Frank Sargeant - The Snook Book: A Complete Anglers Guide

Published by

LARSENS OUTDOOR PUBLISHING

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

http://www.rlpgtrade.com

Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom

Distributed by National Book Network

Copyright 1991 by Frank Sargeant

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

Library of Congress 90-063532

ISBN: 978-0-936513-13-3 (paper : alk.paper)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

My sincere thanks to the many fishermen, guides, biologists and marine scientists who have contributed to the production of this book. Among those who deserve special mention are guide Scott Moore, who has probably caught more snook than any man alive, and probably taught more anglers to enjoy the snook arts than any other guide. Also very helpful was Larry Mendez of Shoalwater Boats, who frequently made me a guest in his backcountry adventures. Guides Paul Hawkins and Russ Sirmons also shared snook secrets with me, as did David Fairbanks of MirrOlure and Steve Marusak of Cotee Jigs. Roy Williams, now assistant director of the Marine Fisheries Commission, was frequently helpful in my fisheries education, as were snook experts Jerry Bruger, Ron Taylor, Jim Whittington and Danny Roberts of the Florida Department of Natural Resources. Ed Irby, formerly the east coast snook researcher and now a Tallahassee exec for DNR, was also instructive.

COVER: illustration of a leaping snook is by St. Petersburg artist and snook guide Russ Sirmons. Sirmons sculpts his exquisite works in glass with sandblasting equipment and hours of dedication. He accepts commissions to do fish and birds of all species. He can be reached at (813) 526-2090.

Snook fishing is a growing sport, because snook numbers have increased steadily in recent years, and also because more and more anglers are discovering the joys in inshore saltwater fishing. This book is dedicated to those growing legions of snook fishermen, both experts and those who would like to become experts. Its based on more than 20 years of fishing with the finest snook anglers in Florida and Central America. All the basics are covered to get the novice started, but theres also extensive, in-depth material that should make any snooker a better fisherman. Every angler has his own unique tricks and stores of know-how, and the author has tried to include the best from the many fine fishermen who have allowed him to share their boats.

The coverage is year-around, and applies to snook where ever they are found, from the glassy shallows of the West Coast to the rolling green inlets of the Atlantic shore, as well as throughout the wild, dingy waters of the Everglades, Mexico, Costa Rica and points south.

The Snook Book is also a compendium of the best in snook tackle, boats and the other piles of gear dear to a fishermans heart. And those interested in the biology, habitat and habits of Centropomis undecimalis--and his related cousins--will also find much to ponder here.

Finally, youll find this is a book that names names--theres a listing of Floridas top guides, along with their telephone numbers. A book can take you only so far--if you want to jump to the ranks of experts in a single day, the guide can do the job.

Frank Sargeant is outdoors editor of the Tampa Tribune, and a senior writer for Southern Outdoors, Southern Saltwater and BassMaster magazines. He was formerly an editor for CBS Publications Division, and a writer for Disney World Publications, as well as southern editor for Outdoor Life. His writing and photos have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Field & Stream, Sports Afield, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science and the Readers Digest. He was a fishing guide before becoming a writer and editor. He holds a masters degree in English and Creative Writing from Ohio University, and has taught writing at the high school and college level. He has fished for snook throughout Florida and Central America for more than 20 years. He lives on the Little Manatee River, one of Floridas best snook waters.

THERES NOTHING COMMON about the common snook, Centropomis undecimalis. The snook is a backstreet-fighter, without match. The linesider hits harder than any other inshore gamefish, pulls like a bonito and jumps like a tarpon. And it does it all in tangled little mangrove creeks too narrow for an alligator to turn around.

Hooking a big snook in such water is like dropping a grenade into a garbage can, then hopping inside and pulling on the lid.

Beyond the excitement of the battles, the snook is found in some of the most ecologically beautiful country our nation has to offer. Snook are subtropical fish. That means that, like orange trees, mangroves and manatees, they are limited to areas that stay warm year around. Water temperature below 70 degrees F is tough on snook, and water temperatures below 60 kill them. That means theyre limited primarily to Florida, within the United States, and not all of Florida, at that.

The snook line runs roughly from Port Richey, on the west coast, to Cape Canaveral, on the east coast. There are pockets further north, on both sides--the spring-fed rivers at Homosassa and Crystal River, for example--but for dependable action, snook anglers cast their eyes (and their lures) toward the southern half of the peninsula. A few years of unusually warm weather can temporarily move the snook line further north, and in recent seasons there have been many snook caught in the Daytona Beach area. But the Christmas freeze of 1989 killed most of these splinter populations. The consistent production areas are all further south.

Centropomis undecimalis, the common snook, is also known as the linesider, the robalo, and coincidentally, the sargeant fish. Its a subtropical species, found only in the southern half of the Florida peninsula and southward through the Tropics.

Prime snook country is an anglers dream, estuary waters where the fresh water flowing from the coastal marshes and rivers mixes with the salt of the seas. Snook country can be mangrove country, laced with the labyrinthian winding of blackwater creeks that run into the land for miles, necking down so narrow theyre barely wide enough to allow passage of a water moccasin. Snook country can be the inshore grass flats, clear, warm shallows where turtle grass and manatee grass spread in a gray-green carpet filled with marine life. Snook country can be a deep coastal pass, where the green waters foam and boil with the strong flows of spring. It can be the last oyster bar at the edge of the Gulf, and the first sandbar along a beach. It can be a rockpile in the Atlantic surf.