Outdoors

Fishing for drum an unforgettable experience

While my July trip to the Outer Bank's southern tip was filled with enjoyable moments, one afternoon was truly an experience I will never forget.

Long before heading to Hatteras Village for a relaxing vacation, I booked an excursion with Bak Bar Charters and Captain Will Smith as a Father's Day present for my dad. I had done my research and spoken with several tackle shop owners, others who vacation in the area and checked daily reports from his marina and came to the conclusion that fishing with Will was our best chance for a good day on the water.

The day before our trip we were in a bait shop getting some supplies and the owner told us "If you don't catch any with him, no one was catching anything" and assured us he was the top inshore captain on the entire famed Hatteras Island.

Hopes were high when my father, brother Ty and I boarded Will's beautiful 26-foot custom boat that he had designed specifically for fishing in that area.

Soon we were on the water while tossing a casting net into the backwater trying to pick up some live bait. After he was satisfied with his haul, we zipped through the sound and headed for the open ocean between Hatteras and Ocracoke Island.

The first hour he kept his trained eyes on the water looking for the large schools of red drum that frequent the area from the tower on his boat. Upon locating the big fish, we were prepared to cast in front of them and quickly retrieve a large bucktail in hopes of enticing a bite.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find any drum and headed for a wreck site to fish for trout. We traded the drum and trout rods and prepared for our first catch of the day.

After dropping the anchor, we made our first casts in an effort to find the fish near the wreck. On my retrieval I hooked a small blue fish that I brought to the boat. As I went to pick it up off the deck, it turned and bit me quite angrily with its surprising mouth full of teeth.

Blood was running down my hand as I tossed it back into the water. At that point I was told by my father they refer to the little ones as chopper blues for that exact reason. While I was not too happy to have a round bite mark on my finger -- which stayed for more than a week -- I had never caught a blue before so I considered the outing to be off to a successful start.

Dad was on the back of the boat and quickly figured out where the school of trout was positioned. He brought in nice-sized trout on nearly every cast.

After letting out some more anchor line to move the boat, the three of us hooked trout routinely until we easily landed close to 75 fish on silver spoons.

One of my favorite memories occurred while I was releasing a fish. I looked to my left and saw a large orange circle in the water. Soon a large sea turtle emerged only feet from the boat. I recognized it as a leatherback and only wished I had my phone ready to take a photo to show my daughter Bella, who is obsessed with them and went to a sea turtle learning adventure the following day at the earth center.

While I was landing another trout, the rod we had in the holder with a live mullet on started to bend toward the water. I jumped over to grab it before it was broken. As soon as I had it out of the holder and firmly in my excited hands, whatever was on the other end easily snapped the line. I definitely would have loved to see what was on the other end.

Once we had our limit of big trout, we decided to try and find some drum in the sound. As Will was pulling in the anchor I heard him excitedly start yelling. A large school of drum swam right past the boat as we scrambled to pick up the correct rods and start firing casts.

Soon I was battling a big red drum as the rest of the school disappeared. Ty grabbed the net and waited for me to get the fish close to the boat. It put a great fight and the bull definitely did not want to surrender. After about 10 minutes it was finally tired enough that I was able to bring it in close enough that by brother could scoop it with the net.

We cheered and quickly measured the trophy catch. Will's official tale of the tape was 42 inches. We took a few photos before releasing the monster back into the Atlantic.

Drum has a slot limit, which means there is a minimum and maximum length they can be to keep them. This allows the larger fish to breed and keep a healthy population. As we learned a little time later, it was actually pretty hard to catch a drum that was under the 27-inch limit.

Once we arrived back into the sound the drum action picked up. From his perch on his boat he told us to help him look for purple clouds in the water. While the drum in the ocean are red, the ones in the sound are gray and give off a purple look in the shallow water.

As we approached our first school, the three of us made casts as they quickly darted past the boat. While I was unable to hook into one on my first attempt, both my dad and brother hooked nice fish. I dropped the rod and grabbed the net to help them land their fish. I actually do not know how we would have been able to land three big fish at once.

Will told us that drum fishing was a team game and that the net man was as important as the guy with the rod. I could not agree more. I was just as happy netting those fish as any I reeled in myself. Both were over the slot size and were released after a photo.

Over the next hour we landed three more doubles and actually kept three that were just less than 27 inches for dinner.

It was tremendous way to finish a truly remarkable day on the water. While we started out slow, Will kept pushing and eventually sent us home with a cooler of very tasty fish that was enjoyed at a cookout at our beach house the following evening.