Description
Unframed. This was a Gyotaku that was 3 years in the making. I’ve always heard of people catching the Black Drum migration up the Assateague Island beaches of Virginia & Maryland, but for one reason or another between my schedule, weather, and a multitude of variables I always missed my window of opportunity. April of 2025, everything lined up and decided to make strong moves on Friday night of April 4th. I had been keeping a watchful eye on the weather and surf forecast and after I finished work, I packed my truck and got to the gate to drive onto the beach sometime after 11:00pm.
I worked about 7 miles, pulling up to various spots on the beach, soaking several baits at a time, and doing the best I could to manage lines and stay awake. At Assateague, you’ve got to be “actively fishing” if you’re over nighting on the beach not in a registered campsite.
The next day, we had plans to take the boat out with the dogs and maybe meet some friends, but the wind switched up on the Chesapeake Bay so I called Marie to change plans. She loaded up the dogs and met me at the Assateague visitor center, we drove back on the beach and found a spot to post up. After reloading the rods with live sand fleas and a little pro-cure scent, I casted between rows of breakers and told Marie I was going to lay down and stay down for a power nap. I asked her to wake me up if we caught something…
Less than 10 minutes into some of the best sleep of my life, in a minor panic Marie shook me awake and my lightest rod was doubled over and pulsating in a way that immediately indicated that I was hooked up into something that had some mass! Reeling it in with some finesse, I remembered how my friends described the fight and this was certainly a decent sized Drum. A few minutes went by which was the temporal equivalent of an eternity for me, I saw a silver shine through the breaking waves and finally got it on sand!
After we got home, I managed to make a few pressings before it was time to clean it and meal prep it. Nothing got wasted, I got some thick filets out of it and roasted the rest of it to pull all the meat off and whatever was left became a contribution to the compost pile for this year’s garden.
Mission accomplished, and it was so worth waiting all that time.
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