Capt. Adam

I got it inside the marsh around Rich’s inlet Friday afternoon. I was searching a bay for a school of redfish I found prior, hoping they were still around. I was using a 7ft Medium Bull Bay Sniper rod paired with a Florida Fishing Products Osprey 3000 20lb Power Pro super slick v2 line with suffix 20pb floro leader.
1/8thoz Bluewater candy jig with a Salt Strong slam shady. I saw the drum basically resting and initially i thought it was a lost bull red because of the color and location. I made a cast and it slowly swam off. I followed in the direction since it didn’t spook and i spotted it again roughly 15yds off my bow, i made a cast from behind it, past it and let my lure sit. Being in only 3ft of water I could still see my lure, when the drum was about a foot away I twitched it and watched it vanish, I reeled a little and felt tension and set the hook. I immediately realized it was not a bull red and I was severely under geared. It took me roughly 30 or so minutes, give or a take of really just letting it pull me around while I tried to make headway on it and get it’s head turned. I had to have a buddy with a larger net come over and help get it landed. I had to essentially drag it over to a sandbar to be able to get the net under its massive head. My friend had to jump onto my boat and help us get it in. Took 3 of us to lift it over the side of the skiff (beavertail skiffs b2). We really did not understand the size of this black drum until it was in my skiff. My measuring stick only goes to 32in and unfortunately I did not have a scale although I would not have been able to hold the fish up to get an accurate weight. The entire hook up, fight and landing is on video which is being edited tonight since it’s so long. I’m a full time inshore flats guide put of hampstead and have boated many large bull reds over the years and workout daily. I push for catch and release to all my clients and honestly the first thought in our heads was time, how fast can we photo this fish and get it back in the water. I took measurements of my bow later that night which put it roughly 55in using my ruler as a reference point on the bow. I did not really think about taking into Eastern Outfitters and having it officially weighed until the adrenaline wore off and I then realized I just caught and released a new state, possible world record especially for the class tackle it was landed on. My name is Adam Wallace and I own Carolina Flats Fishing. A lot of the photos and videos show distinctive background landmarks so I’m very hesitant to share everything from it.

Capt. Adam
Carolina Flats Fishing llc.