Black drum tails up as it feeds on bottom in a tidal creek near Cedar Key. A decent one is shown opposite in the writer’s hand. The hunt makes for a fun day.
August 06, 2025
By Carson Prichard
Kayak Fishing Special The June issue of Florida Sportsman magazine included tactical and gear-releated articles to help you maximize your success with your new fishing kayak. In this special once-a-year project, we offer windows into some of our state’s most exciting fisheries that are ideal for kayaks. We also reveal some of the latest and greatest kayaks and gear. Stay tuned.
Target Tailing Black Drum The shallow, tidal backwaters of Florida’s Nature Coast showcase a fishery I’ve grown to embrace—tailing black drum. It’s a natural for the kayak angler who launches from remote roadsides and end-of-the-trail gravel ramps. And it’s totally dependent on sight-fishing. Added is the opportunity to catch a truly trophy-sized fish.
My immersion into this fishery began inadvertently. Early one spring morning, from a primitive launch near Cedar Key, I paddled to the eastern edge of Buck Island, then followed the rising tide inland from Deer Island. Casting a dark root beer artificial shrimp on a jighead along the Spartina periphery, I caught an upper-slot redfish in the haze of the evaporating dew. Soon after, a cast toward a shell bar point had me into a lively 28-inch snook. With this early success, I felt compelled to use the rest of the fishing trip to learn and explore.
Two miles from the launch, my gaze following the flow of the incoming tide, I debated how much farther inland to ride it. I scanned over oyster bars which were quickly becoming inundated. By the last exposed oysters on the bar nearest me, I saw two dark gray fish tails lolling like a pair of sails. Sharks, I thought. But I knew better. These were black drum. Big ones.
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I paddled ahead of the fish and nestled into the grass, an extended raspy “shush” of coarse Spartina on plastic. I waited, letting the lead drum work its way to me. My artificial shrimp now greased with shrimp-scented Pro-Cure gel, I stood for several minutes, patiently waiting, eyeing the tail moving up the grass line. I opened the bail, lowering the lure straight to the bottom two feet in front of the fish. By now, I could see the whole fish plainly. It wasn’t as big as many of the others—perhaps an eight-pounder—but as it approached where I knew my lure lay motionless, it disappeared in the tannin-rich water. The line thumped and relief coursed through my body. Finally! I got one to bite! I raised the rod and up wriggled a grunting hardhead catfish.
I saw no fewer than two-dozen black drum tails that day—the size of some conjuring images of massive fish. Twelve to twenty pounds, I imagined. Some maybe thirty, a few perhaps larger. Thus began my—not quite obsession—but preoccupation with tailing black drum.
Black drum are somewhat similar to redfish, but far less likely to strike an artificial lure. Timing is (Almost) Everything Figuring them out was an endeavor in dedication. Over two springs and summers, I developed a reliable game plan based largely on timing the tide height. In the Cedar Key area, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, tides fluctuate generally from 1’ to 4.5’ in the spring and summer. Oysters live in the water height range that leaves them alternatively fully exposed and totally submersed. As the tide rises and gets to about 3 feet, the oysters begin to be inundated. This creates a habitat edge that finds black drum foraging the shallow, soft-bottom, outer margin of the oyster bars where I presume crustaceans are returning to seek refuge. As the tide continues to rise, the drum move over the oyster bars, remaining in depths where they can be seen tailing. Once the water gets to about 4 feet, the incidence of seeing black drum tails virtually ceases. Targeting that tide height window from 3 to 4 feet reliably offers opportunities to see tailing black drum on either side of the high tide, and even throughout the high tide on weak tides.
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After committing myself to targeting black drum during that tidal window, my strategy is to cover water. I have a catalog of spots where I’ve seen them in the past—“Black Drum Marsh,” “Black Drum Point,” “The Black Drum Islands,” and so on. A primary factor in these areas seems to be proximity to oysters.
The oysters do pose a problem in that it’s hard to place a bait or work a lure slowly enough to attract a black drum without getting hung-up or fraying my line. I tried mitigating this by fishing bait under a bobber, progressing unsuccessfully over the course of several outings through cut mullet, fiddler crabs, and then fresh and frozen shrimp. Put simply, while a bobber provides a clear indication of where my bait lies relative to the black drum tail, the fish seem totally oblivious to any stratum except the very bottom. This trait is helpful in that they basically ignore the kayak, but they’ll ignore a free-swinging shrimp just as simply, no matter how close to a drum I think I’ve slung it. Slipping the bobber further up the line so that the bait rests on the bottom inevitably finds the bobber and line swung by the wind, dragging the bait away from the black drum, and worse, cinching the sinker or hook into the oysters.
More from Kayak Fishing Special Series The best approach is ditching the bobber and fishing directly on the bottom. But even then, it can be immensely frustrating wondering why a black drum doesn’t immediately hone in on a shrimp, crab quarter, or chunk of cut mullet that I’ve placed right next to it. How does he not bite?!
The first big black drum I caught sight-fishing, I used a frozen shrimp on a 3⁄8-ounce jighead cast directly on the bottom and still-fished. Doing this required keeping a tight line to the jighead in order to feel the bite and then set the hook. But keeping a tight line posed the same problems of pulling the bait into the oysters as the bobbered setup.
Now, my preferred approach is fishing with bait—fresh or frozen shrimp, or a chunk of blue crab—on an appropriately-sized circle hook and a small #5 split shot. I try to land the bait right at the nose of the tailing black drum. If the bait is not picked up in a minute or two, or if the black drum moves off the bait, I reel in and recast. I keep the line loose. I do not cast unless I can see a black drum because a bait left on the bottom leads to a lot of catfish, wasting time and bait. I match the circle hook size to the bait, preferring 5/0 and 4/0 for larger shrimp and blue crab quarters, going as small as 2/0 for smaller shrimp.
Primo habitat here. Find drum doing this and make careful note of the tide stage and time of year. You’re likely to see repeat performances. A Sight-Fishing Thrill Scanning the shoreline margins and oyster beds while covering water slowly and methodically is a sight-fishing experience. It’s unlike any other inshore kayak fishing that I do. On a calm day, big black drum tails can be seen from a distance. I’ve spotted them from at least 100 yards. When I see one, I move quickly until I get close—perhaps ten yards—keeping my eyes fixed on the target. If the tail disappears, I paddle to the general area and wait. I lower the anchor slowly, quietly. Standing, I often can make out the ghostly, inverse silhouette of the fish’s pale body in the dark water without the tail needing to break the surface.
The black drum seemingly disappear at high and low tides, leaving the darkly stained estuarine tidal waters of Cedar Key all to myself and my kayak. Populated with oyster bars, their edges are traced by swaths of Spartina grass, punctuated skyward by palms—one here, three there. All of it is accented by “islands” of eastern red cedar, taller pines, and shorter, stunted live oaks, flanked by palmetto and the occasional prickly pear. Everywhere, a pervasive, winged-insect hum, sonically soothing, fills the atmosphere with a static-electric energy.
As an inshore Florida kayak angler, sight-fishing tailing black drum adds an exciting challenge. Using a baseball analogy, sometimes it’s the triple that rounds out a batter’s cycle. More often, perhaps, it’s a trip saver on a slow day, or presents a fun side quest—big black drum tails emerging like clockwork with the tides. The only prerequisite is to be prepared, and this means bait. Regardless of whether I plan on targeting black drum, I’m now in the habit of at least bringing a small bag of frozen shrimp whenever my fishing trip will include that short 3- to 4-foot tide height window.
This article was published in the June 2025 issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. Click to subscribe .
