Black drum are among the easiest fish in the creeks to catch in March because they are so easily fooled. However, most anglers don’t head into the creeks prepared to catch them.
While pitching scented soft plastics or mud minnow for red drum, an angler may occasionally hook a black drum. When he does, it means that there are likely lots of black drum in that area. But, without the correct bait, an angler doesn’t much chance of giving them a good battering.
Black drum primarily feed on crustaceans. Anglers should have aboard the freshest shrimp they can find, but the shrimp do not have to be alive — frozen will do in a pinch. Anglers who have frozen mole crabs or fiddler crabs left over from summer bait-gathering expeditions can also use them with equally excellent outcomes.
Pinching or cutting a shrimp into small pieces and hooking the tidbits on a standard 2-hook bottom rig is the best way to catch black drum. While red drum are swarming the docks, black drum will be holing up in their castles — the oyster beds along the sides of maintained navigation channels and their motes — the deep holes beside the beds.
Red drum are also fond of fresh shrimp and will often fall for the rigs intended for black drum. The best hook if red drum bite in large numbers is a No. 1 circle hook, so under- or over-slot reds can be released without harm.
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