Huffing and puffing, our designated poler kept us within casting range of a large school of big black drum moving along the edge of the flat. They milled at the surface, making them quite conspicuous. And quite frustrating. So far, they wouldn't take a thing, but not one to throw in the towel, I kept changing flies and casting.

My son Stephen had the bow of the skiff the first half hour and now I was up to bat trying in vain to draw a strike as Frank Steele dutifully kept us in the game. Finally, using a weighted chartreuse-and-grizzly Sea-Ducer, of all things, I hooked a fish. After a slow but powerful run, it stopped and spit the fly--a common occurrence with black drum given the toughness of their mouth.

Encouraged nonetheless, I touched up the hook with my file and kept casting, placing my fly smack in front of individual fish rather than casting into the school. As my frustration mounted, I hooked another fish. It powered away against my relatively light 8-weight rod, and Steele poled to keep pace. After a half hour or so, the fish was ours.

Steele and Stephen said he looked to be close to 40 pounds. I thought he was larger. But you know how that goes. Either way, it was my largest black drum to date--after many years of trying for them. My second largest? Twelve pounds, and they get smaller from there. So I was pleased.

Black drum are not easy to take on fly due to their feeding habits. They prefer their meals in a shell, and big ones often feed on oysters wherever available. But they do like crabs and shrimp, so we fly fishers can dupe them just often enough with fur and feathers. As challenging as they are at times, they're plentiful enough in enough areas, so if you target them, you'll certainly get your shots. And they do grow quite large.

The black drum Pogonias cromis is a member of the croaker family, and closely related to the red drum or redfish. It has a shorter, deeper body and a more arched back than a redfish, so you're more likely to spot one feeding on flats where the water is just deep enough to conceal a redfish of similar size. This fact does not seem to bother the black drum at all.

Like other members of the croaker family, through rapid and repeated contractions of their swim bladder, they make a loud drum-like sound, much louder than any of their relatives. Oftentimes when a school is nearby you can hear them. They have to be the most vocal fish you'll find.

A young fish under eight pounds or so tends to have dark vertical bars and is often confused with the sheepshead, also found on the flats. Mature individuals vary in color. Depending on where you find them, a black drum's coloration will range from silvery gray to brassy black. The tail and body has no spot or spots like a redfish.

They're often confused with redfish while tailing, since they sometimes share the same flats. Just remember that black drum have a more translucent tail, and you'll eventually be able to tell the difference. I know an angler who cast poppers and surface muddlers for two days in a row, supposedly to the same large school of reds without even a follow. He left Flamingo grinding his teeth, only to find out later at his local fly club he had been casting to black drum. He didn't have a chance in a million that those drum would take his poppers. I won't mention his name.

They have whisker-like barbels under the lower jaw that perform a dual function in taste and feel, helping the black drum find its prey on the bottom. Its diet is varied, but largely consists of crustaceans and mollusks. They lean towards shrimp when young, and crabs and oysters as adults. They grow slowly, just a few inches a year. A 30-inch fish is about 10 years old, and old fish can reach 50. Sometimes topping 100 pounds, the largest taken on a fly rod was a 57-pounder. That's a lot of drum. A few of my fellow fly fishers claim to have hooked them over 70 pounds. They are widespread in Florida coastal waters, although the biggest specimens are in the northern part of the state.

Best time of year? I'm not sure. I like to think that I can depend on my own experience to narrow down the best season for most species but not this time. After taking a survey of a handful of anglers and guides that give black drum a whirl, I ended up right where I started. Everyone had a different "best" time of year, even in the same waters!

For instance, Chris Dean fishes them at Flamingo in the summer, while Rick Murphy targets them there mostly during winter and feels that the cool water puts them in the feeding mood, making them more receptive of flies. And Marty Arostegui, whom I consider a bit of a black drum specialist, mostly fishes them in winter, both at Flamingo and Chokoloskee in the Ten Thousand Islands. I find them in the spring and fall at Flamingo.