| 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.
I've lived in Florida for 38 years. For most of them I've been addicted to snook fishing, keeping my mind and eyes on fishing almost non-stop ever since. Oh sure I've caught countless other fish like my second favorite, the incredible tarpon - simply an overgrown ladyfish with a 426 hemi under it's hood. What a thrill! Thousands of bulldog powered redfish and spotted sea trout, snapper, sheephead, cobia and the list goes on, but there's something almost magical about snook.
I got snook fever early on and the only known cure is to catch and release another one. If you are wondering how bad it got, well I would
photo: Mad_Snooker Dave Pomerleau crawl out of my bedroom window late on school nights and sneak off on my trusty old Schwinn fishing cruiser complete with two PVC rod holders strapped to the back frame, an over-sized, goofy looking steel wire basket hijacked from my grandmother's 3 wheeled bicycle strapped to the handlebars and front of the bike frame. I could carry my small tackle box, flashlight and a 5 gallon bucket with a bubble box half full of smelly salt water because of the two dozen jumbo shrimp and a dozen or so of pin fish that had been in the bucket for a number of hours hidden outside my window until it was time to sneak off and get my snook fix.
I spent way too may school nights and almost every summer night peddling to many of Sarasota's snook fishing hot spots like the then open Midnight Pass. In late spring and summer this place could not be beat for amazing numbers of whopper snook. Needless to say my grades suffered. But as for my knowledge of snook, well I was on my way to acquiring a Master's Degree.
photo: Mad_snooker Dave PomerleauI've been very fortunate over the years to have fished and learned from some of the true snook fishing masters like Earl Downey, who wrote a wonderful book called How to Fish for Snook, which you can still find from time to time on Ebay. I also acquired an amazing amount of knowledge from superstar snook anglers such as Sarasota's Kelly Green, my good friend Roger Kronsis and Mr. Snook Lorin Peruche. I can't go without mentioning two of the greatest snook fishing guides, Captain Van Hubbard of Englewood, Captain Scott Moore, and last but certainly not least is David Justice, who is also a master of nocturnal monster snook fishing. I have the utmost admiration for all of them.
I've watched the snook fishery change so much over the years, size limits, bag limits, time of year you can keep them, and have witnessed first hand the size of the average snook go up and down.
photo credit: Mad_snooker Dave PomerleauI was in 6th grade in 1977 in Sarasota when they let us outside around 11am to see it snowing. Sure it was pretty cool, but this is when I learned that super cold temperatures and snook don't get along. I saw snook by the hundreds cold, stunned and dying up and down Phillipi Creek and I remember how sad it made me. I witnessed this again around Christmas, 1988, all over West Central Florida.
I've unfortunately also witnessed a good many bouts of red tide that put a real hurting on snook and many other species of fish. I have to say though I've never seen anything like this past winter, with water temps below 50 degrees and front after front. The cold, windy weather would just not quit. So much for global warming! The horror stories were all over internet fishing forums, newspapers, TV news, photos showing boats full of dead snook. Poaching cold stunned snook was out of control.
photo credit: Mad_snooker Dave PomerleauI was on the phone constantly with Capt. Scott Moore, Rick Roberts of the Snook Foundation, and also Ron Taylor, Florida's leading snook biologist. It was bad! The amount of my charters that were canceling in January, February and March due to horrible weather was staggering. I was forced to do something out of character for The Mad Snooker, fishing in the daytime for trout, sheepshead, snapper and so on. I couldn't wait for the warm weather to get here.
Finally it not only got here, it got down right hot! So recently I decided to jump in my truck and do a couple nights of over 300 mile round trips just looking at the snook hangouts that I know of from Clearwater to Naples. To my amazement, some snook are either tougher than we thought, perhaps smarter, or just plain lucky to be near sheltered and deep enough water to have survived this last out- of-control winter.
Absolutely there were alot of snook killed, but it seemed to be in pockets, like many shallow parts of Tampa Bay where the northeast 
photo credit: Mad_snooker Dave Pomerleau - occasional redfish wind blew all the water out of the shallow creeks and rivers, like the Manatee, Terra Ceia and Palma Sola Bay. It does seem to me that some of the coastal snook that didn't hightail it for the inland deep waters quick enough got hurt. Also the 10,000 Islands and the Everglades southward where the cold wind really blew the water out literally non-stop lost a lot of snook. Bad snook kills also occured along the east coast from Palm Beach County northward.
So recently in my travels by truck and by boat, I've been video taping many of the spots where I've seen alot of the snook that did survive. Then I went back and filmed a couple of friends of mine catching some really nice snook. I've begun posting all these videos on my website. You can view these on Youtube on TheMadSnookerChannel. I'm going to be uploading new video on a very regular basis with my day and night tarpon fishing charters and of course my nocturnal snook fishing trips. This summer the tarpon and snook should be switched into high gear, so please remember to handle them with care.
Tarpon Release in the water . photo: Mad_snooker Dave PomerleauTry not to wipe off any of the stress coat or remove any scales and not to hold the big snook and tarpon vertically. More release tips. It's especially hard on the tarpon to put them in the boat. It's so much better to leave them in the water. More Tarpon Release info click here
A final thought, I'm pretty amazed at snook's resilience and ability to survive the winter we just had. It is a testament to nature, and who knows maybe it's a way to weed out the weak and makes the species stronger. Tight lines everyone. For tarpon and snook charter information contact The Mad Snooker
