Tactics for Trophy Red Drum in Chesapeake Bay

The tide had switched to outgoing and, unfortunately for me, the wind had switched too, now blowing from the Northeast. With the change, waves began building to a level I wasn’t interested in fighting in my little kayak. I reluctantly swung my Hobie Outback around and pointed it toward land. Some friends and I had been working the outer edge of a giant grass flat in 12 to 15 feet of water.  Our target was the jewel of the Chesapeake, Sciaenops Ocellatus. Red Drum. The fully grown kind. 

Earlier that morning, Ethan Sommer had picked one off a small pack of fish, a beautiful upper-40-inch bull with a big fat broomtail. Nothing else materialized for the rest of the crew, but I had pried myself out of bed at the ungodly hour of 2 a.m., driven bleary-eyed for 4-plus hours, and pedaled my kayak for 15-plus miles, so I wasn’t giving up. While the rest of the crew headed toward the ramp, I made one more push out to deeper water. By the time I got there, the waves were easily 4-footers. “Maybe not today,” I murmured as I turned back toward land, resigned to the fact that it was going be a fishless day. 

On the way in, I took a shortcut across a shallow grass flat, hoping to get back before the winds whipped up any more. As I got into the shallows, my trolling rod abruptly bent to the handle. Instinctively, I turned the kayak around, assuming I had hooked into a submerged stump. It took me a minute before I realized I had run over a school of reds and had my first bull red of the season on the other end of my line! A good tug of war ensued before I slid the fish over the gunwale and onto my lap. A quick picture, a release, then I cast right back to where I had hooked up. Big boils of sand and silt gave the school’s location away. The next hour and a half brought seven more hookups, lots of WOOOOs, YEEEEWs. and laughter that no one else could hear above the howling winds. 

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Seasonal Visitors

Hooking into a bull redfish is about as much fun as you can have with a rod and reel in your hand. They fight as hard as anything that swims—I joke that they fight twice as hard as any striper of similar size. Unlike the struggling striper population in the Chesapeake Bay, the redfish population is booming. 

Bull redfish are seasonal visitors to Chesapeake Bay, arriving in the spring and leaving in the fall. They prefer water with a higher salinity (27 to 32 parts per thousand), which means they are typically found in the bottom third of the bay, from the Patuxent River south. They are pack creatures, so while you may see or catch individual fish, they are known traveling in schools, which can range from 20 fish to several thousand. 

Redfish aren’t picky eaters. Typically, they will eat whatever you put in front of them unless they are actively spawning or have been heavily pressured. They can be caught using a variety of tactics from jigging to trolling to soaking live or cut bait. You can sight-fish for them during certain times of year when they can be found near the surface in huge numbers, or they can be located just as easily using side-scanning sonar once you learn to recognize their telltale signatures.

While we have an exceptional fishery for younger year-class redfish, known to many as puppy drum or slot reds, the bulls occupy different spaces than their younger relatives. Puppy drum are found in skinnier nearshore waters, while bulls tend to occupy deeper offshore water.

Spring Beginnings

Like the tides that ebb and flow, redfish move in and out of the bay in a predictable manner. In the spring, as the Chesapeake slowly warms, they begin to push back into their beloved haunts. Things get going in May when the water temperatures start to reach into the mid-60s. Look for a full or new moon, as this will bring in the first flush of overwintering blue crabs. The crabs bury themselves in the mud to hibernate through the winter and as soon as they come out of the mud, red drum are there waiting for them because they are one of their favorite foods. This can be some of the most epic fishing of the year as mature redfish appear seemingly overnight in huge schools of hundreds or thousands of fish. 

Since the schools are coming from points south, concentrate your hunt on the southern portions of the bay near its confluence with the Atlantic. This is one of the times of year when you have your best chance of getting multiple hook-ups throughout the day and landing lots of fish. The drum are hungry and you can catch them on just about anything. It is a time of year that bulls can be found very shallow because these areas warm up earlier and faster than the larger, deeper main stem sections, drawing in both crabs and drum. Redfish start their time in the Chesapeake region feeding heavily and looking to warm up as they come out of winter, so it’s a time of year to watch your temperature gauge as well as your side-scanning sonar. 

Late Spring and Early Summer 

While the early season bite tends to be in the more southern sections of the bay, as the temperatures warm up during the transition to summer, the redfish migration will push north. During this time there are also more fish arriving at the southern end of the bay, so the bite will be widespread across the entire region. From June through mid-July, you can still find fish near shorelines in shallow-water areas from 4 to 15 feet. As summer temperatures heat up, however, the reds find their comfort zone in deeper water.

Summer Schools

During the hottest portion of the year, bull redfish move out to deeper water. They like to keep it cool, with their ideal water temperature around 70 degrees. We begin to see shallow water reaching the 80-degree mark around this time of year, so searching deepwater structure, bridge and dock pilings, and the abundant reefs of the region are the best options. 

Some years, the ocean temperature is quite a bit cooler than the bay itself. If this is the case, fishing closer to the mouth of the bay and around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel can be a productive summer strategy. 

Redfish begin to spawn during the late summer. Spawning congregations are typically huge masses of fish that can be seen on the surface from the mouth of the bay up to Tangier Sound. Boats working the lower bay looking for cobia often run into these huge schools. The high vantage point of a tower certainly helps, but a good pair of sunglasses and a keen eye are all that are necessary. I find them regularly even in my kayak. 

Be on the lookout for big patches of copper on the surface. These fish can be pickier when they are spawning, and their proximity to the surface and all of the boat noise makes them even more wary. While there is nothing quite like seeing a monster school bunched up and hanging out near the surface, there is nothing more disappointing than having all of those fish simultaneously reject your lure and sound. Downsizing to smaller lures that land quietly and casting to the outside of the school are extremely important. Using a live crab, menhaden, or croaker can also help.

Late Summer

As we get into the month of August, Maryland is a good place to be. Acres of bunker turn into acres of boiling bull reds. The bite is typically anywhere from Chesapeake Beach south to around the Maryland/Virginia line and tends to be accessible to folks willing to put in 50 to 100 miles a day looking for activity. The fish can be anywhere from the surface to 60 feet of water. They are rapidly moving and roaming, so you may see a school of hundreds of bulls boiling on the surface change to a blank screen in a matter of minutes. It is a big area to sift through, so finding them is the difficult part. When you do, the action can be some of the most insane fishing you will ever experience. Sometimes, the fish are in much smaller packs or solo underneath breaking bluefish or rockfish schools that feed on peanut bunker and bay anchovies. In this case, jigging smaller spoons or jigs to match the hatch under the schools of breakers is the best strategy.

Tackle for Red Drum in Chesapeake Bay

Bull redfish will readily eat just about anything you put in their faces. Since they are protected and can’t be kept, it is important to use the right type of gear to ensure a quick fight and the survival of this important class of spawning fish. 

In the Chesapeake region, there are many advocates of light-tackle fishing. I’m not opposed to that mindset, but if you want to chase bull reds, beef up your tackle to ensure a short battle and a fish that swims away strong. I recommend at least a medium-heavy rod with 5000- to 6000-class spinning reel or 300- to 400-size baitcasting reel with a minimum of 30-pound braid and 40-pound leader. Short of that, you risk breaking off the trophy-class redfish you just hooked into, and multiple fish in the school swimming away with new jewelry. 

I typically catch back-to-back fish if I am able to stay on a school. With lighter gear, I have to repeatedly re-tie and check my leader. The ideal line weight is 50-pound-test braid and 7 to 9 feet of 60- to 80-pound-test fluorocarbon leader. This is what all my setups have, and it allows power fishing, getting the fish to the kayak in 5 to 7 minutes, and then casting right back out to hook another fish.

For lures, I primarily fish soft-plastic paddletails in 5- to 8-inch sizes, with jigheads from ¾ to 3 ounces, depending on the water depth. I mainly use Z-Man or NLBN baits. The Z-Mans paired with an Eye Strike DieZel Eye jighead helps me catch multiple big fish without having to replace the lure. The NLBN paddletails are excellent for the heavy vibration and thump they emit, though a drawback is that they tear up after a few fish. 

I have caught bulls on a variety of other lures but don’t recommend using anything but single-hook lures, both for the danger to the fish and to the angler. It is much easier to unhook, revive, and release a fish when using single-hook lures. 

A Grand Exit

As the summer heat begins to moderate and cooler temperatures arrive, everything in the Chesapeake starts to move. Warm-weather visitors get the message that it’s time to begin their seasonal trek south. As they exit the bay, bull reds are in full feeding mode, building up fat reserves for the winter and the migration ahead. Many, presumably, are following the schools of mullet and menhaden that also make their way south during this time. 

By Mid-September, we usually get some of our first coastal storms and cooling temperatures. This is one of the best times to target big redfish in the lower portions of the bay. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is a well-known fall redfish hot spot. Unlike the rest of the year, when reds are frequently found in big numbers, I rarely see fish in groups this time of year. They are more dispersed throughout the area, though they can be caught by jigging the down-current side of the pilings and islands of the tunnel. Since it is an area with heavy current, it is not recommended for a novice kayaker or boat operator. Boat positioning is crucial because you want to get your jig as close to the pilings as possible. 

Having a jighead heavy enough for the conditions is also important. I recommend one that’s at least 2 or 3 ounces in weight, along with a stout hook. My favorites are made by   Eye Strike Fishing and NLBN, though many anglers like using 8-inch Gulp Grubs this time of year. Sometimes, fresh-cut bait or live croaker, which are abundant around the bridge, can outfish other offerings. You have to try out different tactics to see what the fish want on any given day.

One of the biggest challenges in catching redfish in this area is the structure itself. A hooked redfish in 30 feet of water can run you into and through several sets of pilings. Being prepared to chase down your fish once hooked and being able to maneuver through and around the obstacles while also fighting the current is a unique fishing challenge. 

This is not the time of year for light leader. Even 80-pound fluorocarbon can be no match for a bull red when it’s wrapped around a barnacle-encrusted bridge piling. A kayak has some advantage in the ability to maneuver in a bridge-side bull fight.  

September is a grand way to end a season of bull red wrangling, but regardless of the time of year, it’s important to take good care of your drum before releasing it to maintain the productivity of this fishery. If you are going to take a picture of your catch, support its belly and hold it horizontally. Anglers can inflict permanent damage to a 40-plus-pound fish by lifting it up by the gill plates or holding it vertically. Get them back in the water quickly, ensuring they are revived and able to swim off on their own before sending them on their way to return to the Chesapeake for many seasons to come. 

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