For the most part, snook have always been my favorite species to hunt on fly. And, yes i say hunt because much of the allure of pursuing snook comes having to spend time in the beautiful places they live. In the Charlotte Harbor backcountry, prime snook country contains an archipelago of mangrove islands, shallow bays, small lined creeks. This mangrove island country is filled with a complicated network of backwater creeks that run into the land for miles. This is also an estuary system where the fresh water flowing from the rivers, the Peace, Myakka, and to a certain extent the Caloosahatchee, mixes with the salt water pushing in from the Gulf. This combination makes an incredible nursery system where small snook have the chance to grow up protected from predators. As a result, it’s all about the hunt as we attempt to sight fish and blind cast in such country. Moreover, connecting to a snook in a tangled small mangrove creek can be jungle combat. It’s technical in nature as we’re working in and around the root systems but typically a 30 foot cast is all we need. Accuracy is more important than distance. Fortunately, just about all the places I like to hunt have not been adversely affected by last years storm. It’s taken a while for the water to clean up and most of the debris that was scattered throughout the mangroves has been cleared up.
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