Beach snook (with pics)

[SteveGibson]

On a hunch, I headed for the beach today to sight-fish snook in the surf. It was great!

They were plentiful and hungry.

First snook of the morning was a really nice one. Ended up catching and releasing 16. Lost 5-6 more. Had 5 other takes.

All were caught on D.T. Special, the only fly I use to sight-fish in the surf. I used my 4-weight TFO Finesse, 6-pound tippet, 20-pound fluoro shock leader.

I estimate that I saw 400-500 snook in the surf today.

[deathb4disco]

I estimate that I saw 400-500 snook in the surf today.

Holy smoke! I gotta move to Florida! :D

Steve, that's a nice snook. That's gotta be some kind of record on the 4wt.

[dixieangler]

Wow. That's great, and on a 4wt. too. Must have taken you forever to get the 16 snook in. No wonder you lost five or six.

[SteveGibson]

Wow. That's great, and on a 4wt. too. Must have taken you forever to get the 16 snook in. No wonder you lost five or six.

No, the only one that took longer than average was the first snook, which was the largest. The others took maybe 3-4 minutes at the most.

[OKSTATEjiggy]

On a 4 weight? Dang... nice fish!

[wrwest]

Now that looks like fun and 4 wt wow.

[SteveGibson]

I've beefed up a little to a 6-weight now -- primarily because there are more big fish in the surf this year than I've ever seen. Yesterday, two of us combined for 50, with several over 26 inches. My top snook so far this beach season was a 32-incher.