By Keith Lozott Contributing Writer
As to the title of this article I will say what I witnessed in the St. Lucie Inlet the other evening was indeed something of beauty. My buddy Gary and I had an evening fishing session chasing snook in the inlet early, followed by bridge fishing for monster snook after dark. We started the late afternoon out hoping to avoid a big storm that spared us. We could see rain and lightning just to the north moving away allowing us to make the trip a success. We headed out of Sandsprit Park and ran to the inlet looking to catch some snook on artificial baits.
Once we arrived at our spot it was not long before we started getting a few blowups on topwater plugs, which is always the most exciting way to catch any fish in my mind. I started seeing bait pods of small minnows or baby pilchards making their way down the bank when a few snook would blast them giving away their location. We would cast a topwater right where the last blast was spotted and get hooked up almost straight away. We must have landed three quarters of a dozen fish each. The action on the topwater was a thing of beauty, but what I was about to witness I hadn’t seen in this magnitude at any point in my time fishing for snook!
Both Gary and I were releasing a couple of 21 inch fish that looked like twin males (smaller fish are males and then change sex to female once they reach a larger size) when one of the coolest things I have seen took place. I’m used to seeing the extremely aggressive jack attack on wary schools of mullet when fishing on the flats, but I’ve never seen an all-out assault by at least fifty snook flying out of the water hitting schools of bait. The snook looked like a school of mullet during the mullet run coming out of the water. I could clearly see the distinct black line, the yellowish tail, silvery white body on each fish breaching the water in total mayhem. This action continued on and off for ten minutes or so as each bait school passed. I found myself just watching fish feed like I’ve never seen before. I have seen snook crush baits but never in such huge numbers and it was a site to see!
I hope the next time I get out on the water to fish it will produce another amazing experience. I guess I can say every day on the water is a great experience that I should remember to never take for granted. Fight for clean water and get outside and enjoy the great outdoors.
Keith Lozott
The Fishing Realtor