After a month of planning, I took off this past Friday (April 20th) with a couple buddies and headed to where the fish were starting to show up, down on the Eastern Shore of VA. We arrived at the island not long after 7am, and after loading up the cart to head down the beach, we had bait in the water at approx. 7:30. The first hour was pretty uneventful as the island has transitioned greatly from when I was there last year. When we first setup, the tide was almost high, so we weren't sure of the structure located in front of us. After a couple hang-ups and the loss of a rig or two, I knew we had to move or it would be a long day. So I packed up my couple rods and ventured further south down the beach. After finding a good spot, I called my buddies up and told them they ought to come down and join me. Now it's about 9am when we're done relocating and are fishing the new spot with renewed optimism. Not 45 minutes goes by, and my buddies rod goes down hard. As you can see from the pics, it was difficult to walk along the beach, let alone run to a bent rod with more and more line being stripped from the reel with every step. Once he was to his fishing pole, he set the hook and the battle was on. Besides taking a quick break to smile for the camera, the fish put up a pretty good fight. Once in the swash...we finally made a visual of the fish when it's tail came up out of the water. Red Drum! The fish we were after for is now swimming at our feet...and tiring from the fierce battle it had just put up! Finally I feel the time is right to make an effort to grab and beach the drum. After taking a quick measurement and a couple of pics, it was time to put the 40" drum back in the water to fight again another day. Nothing else really showed up the rest of the day except for a 4' shark and a couple of skates. However, overall...the day was a great one spent down on a remote island with just me a some friends. Much better than a day of work! Hoping to do it again....
