It’s hot, the drum won’t bite, they are not shallow, wrong, wrong, wrong. We caught them today from 8am til 1 in the marshes and bays around Surf City. They were so aggressive, they ate our popping corks a couple of times. Most fish were caught on popping corks with Gulp! or Trigger X. I had some Trigger X in the tackle bag that the Speckled Specialist gave me a year ago. The drum will suck them down just as good as Gulp! The Triggers don’t seem to hold up as well though. We kept a 24” and a 20-21” that were hooked deep and bleeding. I caught a few, then let my 7 year old on the bow, and let him have a blast. He destroyed one of my Star rods though. He was working the cork, the line wrapped the rod somehow, then a drum slammed it. Cracked the end of the rod, broke some eyes off, broke the tip off. It was ugly. Couldn’t do nothing but laugh. He broke a couple off with the drag too tight also. We let one drum swimming around with a cork in his mouth act as our marker for the school. Over 15-16 reds landed. Could have caught a lot more, but just let him wear his arms out. Caught a couple of small flounder also. Pictured is our poping cork rig also. 10-12” of fluro, Blue Water Candy 1/8 ounce shaky head. (Hooks hold up great to drum BTW Blue Water Candy products are top notch) Fish were in less than a 1’ to 2’.
