32" Snook

It was a cool overcast morning. I just sucked down my third cup of coffee and the captain said, "alright let's do this thing." Captain John has been taking me back country fishing for the last 10 years. Every time it is a new adventure and this time was no different.

Back water fishing on the gulf is one of my favorite past times. You get more of a "me against the fish" type of feeling. Deep sea fishing is fun don't get me wrong, but the technology is more primordial in the back country. Of course it could be that you are in a MUCH smaller boat and closer to the water.

First things first, we need to catch some pilcher for bait. This proved to be more difficult than it sounds. Actually it was 4 hours difficult and we had only caught about 15. It was pretty cool that I got to drive the boat while the captain stood on the bow with the casting net.

Having so little bait we decided to go in the mangrove channels that are water ways that lead to some houses off shore. They called this sight fishing. One would assume that this was because you can see the fish up under the mangrove trees in the shallows. (go figure)

After whipping around these 10 foot wide channels at 20 knots for a half hour the captain slowed the boat and called my attention to the house to our right. Laying next to the driveway was a 10 foot crocodile sunning itself. Completely motionless I said to the captain, "I hope it's not trash day." We all laughed for a second and got back to business at hand. 

After polling the boat for a few minutes the captain handed me a pole and said, "look right there to your right. See it?" I looked over and had no idea what he was pointing at. "No I don't. What are you pointing at," I said. "Right there. See that light area just below the surface?" I looked again and saw this real thin light area a the base of a mangrove tree. "Ya, I think I see it." "Cast it right in front of him" John said.

Looking at the proximity of the fish to the tree and knowing how many hooks and lines I had dedicated to the decoration of the mangrove trees in the past, I steadied my hand and tossed the bait. The line leaked out and it was a DIRECT HIT right on top of the fish. John looked at me and said, "No. Right in front of him." This was 10 feet away and John wanted me to land the bait in a 5 inch area. Be the fish I thought to myself. I let fly the second cast and BOOM a direct hit right on top of the fish again...(sigh) "He's moving off. Hurry cast again this time right in front of him," John said this time with a little frustration in his voice. I knew this was getting serious and I had to make a great cast. I reeled the line back in a threw another and this time it hit the tree. Fear and dissapointment ran though my veins and I pulled back sharply. The bait bounced back about 3 feet from the boat. "That looked stupid," I thought to myself. I was getting ready to real it back in when all of a sudden this monster snook came out that we had not seen and grabbed the bait. I let him take the bait and then I snapped the pole to set the hook. Whiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzz went the real as he made a break for the cover of the mangroves. I pulled as hard as I could to the right to keep the monster from tangling the line in the trees. The pole was almost touching the water at some points and after 3 or 4 minutes the captain leaned into the water to pull out my prize.

"That is one ***** of a snook my friend" John said, this time with more approval in his voice. "Now we have to measure it" and John pulled out the yard stick. "What do you mean measure it? Don't I get to keep it?" I queried. "You can keep it if it's between 28 and 33 inches," he said as he laid the fish out. "Perfect it's 32 inches and dinner for you tonight." 

I couldn't help but feel a sense of that old hunter gatherer accomplishment as I snapped the above photo. A couple of gentleman came over while the captain was cleaning the fish and said, "Hey nice fish. Is that a Snook?" "Why yes it is," I replied. "Would you like to sell us one of those fillets?" "I have to feed my family with this tonight so I am sorry," I said as a little smirk ran across my face.

We had the snook prepared 5 different ways later that night. It was served on 2 platters as 8 pounds is a lot of fish. I can't wait to come back and do it again.