Launched my kayak this morning around 8 am into Tampa Bay. With an early spring upon us, I had a hunch that with the changing season so would the annual migration of black drum into Tampa Bay arrive. After a brief paddle I began finding schools of several hundred large (40-80 pound drum) tailing happily in only a couple feet of water. I got out of my kayak to wade to them, and chose a scented shrimp imitation to entice these crustacean eaters. My first cast of the day yielded about a 40 pound fish, and from then on I caught black drum on almost every cast, until I couldn’t reel anymore in. These fish move in every year from offshore and take up residence on grass flats near the mouth of Tampa Bay, well within reach of a kayak, before moving up into the Bay where they will stay until the fall. Average size of the fish caught today ranged from 40-60 pounds, all fish were taken on Berkley Gulp Shrimp on MirrOLure twist on jigheads on 20 # leader and 10 # braid. These fish all came on my redfish rods (7 1/2 ft 6-12lb TFO spinning) and 3000 series reels… makes for a terrific light tackle fight! They won’t be here long so book your trip soon to ensure that you can get in on the action! Won’t be long before we see a large influx of redfish moving into the area, kayak fishing in Tampa Bay is getting hot!
I’ve included some self timer shots I took of myself as well as a few shots I got of the fish tailing. Enjoy!
By Spencer Goodwin
