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Fishing
Dedication to the future of snook and our fisheries is a non-stop effort. Here are the latest happenings.
| 07 July 2010
Tracking Snook Recovery in Mosquito Creek Lagoon
Ravages
A surviving snook showing some skin changes after the freeze. Photo: Guide Dee Kaminski fishes Indian and Banana Rivers, Mosquito Lagoon and Sebastian Inlet. ReelKayakFishing.com
It has been over 6 months since Floridians endured the relentless cold weather of this past winter. The merciless arctic assault resulted in many nights of hard freeze and was responsible for the decimation of many forms of climate-sensitive aquatic life. One of the most popular game fish in Florida waters, the ( common ) Snook suffered extensive losses in the frigid waters. The FWC, by reported estimates, recorded thousands of casualties on the Atlantic side alone.
Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program will host SnookWatch August 12th - read more click hereBeing a kayak fishing guide around the Sebastian Inlet area, I had to brave last January's cold weather regardless of the freeze, to scout fish for my next client as well as to quell my personal passion....
| 22 June 2010
from Sportsman's Best: Snook
Today, Florida has about 500,000 acres of mangrove forest.
It all looks 'snooky' but it's not. Picking the best spots to spend your fishing time isn't all luck.Nearly every coastal Florida backcountry has miles of red mangrove shoreline at the water's edge; it all looks "snooky" but it's not. So how do you determine where to fish? First, are there baitfish along the shoreline? Are there birds? Birds of prey don't waste much time in a wasteland. In the absence of birds, ar the mangrove leaves splotched with white? That would be bird guano. So at least birds do frequent the spot from time to time.
Is there tidal current? Finally, is there enough depth for snook at aleast during high tide? Is there a sharp undercut mud bank? If all of these conditions are present, you may have found a snook spot. And three out of four isn't bad!
| 08 June 2010
The year 2010 has so far proved to be the toughest year for
fishing for me as a guide here is South Florida. We started the year off with a terrible cold
snap that left thousands of Snook, Tarpon, Bonefish, Grouper and numerous other
species floating dead throughout the state.
The hardest hit seemed to be the Snook population and the proof was in
the pictures coming in from around the state from other fellow fisherman.
| 07 June 2010
SF readers write about how we and our fisheries are coping in the first half of 2010. Anglers share a common bond - the awesome experience of connecting with torpedoing snook stands alongside many mountain top moments that are part of this wonderful world. Here are some of your stories.
| 02 June 2010
photo: Mad_snooker Dave PomerleauIt's that time of year when love is in the air, for snook lovers that is. The full moon in June brings back memories and stirs up hopes of great night time fishing trips. With the hardships of a mighty cold winter, heavy storm water releases, and threatened oil contamination, what are the chances of rekindling a snook romance this summer? While many choose to let breeding stocks take a rest during the summer spawn, some will be practicing catch and release and checking in on the big gals. Here's a report from West Florida's Mad Snooker.
| 11 May 2010
Special Report
Oil clumps on the ocean's surface off Chandeleur Islands, photo credit: Brandon Shuler, on the water with Jon Brett in LouisianaHow
does one capture the drama of a slow-moving train wreck? We all want to look away from the mercurial
unraveling of the Deep Water Horizon story, but as fingers of rainbow sheen and
large tar balls begin washing up on the wetlands and in the passes of Louisiana
from the Chandeluer Islands to Cocodrie Peninsula, we can’t. We’re riveted. We want answers. We want solutions.
| 19 April 2010
Increasing Recreational Anglers say into data that determines slots and bag limits will be one of the benefits of your participation in the Snook Watch-Angler Action Program. Contribute to an accurate picture of snook populations around the southeastern United States by reporting the lengths and numbers of fish you catch, and whether they are released or taken. Snook abundance is tied to the health of inshore habitat, and the more we know about all sizes of snook the more accurately we can deduce not only the state of the fishery but of the habitat that sustains 280 species of inshore game fish and other organisms that constitute one of our national treasures - inshore fishing.
| 03 April 2010
Brian knew Captiva Island had the
right charm for a day with JJ Grey.
When Brian and Deb Conley decided to donate to the Snook Foundation for a chance to win a fishing trip with Snook Foundation Board member JJ Grey (of JJ Grey & MOFRO), Brian thought he was bidding for a great day of fishing.
Little did he know, the fishing was merely an appetizer to what surely will be remembered as the highlight of an incredible weekend – a private concert by JJ Grey.
| 25 February 2010
photo credit: Norm Zeigler
Excerpt from Snook on a Fly
By Norm Zeigler
One of the favorite quarries of the old New England whalers was the right whale, so named because its physical and behavioral traits were ideally suited – “right” -- for their needs. For saltwater fly fishers, you could say the snook is the “right fish.”
Some fly anglers -- especially those who regard tarpon as mere flashy genetic giants -- consider snook the tropics’ and subtropics’ premier inshore game fish. They are extremely wary but aggressive feeders and fierce fighters. Sea trout are flashier to look at but weaker fighters. Redfish pack a wallop but lack snook’s spectacular aerialist antics. And, unlike tarpon, snook are delicious to eat.
| 02 December 2009
Three of Florida's best tell where and how to slam your way to a trio of local gamefish.
Snook are considered a bell weather species when it comes to inshore habitat. In short, if an inshore area is healthy enough to support juvenile snook, it should be healthy enough to sustain more than 200 other species of fish, marine animals, plants and sea grasses. Because of that, if you happen to fishing an area and see a snook or two, there’s a decent chance of catching one or more other species of gamefish. Included on that “bycatch” list are seatrout, redfish and tarpon. Catch three or more of those in one day and you’ve got yourself a Slam.
Each region of the state has its own definition of what a Slam is, the parameters being defined by the types of fish that generally inhabit that area. The East Coast Slam and the Everglades Slam, for example, both include snook, trout and redfish. Those three species are most available all year long along the East Coast and throughout Everglades National Park, though still difficult to catch in one day. The West Coast Slam, on the other hand, includes snook, redfish and tarpon. West Coast anglers who catch a seatrout, in addition to the three Slam species, can boast a Grand Slam.
The trick to all three Slams is finding the areas healthy enough to hold snook and then covering that area sufficiently with your baits. Snook are considered a bell weather species when it comes to inshore habitat. In short, if an inshore area is healthy enough to support juvenile snook, it should be healthy enough to sustain more than 200 other species of fish, marine animals, plants and sea grasses.
| 02 November 2009
the story behind the lure!
Mark Nichols might have followed the ancient path of Antonio Stradivari if Santa hadn’t given his sister a Creepy Crawlers Thing Maker for Christmas. Actually the fate of Nichols, creator and owner of DOA Lures, probably had been determined some time before a craftsman friend gave him a piece of 100-year-old European spruce and encouraged him to carve and polish it into a violin.
The father of this Texas son owned a bait-shrimp trawler, which he kept in Kemah. Every summer and many weekends during the 1960s a young Mark Nichols would visit his father’s canal home on Bolivar Peninsula. When he wasn’t a nighttime deckhand on the 30-foot trawler or helping a friend run crab traps, Nichols was putting around the bay in Dad’s johnboat, fishing. “I thought shrimping was pretty cool back then,” Nichols said. “Even if we had a bad night at least we had enough shrimp for dinner. And we always had bait.”
Nichols got to know shrimp intimately. But he was a lure angler early on. A family friend on Bolivar made lures in his garage. And Dad, who owned a 27-foot Higgins, showed his son how to catch fish with homemade baits. Mattel toy makers probably would have done well to market their Creepy Crawlers machine to wannabe lure makers. Surely Nichols was not the only budding angler who slid a hook into a Creepy Crawler to catch fish. Did you know that a five-pound bass will eat a plastic butterfly?
| 12 October 2009
Capt Doug Creek with Jordan Ingman and a big Charlotte Harbor redfish found under a dock in Punta Gorda.
One of the biggest dangers of fishing in any tournament is overconfidence. Knowing you can catch that one fish that will lead you to a win leads you to overlook that fish until it’s too late.
Capt. Doug Creek is a fishing guide specializing in the inshore waters from Tampa Bay to Charlotte Harbor and he knows all too well the danger of entering a tournament and putting one species on the back burner while he tries to upgrade another species.
When it comes to fishing Charlotte Harbor in the fall, Creek said the species that will most likely trip up most anglers is the trout.
| 09 October 2009
The traveling angler has a fighting chance with this tournament format a Catch Photo and Release with all the money going to support Capt Doug Hemmer of Dream Fish Charters who suffered a serious back injury. Tampa Bays finest turned out to help.
We didn’t have any trouble photographing and releasing Brett's first two fish. The trout bite was on with top water plugs, and he was on a small snook with white bait in plenty of time to find a decent red. We hoped to catch photo and release at least 60 inches of red, snook and trout. photo: Brett Fitzgerald
A couple of weeks ago we learned of an upcoming charity tournament in the Tampa Bay area, put together by Capt Chuck and Florida Inshore Anglers for the benefit of Doug Hemmer of Dream Fish Charters, a great guy who had seriously hurt his back and has lots of bills for medical attention. Several guides had made themselves available to take out teams of two for a donation to Capt Hemmer. We donated $600 in entries to fish the Florida Oktoberfest Inshore Slam Oct 23-25 in Punta Gorda from the Snook Foundation. I invited our SE Regional Director Brett Fitzgerald to fish and he accepted. We were randomly assigned Capt. Tyson Wallerstein of Largo.
| 28 September 2009
Grunt catching king Dave Decker, reports from a recent visit to Curry Hammock State Park
A Casual Angler tries out Kayak Fishing in the Keys
I'll admit it. Those Florida Keys call to my soul. This old Florida boy's spirit lives in Margaritaville. I revel in the beauty of those lovely pearls of the sea.
I always look forward to a fishing trip aboard one of the many day boats when I visit. But unfortunately, on this trip it was midweek and my fellow "born to fish, forced to work" fishermen were all busy being forced in great numbers. Since there weren't enough anglers to cover the expense, the party boat, much to my disappointment, didn't go out.
| 25 September 2009
Fall is in the air - and it's time to plan a camping trip. Don't
confuse island camping with pulling up to a Disney campsite in the
family SUV containing all the comforts of home - especially if you
arrive by kayak.
Camp out on the best mixed-bag fishing in Florida.
Hey Dad, you want a picture of this one? And Jen got a snook.”Third time I’d heard this routine in 20 minutes. It was a flounder this time.
We’d beached the kayaks on the Indian River Lagoon spoil island half an hour earlier. We agreed—at least I agreed—that the kids would set up the tent while I built a fire and got lunch started. Mike and a fishing rod disappeared the second I went searching for firewood. Jenny struggled on with the 5-man tent, but when it rolled over in the 25-knot breeze, she headed off to either beat on her little brother for deserting her or just to stay competitive in the fish count. Probably a little of each—Jenny enjoys both sports equally.
| 08 September 2009
When is it OK to have a tarpon out of the water? Lifting a small tarpon out of the water briefly for a photo-release is acceptable, but hoisting a large fish onto a boat or out of the water is considered bad form, and in some cases may be interpreted by Law Enforcement as 'possession' of a tarpon, (illegal unless you have a $50 tag-permit). photo: Jeff Nelson
Clarification and Guidelines from FWC
Catching, Photographing, and Releasing Tarpon
So you're fishing inshore for Snook, Redfish, Trout, or other inshore species and happen to hook up with a Tarpon. After many breathtaking jumps and a challenging retrieve you bring close a beautiful silver king. Large or small, this fish has earned your respect, and what a gleaming sight! You aren't going to keep this fish (unless you've pre purchased a tarpon permit).... How will you release it?
Here are some options to consider:
| 08 August 2009
Ted Williams Fishing Video , It was only 50 years ago that the first tailing bonefish were targeted by sport fishermen in Florida's waters. Here in a restored video courtesy of IGFA, famous baseball player and angler Ted Williams takes us back to an age when Florida's fishing was being discovered. Journey back in time and feel the sport as it was in it's infancy.
So that's how they did it!
In this vintage IGFA video, modern anglers will see antiquated boats, quaint skiffs and poling methods. These were considered the cutting edge just 50 short years ago. Since then Florida has managed to become the #1 sportsfishing destination in the world, reaping many billions of tourism dollars and providing anglers with many millions of hours of pleasure in the pursuit of game fish. Fishing is a quality of life issue. To activate Video, place cursor on the picture and click.
In the 1950s, famous baseball player Ted Williams became the best known sports angler in the world. In this 1958 video Ted is fishing with capt. Jimmy Albright, perhaps best remembered for the well known Albright knot.
The late Henry Aulton Griggs, said he once threw his net from Longboat Pass Bridge and caught 187 mullet in one throw. He used to joke that, if he had all the snook that he had caught during his lifetime at one place, there would be so many that 'you couldn't put them all in one pile.' Henry passed away at the age of 96 this year. He was a pioneer of snook fishing and his kids and their kids are all avid anglers today.
| 28 July 2009
Find big snook in shallow moving water in the summer. If you want to take a photo of your catch, make sure you hold the fish horizontally placing one hand under the belly for support and return the fish back to the water as soon as you possibly can.
Lunker Linesiders That Is....
In Southwest Florida the snook sits at the top of the inshore target list. Snook are one of the most sought after species in Florida. Their tenacious reputation has earned followers from all over the world. Snook are one of my favorite fish to catch. Snook are no pushover. They frequent heavy structure and they are masters of their environment. In other words hooking them is one thing, landing them is another. Whether it is the thrill of the hunt or the heart-stopping thump, snook fishing is contagious.
Snook can be found in a variety of inshore and coastal waters. They can tolerate a huge range of salinity including areas that are almost entirely fresh water. Cold water is something they cannot tolerate. They cannot survive water temperature below 60 degrees for a long period of time. They can easily tolerate water well into the 80’s.
| 20 July 2009
Passionate about catching and cooking, Capt Rapps shares recipes for Pompano and Snapper.
Capt. Rapps Recipes
Whole Pompano
You will need...
- 1 whole dressed pompano per person
- Olive oil
- Sea Salt
- Black Pepper
- Lemon slices
- Aluminum foil
- 1 good looking helper (important!)
It doesn’t take much to make fresh fish taste great. Being passionate about the catch and the feast doesn’t hurt. Captain Rapps, one of the newest member guides to join the Snook Foundation, obviously loves fishing and sharing everything about his ‘addiction’.
| 07 June 2009
Could a lure that mimics juvenile tilapia be the ticket to hooking up with truly hungry peacocks? Here's the reasoning: Tilapia, pictured above, were the most prevalent and consistent food item identified In studies of stomach contents of peacock bass.
Rather than flogging a bedding peacock with a clouser, try this!
A combination of research and connecting the right minds led to a new variation of a common saltwater fly that really gets ‘em.
It started about a year ago, when I met Paul Shafland, the FWC biologist responsible for introducing Cichla ocellaris to South Florida Waters. “From 1984 to 1987, we stocked about 20,000 peacocks in the box-cut canals of Miami-Dade and Broward canals,” says Shafland. “But prior to the stocking, we did plenty of research.”
He sent me some of his published, peer reviewed findings, and that is where the fun began.
| 26 May 2009
The time to go beach snook fishing is now!! 'Beachsnooker,' Ken Taylor, shares a few tips to make your beach fishing trips exciting and productive.
Tips for summer beach fishing
I love to sight fish for snook along our Southwest Florida beaches. Snook will readily take artificial lures and flies when prowling the surf. You’ll need a good quality pair of amber based polarized sunglasses in order to see fish in the surf in order to make proper presentations to active swimming snook.
A surf temperature of approximately 75 degrees and above is what is needed for the snook to become active and feed comfortably. DOA shrimp, white buck-tailed jigs, soft plastics with various tails, spoons, and twitchbaits will all work at times. When using lures with treble hooks, either de-barb or change to single hooks for an easier catch and release which is of far less stress on the fish.
| 20 April 2009
The Mad Snooker, Capt. Dave Pomerleau, holding a replica of the Record 53 LB 10OZ Snook caught by Gilbert Ponzi in 1978 -- "I'm just going to have to keep on trying to get a Snook like this, and during this dream I hope the phone doesn't ring" Capt. Dave has caught some true Monster Snook of his own -see photo below.
Record Snook now part of Snook Foundation Educational Display
Snook Foundation Thanks Atlantic Taxidermy, owner Joe Ribera, for his donation of this World Record Snook mount, which is now part of the Snook Foundation educational booth display.
| 31 March 2009
Author and guide Captain Fred Everson
Be prepared to Catch and Release a Monster!
Capt Fred Everson guides, builds rods and instructs anglers on all phases of snook and inshore fishing. His next class is on April 25 and is open for booking. Contact Fred at TampaBayFishingGuide.com. Here's an excerpt from Capt Fred's excellent and easy to understand book, 'Catch Snook'. This excerpt describes how to prepare for one of the most challenging of snook hunts- bridge fishing.
There are several ways to approach bridge and pier fishing, but the snook you find around this type of structure are routinely monsters, which are predictably most active at night. And monster fish call for monster tackle.
| 31 March 2009
What's bridge fishing like for a kid on a bike at 3am? The memories are indelible.
As a young boy, Angler and Artist, John Cote, learned to fish in the trout streams of New Hampshire. But when his family moved to Florida in his early teens, things changed. Rather than wandering fields and forests, "my fishing grounds were now bounded by how far I wanted to peddle my bike loaded down with tackle box, bait bucket, and a couple rods in hand." Here's his story of one night's fishing from a downtown Fort Lauderdale bridge....
The tide had just turned and was slowly heading out. I knew in an hour or so the snook should start showing up under the bridge.
| 20 February 2009
Your Input Requested
As Coastal Regions grow in population, we need to continue to assess the social practices that affect our fisheries, coastal habitats and specific stocks. We are asking you to participate by answering 6 brief Poll Questions that probe the effects of fishing tournaments. If you would like to provide more information, an opinion or essay on this topic, please send to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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- Catching the Lowly Mullet
- Skip Casting to Snook
