First Light By David Conway Photus by Pat Ford Secret Ways of Snook ‘AN APPRECIATION OF AFISH THAT LURKS IN NEIGHBORHOOD CANALS AND INLETS. UNDER BRIDGES. IN THE SURF AND IN YOUR DREAMS. I live in the heart of big snook country on Florida's east-central coast, where _Peopleeat snook, but not as much asin prior riversmeet the sea. Snook foaish in the warm, bricksh waters hat fow through curlagoon decades Some Farida fais were practically tystem, bays and far inland at sea level. ive with snookasTlive with my other neighbors. __taied on thetlaky, white meat. These days the though with abit more affinity for the fish. fshare strictly managed, as they shoald he, Soukareintepid. resent and bol. shovel snout, slope backed and witha boa! powe:fl all, wi slo Tina and closed seasons, You might asmook changes hues with its waters. Sut soook ae bright sve, backwater fs show the Brewn cf easy catch 10 snook for one within the egal thet anni halitat and iver share dark green blue the melded celor of changing tides. AU ave sotfima, which onthe Allantie coasts 280 the dbtincive Hacklatenl ne running the length ofthis bodes and big yellow nightvision eye. 32 nches- Ofcourse, the dilicuky inatching ‘A fish lager than 40 inchesis considered sizable by local tardarcs. Thats a husky fh, but they a keeper only makes you want one more. get mach bigger: Wide anglers stealthir than myself tel tales of ge nocturnal ook — 60 might keep a snook but very rare. My Ftches— in the shallows Before diem and goneat fist glimpse with a heat of theta ardent, and aleitedly overzealous pursuit of Anglers Journ 2them over the yearshas put me on personal, even friendly terms with the species. [now a fev docks that certain big fish visit regularly Judging by the angle ofthe sun, I know where snook will be staging foe thet seasonal of feeding and breeding. As the sun arcs higher each day, snook move from mangrove islands deep river channels and bays toward inlets, ‘ocean and their spawning grounds. Wh white butterflies cloud the spring ai, the snook bite is good along the channels and flats. If you glide a boat over those channels ona clear tide, You'll see snook down deep along the edge. Inthe Furnace bast of summer, snook cruise the surf. nosing along in inches of water a the beach looking fora meal afer spawning. The fy anglers are there, too, poised and patent, ripping sweatin the heat, waiting fr just those ‘momentsat dawn, During fll snook are inthe ‘waves fattening up on baitfish coursing down the coast before winter. Then they return to thir river haunts, tothe deeper docks and cuts where theyll weather the cooler conditions. What can drive me erazy about snook is that these wily, tenacious predators are all ‘over the place around here, You and I stand ‘a good chance of catching one on a quick ‘morning trp before work or on lunch break, no boat needed. You can catch them from the catwalks under bridges, from the bridges themselves, from seawalls and beaches andl Pers by the jetties, in residential canal, from private docks and public parks, where you ‘wade into river waters ust past the play round swings and sliding boards. Snook are for everyone to catch and everyone to eare for. Surely they are one of the most accesible premier gamefish in the United States. have lithe kis now; and afew years have passed since Il regularly get out long before daw ‘out well past midnight to vist them at lighted docks where they feed. But I'm sil just as. satel for the fish, because I know that their Pursuit gives so many people — from the Young and fevered tothe older and alone — {chance to sense the power and secret ways ofthe nook. ee Anglers Journal