The Enduring Allure of Snook

A beginners guid to theis exciting gamefish.

Like the memory of a kiss that sparks a lifelong love affair, people remember their first snook experience. Mine came along a sandy beach on Sanibel Island, Florida, on a hot May morning in 1995.

A Clouser Minnow tossed well ahead of a cruising fish in clear water brought a smashing strike. The fish was not big-22 inches-but it jumped four times and bent my 9-weight in an arc. Since then I have been as hooked as that first snook.

There is, deservedly, a certain mystique about snook. Part of it is their morphology: Powerful but not