What’s the best place to find summer red drum in the marshes and bays behind Bogue, Bear and Browns inlets, and what techniques will produce fish?
“The transition period — when red drum are moving out of the ocean and back into the inside waters — begins when the water starts to warm up at around 70 degrees,” said guide Robbie Hall. “Reds will continue to come into the backs of creeks and marshes until the temperature back there reaches 80 degrees or higher. Then, they’ll start to move toward deeper, cooler water.
“But they mainly go where the bait is, no matter the temperature. If it’s been a warm day, the next morning, you’ll likely find fish back in shallow water because things cool off at night. That’s where the shrimp, mullets and oyster rocks are, and that’s where you’ll find drum.”
When Hall is prospecting for fish in an area and hasn’t visually spotted them, his favorite places to fish have shoreline grass, even at low tide.
“It may have something to do with plants putting oxygen in the water and drawing baitfish, but I like to find an area that’s got visible grass, even at low tide,” he said.
Red drum won’t be in the skinny water but will hold just outside such grassy areas.
“They’ll move back into the grass as the tide goes back in,” he said. “It’s sort of like bass fishing; you look for grass, and it’ll usually have fish nearby.”
He bounces 4-inch Gulp! shrimp on 1/8- or 1/4-ounce leadheads off the bottom.
“Sometimes I’ll throw a gold Johnson Spoon in the grass,” Hall said.
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