 15 minute fight My partner netted a 16lb, 29″ Black Drum. Notice the gill plate on this fish had suffered some damage a long time ago. My first Black Drum, EVER!

About 45 minutes later I hooked up again and eventually landed a 18lb., 31.75″ Black Drum. Let me tell you, they pull like crazy and just don’t give up. Both fish were released to catch another day. This is definitely something I’ll be doing again…can’t imagine what a 30lb. + drum would feel like. I hope to find out!

Thanks, Capt. Fran!

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