Their adventure began last Saturday, poling the flats for reds in Sheridan's 15-foot Mitzi skiff. They came across a huge school of fish tailing in 2-3 feet of water.

"I thought we were on the biggest bunch of reds I'd ever seen," Ricks said. "From a distance, you couldn't tell."

As they poled closer, though, the reds turned out to be black drum, their tails tipping out of the water as they scoured the bottom, oblivious to the small boat. Ricks and Sheridan were dumb-struck.

"There must have been two football fields full of drum, over a hundred fish -- big fish," Ricks said. "There was one, his tail would have been wider than a foot-long ruler.

"They wouldn't spook. You had to get the boat right on top of them to move them."

Neither angler had ever fly-fished for big drum before and their tackle was geared for much smaller redfish. Their tippets, or leaders, were 10- and 12-pound test monofilament, and their fly boxes contained mostly chartruese and white minnow-imitating Clousers -- redfish flys.

Ricks had one fly on board, a crab pattern, that he thought might work. Clutching a nine-weight rod, Ricks cast the crab imitation to one of the tailing drum on the opposite side of an oyster bar.

"I didn't realize he had taken the fly, and I went to cast again and my rod broke," Ricks said. "The line went across the oyster bar and my line parted. Not only had I broke my rod, but I also lost my crab pattern."

The pair then was down to one rod, Sheridan's light-duty seven-weight and redfish flys. They spent the remainder of Saturday sight-casting to tails, but with no hook-ups. Ricks believes they initially erred by stripping the fly instead of just letting it sit in front of the fish until it was picked up.

"I was fishing for them like you would for reds," Ricks said.

They returned to the same spot Sunday morning, and the school was still there. Ricks poled, and Sheridan made a short cast to a tailer.

"I had gotten frustrated because we couldn't get these guys to take a fly," Sheridan said. "This fish was about 10 feet from the boat, and I drug a Clouser in front of it."

This time, the drum ate.

"For the first 15 minutes, I don't think he knew he was hooked," Ricks said. "He dragged the boat all over the place. He probably never got over 50 feet away from the boat, and every time he went left, Scott would turn his head right.

"I was afraid with that seven-weight rod. The whole time, there were drum all around us."

After a 45-minute fight, Sheridan subdued the drum, which easily bottomed out a

30-pound Boga Grip scale. The fish measured 44 inches long. Photographs were taken, and the drum was released alive.

"We didn't have any way to weigh her without bringing her in and killing her, and I didn't want to do that," Sheridan said.

Judging from the photographs and length measurement, those experienced in drum fishing told Ricks the fish probably weighed 55-60 pounds. The state record black drum on fly is 50 pounds, 4 ounces, caught in 1986 at Merritt Island. Ricks is convinced the school of drum contained several that would have eclipsed the world record on fly -- 66 pounds, 9 ounces.