The first day of summer had arrived, and along with it, some of the best inshore snook
fishing to be experienced in Southwest Florida. Snook are most active during the warm summer months, so this was the ideal time to introduce one of my best girlfriends, Bekah Miller, to the sport of snook fishing. Although Bekah hadn’t fished in over 25 years and had never touched a saltwater rod, I knew she loved the outdoors. This was all the incentive I needed to get her out on the water.
We drove the flats boat out to a secluded mangrove area near the lower part of the Caloosahatchee River and baited our lines with live threadfins. After repeatedly casting near the shoreline over the course of a two-hour period (and missing a few good hits due to angler error), we closed out the trip by catching and releasing four respectable snook in the 28″ to 33″ range (snook are catch and release only in the Gulf of Mexico region until September 1st as per Florida state recreational regulations). Bekah had been officially initiated into the saltwater snook club while picking up valuable knowledge that she could apply on her next outing. read m0re….