 Florida: Sight Fishing Big Snook Deep In The Everglades
Posted by MarshallD on March 25, 2008
(2614 reads)
The skiff sits in a Mangrove-lined cove 35 miles south of Chocoloskee, Kevin Mahailoff is on the poling platform, Roger Hall sits behind me, and I am on the front platform, fly in hand, rod ready. "Here they come," Kevin whispers, then his voice gets urgent ..."I see him. Big Snook. You see him?" "Yep, I got him," I begin to air out some line. "There he goes! Cast left! More left, More left!" I shoot the line with confidence some 20 feet ahead of the Snook who is pushing a wake ahead of him. "Wait. Let it sink." Kevin's always communicating. That's why he is one of the best guides in the Florida everglades. "Now. Short strip. Short strip. Shor .... Fish On!" The Snook lunges at the little bucktail fly and turns. My line hand pulls back with my rod hand low and hard. I feel a hard pull back against the 50-pound shock tippet. The Snook peels off line, Kevin poles the skiff out away from the Mangroves and I can feel the big Snook surge toward the roots as I apply maximum pressure, just enough to turn him. I tighten down a quarter turn on the Charleton. It takes awhile. A great, strong battle. But when he tires, he really gives it up.
The hook pulled free just as Kevin's hand tightened on the Snook's mouth. What a great fight. I learn so many new things every time I go out fly fishing with Capt. Kevin. He seems to draw out the best of what ability I might have as a fly caster and angler. There is a pressure factor I used to feel when I first started fly fishing with guides down here. Now I feel more confident and it's definitely from the
variety of experiences I have gained fly fishing with these excellent guides. There are many fly fishers who won't use a guide out of whatever ... some folks are just stubborn and cheap and think they know it all ... whatever. But, I think if any fly fisher wants to get to be better, wants to learn more, wants a lifetime experience ... well going out with a guide like Kevin is expensive, sure. But I think it is worth much more in terms of improving my fishing and giving me experiences I can build on.
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Re: Florida: Sight Fishing Big Snook Deep In The Everglades
by jeremy on March 25, 2008 http://www.fliesandfins.com | Great read Marshall .. I have been there on the front of Kev's skiff and I think he said the exact same type of thing to me, "Big Snook .. 11 0'Clock etc.." I'd like to say I was as confident as you have become down there; but to be honest my knees still knock as I have yet to catch a snook that big. Sure, I have caught alot of snook, many with you infact .. but never a really big one like that ... I went out with Kevin on a trip with Dave and Kevin put us on the fish .. Dave got it done and got a beautiful big snook ... I had my fair shots at some monster snook but messed it all up with bad hook sets and other things that I have been constantly working on since then. I am pretty hard on myself when splitting a guided trip with a friend .. here's why. Both of us are splitting the cost of the trip and there are only so many good shots at good fish in an outing. So, it's not fair to my friend if I get up there and blow my shots .. the fairest thing I can do when I don't "get it done in one" .. is sit down and give my buddy the fly rod. Infact I did that on a tarpon trip with Joe-M one time down there .. The guide would pole us around and work his nuts off poling against wind etc.. to get us on fish. Joe-M would get up there and make his shot count .. I would get up there and cast like a pro WHEN IT DIDN'T MATTER. Then all of a sudden, "Big Tarpon 1 O'Clock" .. and I would be slapping the water ... casting into the trees .. fly line tangled around my toes and lining fish. So, in an effort to teach myself the importance of making 1 cast count, I would put myself in "the penalty box" and sit down and give Joe the fly rod. It worked, and whether I am fly fishing down there or at home or anywhere in the world for that matter I try to get better at making 1 good cast and making 1 good shot count. At the end of the day, anyone can cast like "a river runs through it" when it doesn't really matter or in their back yard ... The really good fly fisherman can do it when they only get one shot at a world class fish. I think that will be forever, a work in progress for me; as I am not sure it could ever really truly be "mastered."
You raise an interesting point about "fly fishers who won't use a guide or whatever etc..." Here is my new philosophy and it makes perfect sense to me ..
1. Not all guides are the same
2. Not all guiding services are the same
3. If a boat and gas are involved it's gonna cost more, end of story.
4. If a guide has build a reputation for himself and his customers WANT to pay a gazillion mazillion dollars for a day on the water. God bless him. It's no difference between buying a concert ticket to see let's say "Dave Matthews" as compared to "Not Dave Matthews" ... like it or not, or whether someone thinks it's "fair" or not doesn't really matter. Dave is still gonna sell out the show .. and ultimately, what "you" or "I" think really doesn't matter. Because, obviously, LOT'S of folks see the VALUE in the what they get for the price of the ticket.
5. Just like music, who the heck ever said that everyone has to be the same? That would be so boring it would be ridiculous! There is room for everyone and every kind of service .. You for example do wading guide trips .. you don't have a boat, you don't have a captains license .. but, for a guy like me who wanted to catch his first ever snook or tarpon your services made sense .. And your services were priced according to what I was getting and not getting. You don't have to pay for a boat, fees, wear and tear on an engine, gas, oil and all that stuff. Hence, your prices are cheaper.
6. Balance is key in everything. If I make a trip to Florida or Timbuktoo .. I only got a certain budget and much like an amusement part and who I am with and their budget .. we will plan or fly fishing days accordingly .. So out of let's say 5 days .. it might be 3 days on our own two feet eating taco bell and sleaping in the cheapest motels we can find, 1 day with a lower priced guide an
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Re: Florida: Sight Fishing Big Snook Deep In The Everglades
by greg on March 25, 2008 http://www.fliesandfins.com | | Biggest Snook I ever caught was on the front of Kevins boat. Believe me, if my mother gave me a trailor in florida I'd be doing the same thing! Nice fish. Dave has some pictures of the Snook I caught, wich was several, my largest was, OH well, no sense in comparing size. |
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Re: Florida: Sight Fishing Big Snook Deep In The Everglades
by patm on March 25, 2008 http://www.yankeeford.com | Marshall,
Great read. Great fish. |
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Re: Florida: Sight Fishing Big Snook Deep In The Everglades
by Austin on March 25, 2008 | | Hey marshall, great snook! i too can relate being under pressure at the bow of a boat...one has to be dead on accurate to catch awsome game fish like your snook. even though the amount of mistakes people make on the bow translate into a lot of feeling bad for yourself as jeremy mentioned, your article is proof that it can be done under extreme times of pressure! great job! |
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Re: Florida: Sight Fishing Big Snook Deep In The Everglades
by Piscineidiot on March 25, 2008 | Wow, nice work. Looks like a lot of fun, and a challenge to boot.
I get the feeling our barramundi behave quite similarly, but I haven't had the pleasure of catching them over flats just yet. Looking forward to getting a nice, big saltwater one this Winter actually...
Do you prefer to use larger flies for snook, or is that not such an issue? |
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Re: Florida: Sight Fishing Big Snook Deep In The Everglades
by AvidDavid on March 31, 2008 | So Marshall:
Some of us know that you are a guide, yourself: West Coast of Florida in the Winter; and Central Maine in the Summer. I am sure as the kind of afficianado you are with flyfishing, that you must also take great pride in your guiding enterprise. I would be interested to hear from you what you learned about guiding from Kevin and how fishing with Kevin (a guide's guide) may influence your approach to being a guide.
By the way, I always love to read your fishtales. You are extremely experienced... and yet I sense a child-like excitement when you have a fish on (a feeling that I share).
I also was tickled by Piscinidiot's homage to you as being of "greater experience." Where I work, we try to be very politically correct and we refer to women of increasing years as women of "advanced life experience." So, just what was P'idi' trying to say?
From an old fart, meaning only the best,
Dave |
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Re: Florida: Sight Fishing Big Snook Deep In The Everglades
by joey on March 31, 2008 http://www.fliesandfins.com | | thats a bomber marshall. Kevin is a good guide, I have been out with him once and he works super hard. Glad your having a good winter down there. I bet you are not missing winter in Maine. |
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Re: Florida: Sight Fishing Big Snook Deep In The Everglades
by MaxC on April 07, 2008 | | Marshall Please contact me About John Howards guide service, Would love to talk with you about Mr Howard !!!! |
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Re: Florida: Sight Fishing Big Snook Deep In The Everglades
by donjuanfour20 on April 11, 2008 | | marsh, great snook man, seriously. i just read your comment about moving to find fish, i sometimes find myself moving to find the fish. during those times i wonder if i made the right choice to move. thanks. |
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