One of America’s most popular inshore game fish, the red drum is prized as a trophy and as a meal. And one thing is certain: no angler can resist the excitement of catching hard-fighting reds.
Often lured into a bite with live bait, hook choice for redfish is critical. Not only must it match the size of the bait you’re offering, it needs to match the size of the fish you’re chasing, as well. Options like shrimp, mullet, pinfish, and crabs all find their way onto hooks, and reds vary in length and weight from keeper-sized to true monsters.
That can make choosing the right hook for reds a little complicated, so let’s take a closer look.
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If you’d like to know more about fishing for redfish, including some of our best tips, check out these articles:
Redfish 101
Only scientists use the name Sciaenops ocellatus for this species, with pretty much every fisherman calling them red drum, redfish, or simply reds.
Figuring out how they got this common name doesn’t take a lot of brain power. When vividly colored, their distinctive bright copper to orange-red scales are among nature’s finest displays.
However, many red drum sport more muted tones, fading to a dusky mauve or brownish-red.
Red drum can be a dull red-brown as well, but the distinctive tail spot is a dead give away.
You’ll also notice an unmistakable spot on the tail just forward of their final fin, and plenty of fishermen can tell you tales of sight-fishing reds in water so shallow that this spot was visible above the surface!
Plentiful in the inshore and tidal waters of the Gulf coast, and found as far north in the Atlantic as Virginia, reds are known to prefer a moving tide that drags unsuspecting prey into an ambush.
Mullet, poggie, pilchards, shrimp, crabs, cut and live bait: the range of options for reds is as impressive as their appetite.