Snook Fishing

  With good reports of Monday fishing… me and Mike brought a friend of mine, Captain James McKeever out for an evening of snook fishing on Tuesday.  James does a lot of spear fishing and offshore fishing but rarely spends time inshore or flats fishing.  He has never caught a snook and we were hoping to add another fish to his list…. A cold front came through on Monday making the barometer fall as well as our fish bite. We started north of Pasadena hitting most of our favorite lites but with strong winds no fish were seen nor caught.  We then headed south to find out if fishing could be better with this outgoing tide.  Our first fish was from Mike, a 27 inch Redfish… and soon later James hooked up to a 26 inch Redfish… they both made the trip home.  We hit some of the local bridges where some snook were present on the top but not hitting. Changing tactics Mike started jigging the bottom… seeing if the bite was ON down deeper.  Next thing we knew Mikes pulling in a 36 inch… 17 lb. snook to the boat!!  I  watched as mike ALMOST yet again…. went into the water when a goliath grouper got a hold of his jig.  Not pulling him from the water, we est. him to be at about 28 inches.  The night was long and weather not at its best… we did have a fair nite!!  but I wish this nite with James, could have brought home a slot snook or two at the end of this snook season!!!  We will have to bring him out again to get him addicted to OUR STYLE of fishing ….For some BIG time Summer SNOOK!!!!!

Below is a picture of the 40 inch snook I caught last night while jigging a deep hole in Passagrill. Kevin also pulled up a 32 inch from the same hole.

For those of you that know me know that there is a canal I call Grandmas canal. The name of this canal to many would mean nothing. But for those of us who refer to this canal as grandma’s canal know that this canal holds lots of large snook in the winter.  Anyways, the reason for this post is to let you know that earlier this month Grandma past away at the age of 93, five weeks shy of her 94th birthday. Below is a picture of the canal in 1957. As you can see from the photo everything has changed except the seawall.  The man in the photo holding a Kingfish was a friend of my Grandfather.

Tyson, A friend of mine holding a 37inch Snook caught in Grandmas Canal late December 2006.

    With the pressure on…..the last few nights have been nothing to write about, only me and Mike crying about why the fish are not biting. We brought Joe Terry and his father Joe Sr. out with us… 1 last time to catch a keeper or two before snook season closes. With the tide outgoing we started by staying north of Pasadena….. but soon fell short with no fish to the boat. We saw very few fish in most of the spots we picked but as the tide went slack we found ourselves changing plans in order to salavage  the nite. We hit the Gulf and headed south finding  boaters everywhere. Trying to find lights with no boaters in canals was challenging but soon paid off. We hit some of my favorite lights by the Bay Way and soon got Joe hooked up on a slot 28.5 inch that became a night of many more…. Soon after, on fender at Tierra Verde Bridge, Mike noticed 2 huge tarpons feeding . I had a feeling that he would soon get hooked up……3 cast later, he did it!!! He got an est. 80 lb tarpon on!!!I have never been in this situation before…. but had quick instructions from Mike  to get him to the boat. About a minute later it was over by him cutting the line deep at the fender!! After getting my heartbeat back & under control… and getting  Mike calmed down, we went back to targeting smaller fish!  We got back in the game by getting Joe’s rod bent over on a impressive 35.5 inch  19.5 lbs. snook. With no strength left we  made Joe hold up his prize for the camera. Mike soon also got a nice slot 27 inch red that also put up a great fight! We scouted many lights on the way in, on another slack tide and watching  the moon rising and talking about our hard fought nite. As for me… I just hung back talking to Joe Sr. about how he caught snook back in the day!!! I hope he had a night  to remember.   (Joe Sr. a young 85)

        We hit the boat ramp at 8 ish….. to finish the week off, with my two fishing sisters…. Chrissy and Mikett. We stayed north of Central Ave where the tide was outgoing and winds lite, out of the WSW. We first stopped at Mikes Grandmothers house to mingle with his family and get the night started.  The second light of the trip in Blind Pass gave me my only fish of the nite, a slot 33 inch snook that got our night off to a really good start. After going back to Mikes Grandmothers house to show his northern family members what they were eating for dinner and posing for some pictures ,we got back on track. With multiple stops, some fish were visible but soon found out that this nite was going too be harder than we thought!On the verge or giving up,with Mikette and Chrissy’s MANginas hurting… Mike gets hooked up on his first fish of the nite, a slot 28 inch snook! Giving up for the night…. Mike decided to hit the Foglight one last time because of the fish he got dissed at from the first light. After what seemed like 50 casts between me and Mike, he got drilled by a strong 33 inch snook. I almost lost his best fish of the night trying to land him in the net. Back at the ramp listening to other boaters stories …I guess we could not complain…. 3 hookups with 3 keepers to the boat!!! 

       Me and Mike chartered a friend of mine, that has not snook fished in about 15 years.  We headed south where we knew the fish would be, hoping for an unforgetable night.  The tide was  strong & outgoing, the winds were low, and  the snook were not showing……. making it hard to get Joe hooked up. We saw some on  top by the fenders, but Mike soon found out that they were holding deeper in the pass. Mike got hooked up with a nice 34 inch snook using a jig, and soon after got hooked up with a monster snook that almost put Mike in the PASS. Mike could not stop him…..breaking his leader before Mike could hit the water! The night soon turned around with good production from our two fisherman. Mike soon got the first slot 31 inch snook to the boat and then Joe brought his first snook to the boat. A great one for his first, 27 inches.  As the night wore on, the fishing got more difficult…… but we were able to get Joe hooked up about 3 more times. The bite soon came to an end, back at the ramp around 2 a.m. …..with the tide gone!  Thanks Joe.

Joel invited me to go fishing with him last night on his little camo boat. Monday isn’t one of the nights I usually fish so saying no was on the tip of my tongue. After agreeing, we rolled out around 7:30 and killed some time by putting around until the sun went down. When it was dark enough to fish we rolled up on one of Joel’s favorite lights and parked the boat into the mud. The tide was so low if we would have hooked the dock we would have gotten out of the boat and walked to the dock to unhook the lure. Extreme low tides are not one of my favorite times to fish. In fact the last time I fished a tide this low I got skunked and lost a favorite lure while casting into the exposed oysters.

The next light we visited was on, the snook were eating bait like there was no tomorrow. Joel and I both landed keepers along with a few more slot snook. We left that amazing light and headed to the ramp but before we got there we tried a light known for holding redfish. Joel casted first and landed another large snook (32inches). While Joel was fighting the snook I couldn’t contain myself I had to cast. Suddenly a 24inch red hit my lure and we were both hooked up. Usually after catching a large snook on a light that pretty much finishes it. Not this light, after Joel released his snook he casted again and also caught a big red. We decided that was it for us, we limited out on both species we fished for. That light was so hot we probably could have landed a few more fish, but instead headed in.

I can count on one hand the amount of times I have fished where I have got a strike, or hook up at least 70% of the time. For Joel and I, last night was one of those times. I think we will remember this night for years to come.

Did I mention there was no water; the tide was below -1.

  We got a earliy jump out of the boat ramp hoping to change our dry spell on our lack of fish production.The wind started of being calm but was soon followed up by strong gusts out of the south and southeast making it another difficult nite.With not a hole lot of boaters out I got this 30 inch snook and one more at one of our best producing lights.