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Red Drum
OpenSciaenops ocellatus
The NC rulebook, translated for the Banks.
The Short Version
North Carolina manages Red Drum on a slot: keep fish between 18" and 27" total length and release everything else. The daily creel is 2 per person per day, and the fishery is open through the whole calendar year.
Keep Size
18" to 27"
Slot window, total length
Run the tape from the snout to the far edge of the tail pressed flat together — a pinched tail adds the half inch that decides a citation.
Daily Creel
2 per person per day
What one angler may take per day
Counts are per person unless the rule says "per boat," and they aggregate across everywhere you fished that day — sound, surf, and ocean all land in the same tally.
Season Window
Year-round
When harvest is legal
Open through the year unless an emergency closure posts.
Where It Stands
Open
Harvest is legal; emergency in-season shutdowns are rare but do happen — glance at the DMF proclamations page anyway.
Drum on the Point
The Outer Banks is red drum country — Cape Point at Hatteras is arguably the best trophy drum beach in the world, and the fall run from September through November draws anglers to Ramp 44 with mullet chunks and 11-foot casters. Summer brings schools of slot drum along the Hatteras Island and Ocracoke beaches; winter fish push into the Pamlico Sound sloughs.
Respect the slot: the 18"–27" window is what keeps this fishery world-class, and the big breeding females over the slot photograph better than they grill.
The Fine Print
- •Slot limit: keep fish from 18" to 27" total length only.
- •One fish over the slot per person per day is allowed, inside the 7-fish daily aggregate.
- •Red drum is the state saltwater fish of North Carolina — a point of local pride from Corolla to Ocracoke.
- •Circle hooks are required when fishing natural bait for drum north of the terminal gear line at Nags Head.