Fishing with Capt. George Tunison | It’s peak beach snooking time
If catching a huge snook along the beach sounds like a great way to start your day, an evening or night, then you’re in luck as its peak beach snooking time. Pick a moving tide backed by an easterly breeze and slowly move along sight fishing the morning surf zone or for a unique experience go on night patrol. It’s no secret that big snook typically bite best at night and many snook fanatics and trophy snook guides only fish during the dark hours to stack the trophy odds in their favor.
If you decide to hit the sand at night, first bug proof or your trophy snook hunt might be cut short. Long pants, shirts, light socks, gloves, hat, then add a light-weight pull down buff or hoodie-type garment. Finish off with whatever high octane repellent that will hopefully get the bugs before they get you.
During daylight hours, white bucktails and soft plastics work well but at night I’m looking for 40-inch plus snook that can inhale a whole ladyfish, so large surface lures and swimming plugs like large Rapala’s or Bombers are better choices.
Long casts out to the horizon aren’t necessary. This isn’t traditional long distance surf casting. Turn and throw your plugs parallel to the beach. Your first cast should be very close to the water’s edge with each cast a little further out till you reach the 4 to 5-foot depths. Typically I never fish outside this zone when beach night casting unless I can hear or “see” activity outside the surf zone.
Never forget we are in the middle of shark central and big boys hunt shallow at night especially lurking around beach passes. Use caution when landing a big fish as the splashing and commotion alters curious cruising predators. When night casting, stay ankle deep. There’s no need to wade as that’s simply an invitation to get chewed on.
Most shady mangrove shorelines throughout Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound are producing various sized snook and reds that protect themselves from the mid-day sun, roaming sharks and anglers running fast and way too shallow. The accomplished forward and backhanded soft plastic skip-caster will typically hook quite a few more shoreline based fish than the safe edge caster when fish go way back and under cover. Always remember that when setting the hook on back and under cover customers, keep your rod tip in the water applying power from your hips and fight the fish like that till it’s clear of cover. The usual instinct is to raise the rod overhead instantly snagging the line in the unforgiving mangroves resulting in a quick break-off.
Along the mangroves edges and flats of Pine Island Sound, including much of the ICW, there are good numbers of various species, including tarpon and sharks all looking to play tug-of -war this month. Chum them into your spread of down tide dead bottom baits or ladyfish under balloons out behind the boat. Draw them closer with chum and lay a big, colorful, fluffy fly on the nose of an excited big shark and you’ll probably go deep into your fly reel’s backing line before you can get the skiff unanchored and moving. The water is hot so follow closely applying max pressure to get the fish boat-side and safely released. The same advice goes for tarpon. Big fish fight hard and are depending on you to give them a proper healthy release especially in this heat.
Tarpon are in and out of the passes with many moving into the harbor to eat abundant threadfins and ladyfish. The 20-foot holes mid-harbor and north Matlacha Pass are classic spots along with ICW flats down to the Sanibel Causeway.
Big bottom fish have moved deeper so the 150-foot zone is the place for bigger red and other various snappers on good weather days or nights.
Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. You can contact him at captgeorget4@yahoo.com or (239) 440-1621.