John Lee Hooker ranks atop the list of many blues fans, and his iconic “Boom, Boom” song never fails to get me fired up. The same is true for black drum, which emote a guttural tune as they make their annual pilgrimage up the Bay this month, garnering the attention of scores of anglers in both Virginia and Maryland.
Though they don’t make blistering runs like their red-hued cousins, trying to bring these behemoths to heel isn’t easy. Black drums give no quarter nor ask for it. That’s one part of their appeal to sport fishermen. Another is that they possess a ghost-like “here one minute, gone the next” trait that makes them a challenge to catch.
Fishermen had long suspected black drum to be long-range roamers, crossing state lines throughout the year. And it’s this migration pattern that makes them not only an interesting species but a challenging one for fishery agencies to manage. It was also this gap in understanding that led Dr. Cynthia M. Jones of Old Dominion University, along with ODU’s Brian Wells, to conduct in the late 1990s a telemetry and tagging study that serves as the fish’s baseline stock structure.
Through the three-year study, researchers confirmed black drum are indeed a coastal stock. Fish tagged in Florida, for example, were recaptured in Maryland, and vice versa. The researchers also found that the fish surveyed in the Chesapeake regions had an average age, total length, and weight of 26 years, 43 inches, and 48.7-pounds, respectively. The oldest fish was 59 years (which floored me). Atlantic black drum grow slower but reach larger sizes than those in the Gulf of Mexico region.
According to the most recent Black Drum Benchmark Assessment compiled by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and released last year, the fish’s nomadic streak can “lead to highly variable levels of encounter in state surveys and fisheries.” The latest stock assessment also says black drum are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. It’s pretty clear this is due in part to conservative recreational regulations, particularly in mid-Atlantic states (see sidebar), and the fact that the black drum commercial fishery in Maryland has been closed for almost 20 years.
Yet, a cautious approach wasn’t always the case, as indicated by the fact that the first black drum Fishery Management Plan (FMP) wasn’t approved until 2013. Today, Atlantic states are required to implement a maximum possession limit and minimum size limit of at least 14 inches, an increase in the minimum size that took effect this past January. The FMP also includes a management framework to adaptively respond to future concerns or changes in the fishery or population.
Though anglers in South Atlantic states harvest most of the black drum, fishermen in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia have significantly increased their catch in recent years, according to the 2015 report. Mature black drum make an impressive south‐north migration each spring. They spawn in estuaries and coastal bays from Jersey to Florida, beginning as early as January in the southernmost states, and the run peaks in the Delaware Bay by May. Fishery biologists believe Young‐of‐year (YOY) black drum spawned in mid‐Atlantic waters migrate south during their first fall, where they join other YOY cousin fish in the South Atlantic, where ostensibly conditions are more favorable for survival.
So while it is good news that black drums are not overfished and not experiencing overfishing, federal managers also acknowledge that a more accurate black drum stock assessment “would be improved by applying a more complex, data-rich assessment method such as a statistical catch-at-age model.” Put another way, gaps and limitations in data still exist that need to be addressed to better manage such a long-lived and recreationally important fish.
Virginia Regs.
Min. Size Limit: 16 inches
Possession Limit: 1 per person
State Record: 111 pounds by Betty D. Hall (1973)
Capture Citation: 80 pounds, Release
Citation: 46 inches
Delaware Regs.
Minimum Size Limit: 16 inches
Possession Limit: 3 per person daily
State Record: 115 pounds by Kenneth H. Smith (1978)
Maryland Regs.
Minimum Size Limit: 16 inches, Open Year Round
Possession Limit: 1 per person daily;
Boat Limit: 6
State Record: 79 pounds by Stanley Ilyes (1985, coastal)
103 pounds, eight ounces by Robert Messik Jr. (1973, Chesapeake)
by Captain Chris D. Dollar
Tuesday, May 24, 2016 - 09:19
John Lee Hooker ranks atop the list of many blues fans, and his iconic “Boom, Boom” song never fails to get me fired up. The same is true for black drum, which emote a guttural tune as they make their annual pilgrimage up the Bay this month, garnering the attention of scores of anglers in both Virginia and Maryland.
Though they don’t make blistering runs like their red-hued cousins, trying to bring these behemoths to heel isn’t easy. Black drums give no quarter nor ask for it. That’s one part of their appeal to sport fishermen. Another is that they possess a ghost-like “here one minute, gone the next” trait that makes them a challenge to catch.
Fishermen had long suspected black drum to be long-range roamers, crossing state lines throughout the year. And it’s this migration pattern that makes them not only an interesting species but a challenging one for fishery agencies to manage. It was also this gap in understanding that led Dr. Cynthia M. Jones of Old Dominion University, along with ODU’s Brian Wells, to conduct in the late 1990s a telemetry and tagging study that serves as the fish’s baseline stock structure.
Through the three-year study, researchers confirmed black drum are indeed a coastal stock. Fish tagged in Florida, for example, were recaptured in Maryland, and vice versa. The researchers also found that the fish surveyed in the Chesapeake regions had an average age, total length, and weight of 26 years, 43 inches, and 48.7-pounds, respectively. The oldest fish was 59 years (which floored me). Atlantic black drum grow slower but reach larger sizes than those in the Gulf of Mexico region.
According to the most recent Black Drum Benchmark Assessment compiled by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and released last year, the fish’s nomadic streak can “lead to highly variable levels of encounter in state surveys and fisheries.” The latest stock assessment also says black drum are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. It’s pretty clear this is due in part to conservative recreational regulations, particularly in mid-Atlantic states (see sidebar), and the fact that the black drum commercial fishery in Maryland has been closed for almost 20 years.
Yet, a cautious approach wasn’t always the case, as indicated by the fact that the first black drum Fishery Management Plan (FMP) wasn’t approved until 2013. Today, Atlantic states are required to implement a maximum possession limit and minimum size limit of at least 14 inches, an increase in the minimum size that took effect this past January. The FMP also includes a management framework to adaptively respond to future concerns or changes in the fishery or population.
Though anglers in South Atlantic states harvest most of the black drum, fishermen in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia have significantly increased their catch in recent years, according to the 2015 report. Mature black drum make an impressive south‐north migration each spring. They spawn in estuaries and coastal bays from Jersey to Florida, beginning as early as January in the southernmost states, and the run peaks in the Delaware Bay by May. Fishery biologists believe Young‐of‐year (YOY) black drum spawned in mid‐Atlantic waters migrate south during their first fall, where they join other YOY cousin fish in the South Atlantic, where ostensibly conditions are more favorable for survival.
So while it is good news that black drums are not overfished and not experiencing overfishing, federal managers also acknowledge that a more accurate black drum stock assessment “would be improved by applying a more complex, data-rich assessment method such as a statistical catch-at-age model.” Put another way, gaps and limitations in data still exist that need to be addressed to better manage such a long-lived and recreationally important fish.
Virginia Regs.
Min. Size Limit: 16 inches
Possession Limit: 1 per person
State Record: 111 pounds by Betty D. Hall (1973)
Capture Citation: 80 pounds, Release
Citation: 46 inches
Delaware Regs.
Minimum Size Limit: 16 inches
Possession Limit: 3 per person daily
State Record: 115 pounds by Kenneth H. Smith (1978)
Maryland Regs.
Minimum Size Limit: 16 inches, Open Year Round
Possession Limit: 1 per person daily;
Boat Limit: 6
State Record: 79 pounds by Stanley Ilyes (1985, coastal)
103 pounds, eight ounces by Robert Messik Jr. (1973, Chesapeake)
by Captain Chris D. Dollar