Long Leader Rewards: Snook On The Fly
Posted by joe-m on Sunday, January 30 @ 18:12:24 PST

Snook, Snook and more Snook. Here in South West Florida temperature does matter. The last few days it has been sunny and in the low 80’s so the back bay water temp must have gone up a degree or two. About every night after dinner I hit the lights with my trusty 8 wt and plenty of small glass minnows (silver, green and silver and blue and silver are the best). Last night was unbelievable!! The lights were full of Snook, Blue fish and an occasional Jack. There are three distinct lights running from north to south, the more south the bigger the fish? I don’t know why but I could see several bigger fish under the last southern light. I would start on the north light and slowly fish to the south. The north was easy. Every other cast I could pick up a fish( 22 inches +/-) but the big dogs on the south, that was another story. I would stand and watch these 30"+ suck small bait off the surface with just a flick of the tail. I would

cast and watch them fade into the dark. This was making me crazy, I’ve got to out smart these damn fish. Switch flies, leader, leader size, sink tip, you name it I tried it. 2 hours of this I got it. 30lb shock tippet attached to 15 feet of 10 lb leader with# 8 glass minnow. What a fight the warmer water really has stimulated the fish, several jumps and plenty of backing showing. I ended the night with 15 Snook and a nice Blue fish. When the fish are old and smart try a long leader… See ya on the bay Joe-m