Snook are prized game fish because of their powerful fights they are described as ' largemouth bass on steroids.' Once hooked on a line, snook immediately swim toward the sharpest surface, tangle the line in mangrove, or attempt to cut the line with their razor sharp gill plates.

It was here that I learned about snook, a devious species of shore fish distinguishable by its silver scales and a pronounced black stripe running from its gills to its tail. I learned to net schools of mullet and rake for sand fleas for bait. When I was about 11 years old, my father began to take me to the Fort Pierce inlet beach in Florida, where the surf is rough and the fish are big and meaty. When conditions align, tarpon will move in to feed and warm up and some of the best tarpon fly fishing of the year can occur.To try fish en papillote, click here for a recipe.

Fly fishing in both the backcountry and the outside can be on fire. Snook and redfish can be abundant on the shorelines and days of 20+ shots are common. November-February can offer some of the finest sight fishing on the planet. In the winter (November-April), the freshwater flow tapers down, the wind blows water out of the backcountry, the water cools, and the tides are some of the lowest of the year. Eventually the summer rains inundate the backcountry and the majority of the late summer fishing happens near the outside. Redfish and snook can be caught fishing the shallow shorelines as long as the water isn’t too hot. Tarpon are at the peak of their migration in May and June, and resident fish can be caught all summer long. The summer (May-October), brings us warm, sometimes hot, water from the Gulf and fish can be caught in both the backcountry as well as the outside.

Fishing planet florida unique snook