Snook are challenging
Captain uses grunts, pressure to land hard- fighting fish
JUPITER— After we’d gotten three snook bites and had all three fish get away by breaking our 80- pound monofilament leaders, Capt. Ray Petersonwas determined to get a snook to his boat.
So when a fourth fish ate the live grunt that Peterson had cast adjacent to the aluminum boat lift, Peterson pointed his fishing rod at the snook, reeled furiously and quickly pulled the fish away from its hangout.
Now, with his 18- foot flats boat between the snook and the lift, Peterson didn’t have to worry about the fish cutting the leader on the aluminum structure. Moments later, the fishwas splashing on the surface and Peterson lifted the snook into the boat.
The 8- pound fish measured 31 inches, which means that as of 12: 01 a. m. Sunday, it will be legal to keep in Atlanticwaters when snook season opens. Anglers are allowed one snook 28- 32 inches.
Peterson, who releases all his snook anyway, returned this one to the clear, greenwater inside Jupiter Inlet. Because the fish had been landed so quickly, it paused for a couple of seconds before surging down to where it had come from.
For Peterson, the satisfactionwas the same as if he’d just caught a blue marlin for the owners of the private sportfisherman that he skippers or just won a bass tournament with his fishing partner BillDavis, who he teamed with in June to win the prestigious King of the Glades Classic.
Peterson, of Plantation, loves fishing so much that when he’s not running a 68- foot Viking or running a snook or tarpon charter ( call 954- 325- 5507) or competing withDavis at LakeOkeechobee or the Everglades, he heads north to tangle with the big, smart snook that call Jupiter Inlet home.
“I don’t just do it for a living,” Peterson said. “I go withmy friends all the time. If I have the clearance frommy wife, I go.”
Wewent snook fishing this day even though the weather radar showed a large rainstorm to our south. Thingswere fine for all but about15 minutes of our trip, when the deluge sent us seeking shelter under a bridge.
We had started our day at the bridge catching grunts on gold hooks with pieces of squid. When I told Peterson that I had used pilchards, herring, sardines and croakers for bait for snook, he said “gruntswork great.”
“Anything that eats your squid and a gold hook on the bottom you can use for snook bait,” Peterson said. “You get some10- inch mangrove snappers, they eat the heck out of them.”
The snook did indeed love the grunts— so did a big nurse shark— which we fished on circle hooks with a sliding egg sinker above the hook. Peterson saidwe needed to feel the baits kick. Ifwe didn’t feel anything, he said to reel up the bait to the sinker until the grunt kicked, then drop the bait and lead to the bottom, which often resulted in a bite.
Peterson anchored his boat near the rocks of the north jetty or the remnants of a dock or the aforementioned boat lift, which supported a big center console that cast an expansive shadowon thewater.
“It just seems on the incoming tide, they like that shade,” Peterson said.
The problemwas the snook, which are strong fighters, would retreat immediately to the lift, like a grouper heading to a hole in the reef.
“My thumb is rawfrom trying to stop them,” said Peterson, who used a conventional outfit with 80- pound braided line. “I put as much pressure as you possible can on the reel and still couldn’t stop them.”