Fishing for huge red drum in the Pamlico Sound got its start as a by-product of tarpon fishing almost 40 years ago.
In 1976, Owen Lupton, a teacher at Pamlico High School, and Rick Cayton, a guide based now at Oregon Inlet, landed the first Pamlico Sound tarpon.
Few anglers ventured into the sound for tarpon over the next few years, but when they did, they often caught “old” red drum because the terminal tackle and baits that attract tarpon and red drum are almost identical.
When blackened redfish became a restaurant favorite in the 1980s and consumer demand grew, the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries answered concerns about pressure on red drum from commercial and recreational anglers. The agency eventually created an 18- to 27-inch slot limit and a daily creel lmiit of one fish, restrictions that remain in place.
Big, mature drum, which do the majority of the spawning, are protected by the regulation. However, the commercial limit of 10 drum per day caught “incidentally” while targeting other species allows any drum killed by nets to be kept and sold.
Early on, Lupton tried to reduce release mortality by creating his famous drum rig, with its signature 5-inch leader, 10/0 or 14/0 barbless circle hooks and a fixed or pegged 3-ounce barrel weight.
The Lupton rig’s short leader doesn’t allow a fish to swallow a circle hook, and the hooks usually impale at the corner of a fish’s mouth. Previously, anglers used large J-hooks on slider rigs and big pyramid sinkers, but many drum swallowed baits and J-hooks, and battles against heavy gear often were lethal to a drum’s internal organs.
Today, NCDMF regulations require circle hooks and Lupton rigs for drum fishing at night at Pamlico Sound.
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