Rare OBX Puppy Drum Blitz Happened in Ocracoke

Tradewinds Bait and Tackle’s Alan Sutton reported a very rare phenomenon this past Saturday during Captain Marty’s Extended Edition of the Other Side of Fishing heard on Beach104. It was a puppy drum blitz. “I don’t know any other way to describe it,” Sutton said of the recent atypical event. “People told me the water was orangey red and they literally could see fish in every wave that rolled, they swore the water color did change, there were that many of them.”
The great numbers of puppy drum also appeared to be in the slot limit. North Carolina rules allow an angler to keep one drum sized between 18 and 27 inches.This particular day’s frenzied fish were far from finicky. They were caught on every cast with lures or bait.
Sutton noted there have been solid puppy drum numbers in the Ocracoke area, and the steady summer count of N.C’s state fish has given him cautious optimism. “Hopefully this Fall we have the appropriate frontal systems that change the water temperature and move the bait, then we’ll see the bigger drum in good numbers on the beach, Sutton mused. “It’s all about how the fish move in without them getting flushed out too fast.”