There is an abundant population of Black Drum in the Texas Coastal Bend. The Black Drum is often overlooked as a primary game fish by sport fishermen, but is highly valued as table fare by many locals. The commercial fishing industry in Texas harvests over 1.5 million pounds of black drum annually which illustrates the demand for its flaky white meat.
Even though they get huge, the ideal black drum for dinner is typically under 5 pounds. A drum this size compares very favorably to its cousins the red drum (redfish), the speckled trout and other highly sought game fish of the Coastal Bend in terms of flavor.
Breeding stock drum over 30” have been nicknamed the Big Uglies for their relative unattractive features compared to all of their drum relatives like the red drum, speckled trout, croaker and whiting. Their high arching back and propensity to develop deformities as they grow large leave them with out the streamlined torpedo shape of their cousins. Typically, their meat begins to get wormy and more coarse.
Thanks to its abundance and wide distribution around our bays and beaches, fishing for black drum along the Texas Coastal Bend is a year round activity that is available to virtually anyone that wants to fish.
