Black Drum , Fishing in the Sailboat Channel in Aransas Pass

While I had never fished the spot, I had seen a boat catch a black drum there a year ago and I was getting desperate as daylight was burning. Casting to the edge of the drop I set my pole in the canoe. I hadn't had any luck in my other secret spots,(there are no secret spots in the sailboat channel).
Suddenly my pole doubled over and the fight was on. I knew at once it was a nice fish and visions of grilled black drum danced through my head, now if I could only land it. At last I slipped the net into the water and I had half of a dinner, a nice 19 inch black drum.
I had just finished putting the fish on a stringer when the other pole took off and I soon had that one secured in the net. Like clockwork the first pole doubled and I realized I had a really big one on this time. The drum made four runs, and as far as I am concerned black drum fight a heck of a lot harder then red fish.

The fish was just over the edge of a oyster bar and I worried that it would cut my line but I finally got it into the shallows and eventually I led the twenty five inch fish into the net. Some nice people in a small boat watched me catch the fish and then left in a great example of sportsmanship.
Then a guide boat came in with three clients. The guide proceeded to drop his anchor right on top of where I was fishing and then threw lines across mine. I yelled at him and he said sorry and then continued to be a jerk. He was proud of his boat and the name "All In" was adorned on the side. I felt sorry for the paying clients to have such a poor guide and so I stoically waited as we got tangled again and again.
I lost a red fish as it ran and became tangled in a line that one of the clients had cast across me. Didn't matter really as it was small and the guide finally pulled his anchors and moved off my spot. Soon I lost another drum and then caught and kept my fourth fish of the day.
Now I used to do the occasional guide thing in Wyoming, but I would never do what had been done to me. The old saying is is that many guides are people that have a boat and don't have a job and sadly I would have to put this guide in that category.
A Texas friend told me that it bothers him that guides make money off taking people out and catching and killing fish and that perhaps the state of Texas should regulate them better and charge them for harvesting any fish from public waters, ( a typical guide here charges about five hundred bucks a day for three clients and a guide can easily harvest several thousand fish in a year). Its an interesting point and one that does have some merit.  Clear skies

ps I grilled the black drum on the half shell and it was the best!