Wintertime Drum fishing can be steady and exciting. While most anglers may stow their rods for the winter at the first hint of a Northern, die hard fishermen know, there is no need to forget about catching big fish, just time to change tactics for cooler water.

Bull Drum and Bull Reds for that matter prefer the warmer protected water offered in deeper channels during the winter. Since most of the smaller baitfish are practically absent, these deep water monsters diet switches mainly to blue crabs in the winter. Having fresh Blue Crabs for bait can be the difference between wiping the ice off of a dormant reel, or having to cool the drags on an overworked one. Occasionally you may be able to land one of these 20 to 50 pound bruisers on one of the other favored baits like shrimp or cut bait. But you will definitely catch more on the fresh crab.

First let us start our topic out with gear. The gear can be a bait cast reel or a spinning reel, which ever you are more comfortable with and should be spooled with at least 20 lb line and preferably 30 lb line and up. The rod should be a good med heavy to heavy action surf rod in the 10 foot class, capable of slinging a bait at least 50 to 60 yards. Most importantly is being able to reach the deeper water of the channel where you are fishing. One of my favorite spots to fish for winter time Drum and Reds is the Surfside Jetties. You should be able to do equally well on the Surfside or Quintana side, since the fishing is done in the channel. But any outlet with a fairly deep channel along the Texas Coast should be great winter drum water.

The next part is bait. Live Blue Crabs is the winter bait of choice. If you are unable to get them live, frozen is the next best option. Your success may vary greatly if you are unable to locate any crabs and must use shrimp or cut bait. Blue Crabs are very difficult to locate in the bait shops during the winter. Your best option is to buy them at Seafood Market or Super Market. I usually buy mine at Fiesta Super Market in Houston. The way to bait a crab, is to remove the upper shell by pulling on one of the points at the sides of the shell and discard the upper shell. Remove the claws and legs. Break the crab down the middle, from nose to tail, one claw socket on each half. Now thread the hook into one of the leg sockets and out another leg socket, and you are ready for casting.

Terminal Gear is fairly simple. I use a 5 to 6 foot length (Longer for fishing on the rocks so you can pull on the tougher leader to raise the fish up the rocks) of mono leader in about 150lb strength or more, or for really inexpensive mono leader, you can use weed eater line also. I try to make my leaders as inexpensive as possible should it break off on rocks or bottom structure. I use a very inexpensive fish finder configuration. I tie a 16/0 circle hook on to one end of the leader. I then slide my spider weight or egg sinker in low current situations onto the leader and tie a swivel on the opposite end.  You can crimp the leaders if you prefer, but as I mentioned, I try to build these as inexpensively as possible.

Landing these fish can be difficult as well as dangerous from the jetty rocks, so be sure to have a very long handled net and very long strong leader to get the fish up onto the rocks for release again. Experienced jetty anglers sometimes use steel spiked golf shoes to assist them in maneuvering the slick, slimy and very dangerous rocks.

One very important thing to remember is that these drum are coming from the deeper water, so their air bladders must be deflated before release in order to increase their chances for survival. If the air bladders are not deflated, the fish will be unable to swim down to deep water again but instead will float helplessly on the top of the water exposed to the frigid winter conditions with very little to no hope for survival. The air bladder is locate slightly aft of the pectoral fins near the center of the fish. Place a long wire, ice pick or knife under the scale and into the fish gently applying pressure to the belly of the fish and relieving the air from the air bladder. The fish can then be safely released back into the water. For more detailed instructions for piercing the air bladder, please refer to the Texas Parks and Wildlife rules and regulations booklet.

Armed with this basic wintertime arsenal, the average winter angler should be able to go out, and score huge fish, and surprise most of his winter locked fishing companions at home.

By Victor Delgado

Aka WhopperStopper on the Surf-Masters Messageboard

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