May is the month that the Black drum come into the Delaware bay to spawn. It is a great fishery where people with small boats can go out and catch large fish (up to 80 lbs) close to shore. What this means is there is a lot of competition out there when conditions at good.  Here is our story for this year:

After getting to boat ready for the year, we left dock at 11 am to catch the last 3 of the outgoing tide and get in position for the preferred first 4 hours of the incoming tide.  Finding where the fish are is not overly complicated, but the exact spot is critical. If you are off by 20 feet, that can make the difference of catching vs a boat ride. We saw the fleet, and set up about 1/2 mile from it on top of a shelf we know has a good population of clams and oysters which is the drums favorite food.  We chunked for about 2 hours for a few skates and a lot of mating horseshoe crabs. Ugh....  So we let out about 40 feet of scope on the anchor and we started marking more fish regularly. The we hooked up and got this one:


Then slack tide came in and nothing but skates for about 1.5 hours which was expected. Once the tide was moving again, I got mine:


A few others on the boat got theirs, then I got my second just before heading back. It was a twin of my first. 


Total tally was 5 for 6. Went back and cleaned the three we kept. 

Preparation tonight was simple: cilantro, lime juice, onion, oil, salt and pepper.


Grilled direct over a hot bed of coals. 



I forgot how good these fish are. I have no idea why some people dislike them so much.  Anyway, I hope this is an indication of a good summer ahead!