Drum fishing in brackish waters in ga high tide or low tide ?

Question

i was going to try my hand at drum fishing and i and just a few iles from a brackish river. what is the best time to fish for drum. low tide or high tide or somewhere in between. what type of cut bait would you suggest. i have heard to use crab but fiddler crab are hard to comeby around here unless i drive to the beach. do any of yall have any suggeaations

Answer 1

High tide is what most people will tell you, but I say as long as the water's moving... slack tide is bad for any fish.

Take a look at what the bait shops have available in the area... shrimp, crabs (fiddler, blue, whatever), sand fleas, clams... they'll all work for black drum. Sometimes mullet or other baitfish will work, but black drum are more focused on crustaceans and mollusks than reds...

Answer 2

For Black Drum, I'd go at the turn of the tide, just past dead-low or dead high.  They seem to like deeper swifter water (at least down here in North Florida) (Red drum "redfish" are a totally different story).

I'd use a heavy egg sinker and get my bait down to the bottom in 10-20 feet of water.  For bait, either cut muller strips or whole live shrimp.

For red drum, look for structure, in shallower water, like dock, oyster beds, etc and use shrimp and popping corks.