# Will red drum ever return to the Shore?



## sand flea

Interesting read:

_Will red drum ever return to the Shore? It's always seemed likely to me that any significant change in water conditions would be reflected in movements of the fish that live in those waters and are dictated to only by Mother Nature.

When I was a youngster, some scientists predicted we were headed toward another Ice Age and urged stockpiling of food. After the scientific consensus changed to Global Warming in recent years, I was hoping that among all the gloom and doom forecasts that at least we'd be fishing for red drum along the Shore-- just as I'd read about as a kid in Van Campen Heilner's 1946 classic Salt Water Fishing. _

http://www.nj.com/shore/blogs/fishi...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter


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## RocknReds

Sand Flea: My ancestors used to commercial fish for Red Drum at the Jersey Shore 100 years ago. They hit them hard. With todays restrictions and some showing back up at the Jersey Shore, they might make a comeback. PS My ancestors migrated here from Germany to fish for sturgeon in the Delaware River. They and pollution did decimate them.


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## phillyguy

I read an article a few years back that traced the disappearance of red drum in NJ waters to a blight that killed off eel grass. Apparently eel grass beds are the favored environment for reds to lay their eggs. Maybe we ought to plant some eel grass?


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## phillyguy

Here's a glimpse of what the fishing used to be like at Corson's Inlet/Strathmere,

http://www.strathmere.net/bossett.html


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## sand flea

I don't really fish NJ but it would be great to see them expand back to their old historical range. With the slot limits that have banned the harvest of spawners these fish have come roaring back in my neck of the woods. As far north as you are you'd probably suffer quite a bit of winter kill on pups up in the creeks during bad years. And cool pics phillyguy! I love seeing old shots like that.


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## RocknReds

Great pictures Philly guy - My older relatives said that commercial fishermen were getting 5 cents a pound for the Red Drum. Those were nice sized reds caught from the surf in those pictures. Hope they come back.


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## phillyguy

I think they are actually black drum, but yeah, we don't see them in the surf anymore either.


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## fish643

Up until about 7 years ago we had a pretty good run of Spec's that would visit eel grass and Turtle grass flats that I fish in South Jersey. Those flats are still there, but have only had an occasional fish since that time. Red's were never as strong in the area I fish, but a few did show up briefly in the early fall of 2012 & 2013. I can only hope that both Spec's and Red's will return, they are my favorite fish to pursue inside our inlets: although both are what I think of as a fish of a thousand casts.


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## RocknReds

There are both reds & blacks in the pictures - look closely and you'll see the spots - also the reds are tapered and the blacks are hump backed - would be nice to catch both in the surf again


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## bluefish1928

there numbers are recovery in the south thanks to strict slot regulations. However, what will it take for them to move north....I don't know


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## RocknReds

With the tighter regulations we have today and climate change happening, they should move north. Research Striped Bass and you will find them in the Canadian Maritime Provinces. The Atlantic Salmon fishermen are complaining that the Stripers are eating all the small Salmon.


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## RuddeDogg

Every season you hear of and see red drum being caught in the flats around Stone Harbor and Avalon. The USCG Base used to be a great spot to catch them along the pilings.


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## BPReeds

the drum were so thick along the Delaware bay when I was kid, you could hear them in the evening at the beach ( Villas)


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