Everglades Snook Fishing: Shy Fish Keep You On Your Game

Posted under fly fishing reports by Dave Teper

Submitted by: Marshall Demott www.flyanglersguide.com

Sight fishing for Snook always seems to draw out the best of what I have going as a fly fisherman. Everglades Guide, Capt. Kevin Mihailoff ( www.snookin.com ) ran Roger Hall and I south from Chocoloskee deep into the bowels of Everglades National Park’s myriad islands and creeks on a flat surface as we saw the sunrise March 14. 40 minutes later we were on the bow and into the game. Silently, Capt. Kevin poled the shoreline perched aft. Silently, we looked for shadows as the sun slowly rose to illuminate the shoreline bottom. “Shit!, Damn it! and other curses between our teeth, we each hissed at blown chances at every sight opportunity as the coffee-colored water obscured more blown out fish. Being constantly poised and ready to deliver a fly takes energy and concentration for me to do for a long time. When I am on the front of the skiff with a fly rod I enjoy making maximum effort to be quiet. I try to keep moving though, to ease leg fatigue. At 62, I always try to build more leg and body strength and in turn I gain confidence as well, so I love being the front gunner, even if my mistakes are sometimes ragged at by the rest of the crew. I just want to be a slave to my job…. Both Roger and I had chances with missed casts, missed fish, blown opportunities,…. just BADASS luck til noon. Kevin moved around as the wind came up and sought out lees and coves with less wind and more current. Good things happened as we moved in a hurry to find fish. In my opinion, Kevin’s hunting pace marks him as an exceptional fishing guide. After picking up a few small Snook blind casting, we found a shoreline and were surprised by several fast-cruising Snook…turned out to be several schools of big Snook. Our luck began to change. We made some good casts, some good strips, had solid eats, solid hookups, excellent fights. Later on, Kevin took us up a creek, under branches to a small pond, 8″ deep where we had chances at several 30″-40″ Snook using small, light-weight dark colored, Ciclid flies. The Snook were super-spooky and just seeing the huge fish in such skinny water made this day one of the most memorable for all of us.