PHOTO CREDIT: Karla George.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his time of year provides some of the most exciting fishing opportunities our area has to offer. Snook and tarpon start showing up on the beach in the summertime. The tarpon are on an annual migration and the snook have a seasonal movement as part of their spawning habits. Typically, the snook travel out the inlets, fill their bellies with minnows along the beaches, procreate in or around the inlets, release their eggs, and do it all over again about every two or three weeks.
Most of the summer, you can find snook so close to shore you can see the yellow of their eyes as they swim past. So how do we catch these fat and frisky beauties?
Beach snook fishing varies greatly from an inshore strategy. In the river, the fish tend to hold around structures like docks or fallen trees. On the beach, they are always on the move. Often, you will see a group of small snook cruising just ahead or just behind a large mama snook. The really large snook are females. We know this because snook are protandrous; meaning, when they reach a certain age, their gender changes to female. The small ones are usually the males vying for her attention. If you cast to a group of males you may have a better shot of catching a fish due to the competitive nature of the males. I like to use white, black, or chartreuse flies or lures depending on the cloud cover and water clarity. If you happen to land one of the large breeder snook, carefully release her as soon as possible because her belly is full of the next generation of snook. The future of this important fishery depends greatly on ethical angling techniques.
Just the other day, I hooked into a big beautiful snook from the beach. She was so bright white from being out in the ocean. I saw her, casted and managed to put my fly right in her path. I watched as she opened those big jaws and inhaled the fly. I set the hook and as she turned, I couldn’t believe the size and speed. For an instant, I felt disbelief and exhilaration that I was finally going to land a monster snook on fly, off the beach. It literally lasted an instant. Next thing I knew, that fish was halfway to the Bahamas and my line had snapped.
While I lost the big one, I did manage to land some smaller snook inshore this last month. By small, I mean micro, baby snooklets that were hanging around the mangroves. My biggest snook to date was inshore, laid up under a dock a few months back. But, the beach is just getting started for the season and I am hopeful
and humble. To me, that’s fishing!