My daughter Lindsay is on the island for a long weekend for a visit. I think she has had a good time resting here, going to the beach, pool, and riding around. She has captured some great pictures of the scenery and the wildlife – even caught a turtle in a private moment for a quick picture. I think I saw him reading a little newspaper. “Hey Lindsay, are you having fun on the island this week?”, “Does a turtle poop in the sand?” might be the answer… Anyway, Lindsay took time to go out with Jason and me to the docks for a bit of snook fishing last night.
Since Jason is very focused on being on the beach for fishing when the tides would create the best chance for catching snook, he made an exit from our dinner conversation to get started. Lindsay and I stayed at home with Teresa, Sue Ann Couser, and her son Bradley who is visiting the island. As he left I told him we would find him later and we could introduce her to the snookery. Jason was convinced the snook had taken up residence in the pass for one of the many gatherings they make this time of year through the summer to spawn. He had been having some good action there in preceding nights while I had been taking a few nights off to visit with Lindsay and to watch the Nashville Predators hockey games. As the after dinner conversation seemed to near its end, Lindsay and I got ready to head out to see what we might see.
Now I figured I knew where Jason would be, and so Lindsay and I navigated the dark onto the beach and found him just where I expected. Because of a strong wind blowing, the darkness, and his focus on working through a tangled line issue, we got pretty close to him before he heard me say “JASON!” I think we startled him – a bit. Once his pulse had returned to normal, we determined that the snook were not around in the pass as he had expected. And furthermore, a lot of weeds had moved in on the last of the outgoing tide making it very difficult to fish. I wanted to find a way for Lindsay to catch a snook, but this was not the situation to do that. So we decided to head to the docks, even though Jason had been around there earlier and did not see much to be excited about.
When we reached the dock, a very strong outgoing tide was ripping by the dock and the wind was blasting and weeds were everywhere. No snook in sight. Not ideal fishing conditions by any means, but it was a clear night and the orange full moon was rising, lighting up the night. We decided to try for a bit just to see what might happen. Jason was the first to hook up, but it was a Ladyfish – not the desired target. It seemed confusing to Lindsay as to why we were not excited about having a fish on the line, since we were “Fish”-ing after all… Fortunately, the slimy lady released itself from Jason’s jig without dealing the lure any lasting damage. We fished on for a while with not any real action. Usually, at some point during a moving tide, some type of bait is carried along and excites the fish to action.
All of a sudden, some skip-jacks came zipping by, and then some shrimp began to leap out of the water
trying to escape the danger below. Snook appeared out of nowhere and rose to the surface attacking the bait with pops and splashes. We took advantage of the activity to make our move and quickly changed out lures to simulate what they were looking for. Jason and I had some quick strikes, but the snook seemed to be putting their lips around the bait, but not really sucking it in all the way. This was producing a lot of missing and not much catching. Eventually I hooked up and put one on the dock. Shortly after that, Jason was on with a feisty snook. They did the snook dance around the dock and the fish darted for pilings, pulled out drag and put up a valiant fight. Jason countered the snook’s best moves and worked it around the pilings and onto the beach.
We got Lindsay set up and fishing from the dock, and had several snook give her lure a pop. Unfortunately each fish knocked the lure into the air, but did not take it into its mouth sufficiently for a hookup. We left the dock and Jason worked with her to set up between the docks to see if we could get her a snook. Unfortunately the heavy winds and weeds were making those efforts almost impossible. Jason finally hooked up and then he got Lindsay to fight the snook to the beach. She did not shy away from holding the snook for a photo. The snook thrashed away from her grip and onto the beach, leaving her with “snook thumb” as the fine teeth of the snook rubbed the pad of her thumb rough. As the conditions deteriorated, the snook seemed to turn off as quickly as they had turned on. We beat the water for a bit more, but decided it was time to go home for dessert and coffee.
It would be untrue to say that Lindsay out-fished us, but her efforts in the worse conditions were worth our admiration. Tonight was not a night of a lot of fish, and on those nights many times the catching is as much by chance as by skill. However, as you can see from the cover photo, Lindsay is looking good in her fishing gear and earning her “snook thumb” like a pro.
David