Hello fellow anglers! It is summertime and the fishing is getting heated. Whether you fly fish, live bait fish, or lure fish this is one of the best months of the year. There is a snook migration going on! These guys and gals migrate to salty waters to spawn. It is not every year this species migrates, some every other year. There is no rhyme or reason as to why this happens. They come from up the rivers and streams to salty water so they can reproduce. So this is a great time to target snook because they usually are in a feeding pattern so they have the strength for a productive spawn.  Any bridges with lights that have a shadow line will hold snook at night, as well as some trussles that have lights on the bumper system. There is a company that makes the underwater lights that could be in a canal near you, and they will also hold snook. There are several ways to target snook at night. I have had fly anglers at night fishing docks and lights, but you need to be a good caster for this because of the darkness. Another good time is fly fishing off the beaches early in the morning before the sun worshippers arrive. The beach can be a fun place casting artificials too, using silver spoons lures that match the bait that is in the surf where you are fishing like small Rapala baits. Then you have your live baits too, but this could be a little harder. This is where you need to catch your own live bait where ever you intend to fish. I use a seven or eight-foot cast net from the beach and in the boat, I use a ten-foot 3/8 mesh net. I catch the bait and keep them alive in my fifty gallon live well. Then I fish the areas where there have been snook sighting’s earlier. We chum with live baits to find if the snook are there and feeding - these are the scouts. When the area has shown that they are feeding, pick a nice bait out of the well and hook it to your line and toss it to the hungry fish. This is all hook and release because the season is closed to harvest snook.  S.W. Florida is a area where anglers come from all over to catch one of these slimy critters to check it off the bucket list. Also with all the Islands along the coast these are great places too, targeting snook as they cruise along toward there spawning spot searching for an unsuspecting bait to have for a snack. Most of the male snook we call the little buck because they are usually in the eighteen to twenty-two-inch range. Then you have your big girls that can top forty inches. Both of these should be handled as little as possible for those once in a lifetime photos. Treat them gingerly since they are our future stock. So if you have guests coming to town or you have never caught a snook yourself and would like to – OR – you have your own boat and would like to have me come along and teach you how to use your equipment, call Capt. Bart Marx 941-979-6517 or e-mail me at captbart@alphaomegacharters.com to book your Florida fishing adventure. Always remember singing drags and tight lines make me smile. <*(((((>{