The World's Most Sought After Game Fish.
Chapter 1
"The Legend"
In every sport there seems to be some sort of legend or hero that is looked upon by many as being at the top of their game or a super being at what they do. Almost any sport out there has examples of those that have risen to the top in their field. We now have a fish that has been awarded that "Super-Man-Like” identity. He is the “Super Snook". Snook are arguably one of the top game fish here in the fish rich waters of Florida and for obvious reasons. They top out at over 50 pounds and have the attitude of a sleep deprived fullback that has a bad hangover and must carry the ball 50 times in the big game, OUCH! Snook also, because of our tourist population that influxes each winter season, are exposed to a wider variety of fishing methods and lures than snook that are in the more remote sections like the tropics. Many a Musky fisherman from Wisconsin has plowed the waters using Muskie tactics, or Striped Bass fishermen from the New England area come here to soak their top water lures on the resident fishes. Our "Super Snook" has evolved into a line peeling, reel shredding, guide splitting monster and has a higher IQ than your regular slot sized fish. He is a veteran of many a midnight slugfest under a barnacle encrusted piling. He is a full moon tide player that use his initial burst of power and speed down current to part any knot that has the slightest bit of weakness. He is truly the “Super Snook". What does it take to hook the legendary Super Snook (many have) and land Super Snook (none have). Is it the right gear? Is it the right bait? Is it the right conditions or the correct tide? What will it take to finally slip a hand under Super Snook’s massive gills and lift him to get that killer shot of the smartest and biggest snook in the world? Do you have what it takes? Could you be that person out there that will be the first to successfully hook, play and land this Super Snook?
With millions of anglers out there licensed to do battle with the Super Snook you can bet that sooner or later a fisherman will run into this icon of the sport fishing world. Will the outcome be the same as it has been to date, or will it be pictures of the Super Snook that didn’t get away? Only time will tell. We want to see all the pictures out there of anglers who think they have caught the Super Snook. We have a photo taken by a snorkeler (the only photo in existence) and have given that photo to Florida Marine Artist and Illustrator Captain Joe Suroviec. He has created the face that goes with the legend and even Joe doesn’t know the secret location of where this Super Snook's “Hole Sweet Hole” is. Be the first to locate, hook, play and land the legendary Super Fish and you will certainly be inducted into the Super Snook Fishing Hall of Fame. Are you ready for the challenge? We will see.
Chapter 2
"Stoney Gets Caught"
Ever since, as a way of showing his gratitude for saving his life, Stoney has been a travel companion to the Super Snook and has the ability to go topside at times to do detective work. Super Snook has only a few friends but I guess Stony is as close as a friend comes when you are Super Snook.
Remember in trust there is treason! Super Snook keeps an eye on ole' Stoney and is usually a few strokes of the tail ahead of him.....He is tolerated and little more!
I like to dance, "The Coral Crunch"
Stoney, in the meantime, has high tailed it to the Super Snook’s lair to warn Super Snook of his unfortunate disloyalty, but what he if he doesn’t get there in time? Will Stoney reach Super Snook to tell him what happened or will this be Super Snook's undoing? Stay tuned for details as they unfold....
Chapter 3 Stoney Heads for "Hole Sweet Hole"
Stoney is now on a slow crawl towards the “Hole Sweet Hole” to warn his buddy the Super Snook that he had to give away the location in order to live with his claws. Stoney is now on a southwest course and has been traveling non-stop for the past 12 hours in an attempt to head off the Super Snook to tell him he was compromised. Stoney is not a very fast traveler and usually takes up to a week to finally find where the Super Snook is. They have been together since Super Snook was a fry in the estuaries of the Everglades where Super Snook and Stoney started as youngsters. He needs to find a faster way to the “Hole Sweet Hole’.
Lidia (the crab-fisherman’s wife) has now been to the beauty parlor in town and the location of Super Snook has taken on a life of its own. Seems just about everyone in town is talking about where Super Snook lives. It now seems like “Hole Sweet Hole” is on the lips of every fisherman in town and they are all headed to the Super Snook’s lair. Stoney told the crab fisherman the location of the “Hole Sweet Hole” by bridge, not by a specific piling, and where was the location of this piling? The 7 mile bridge has over 550 pilings that could be the “Hole Sweet Hole” where Super Snook plans (or planned) on wintering. Ah, a life of easy currents and warm temperatures. A shaded piling to stay and then dash into the current for a tasty mackerel or a mullet, shrimp, pinfish or even tasty ballyhoo. The “Hole Sweet Hole” is a great place for the Super Snook to winter and he has settled in with a few choice lures that had straightened out hooks, several busted rods, a few pairs of glasses that anglers lost in their efforts to clean their glasses when they saw Super Snook launch out of the water with their lures in its maw. These were all mementos that were a part of the Feng Shuiegh of the “Hole Sweet Hole”.
Meanwhile Stoney nears exhaustion as he has been traveling at a whopping 2 knots for the last 14 hours. He looks up on the surface of the water and notices an old bucket floating in the tide. With great effort he swims up to it and crawls in it exhausted. Now the tide will help him get to the “Hole Sweet Hole”. Water lapping at the buckets edge quickly lulls Stoney to sleep. The tide has turned and it headed in the general direction of Super Snook where Stoney plans to tell the great game fish that he has given away his secret location. I wonder what the Super Snook will do. Will Stoney get there in time to warn the Super Snook or will it be too late?
Chapter 4
The lapping of the water stopped and that woke Stoney up from his tide ride in the bucket. He looked out of the pail and was some 40' feet in the air. He was being reeled up with a wide eyed crab fancier at the top of the Seven Mile Bridge fishing area. He quickly crawled to one side of the bucket and dropped into the slack tide at the Seven Mile Bridge in Marathon. Soon he was fast walking the columns and looking for Super Snook to warn him that the “Hole Sweet Hole” was in danger of being located as he spilled the beans a few days ago to a stone crab fisherman out in the Bay. When he finally reached the piling that was the “Hole Sweet Hole” he noticed that the place was inhabited with smaller snook and a few straggler mangrove snappers that darted off when he lumbered in. Super Snook left a note. It said that he suspected that something was wrong when Stoney didn’t show up so he left for a new “Hole Sweet Hole” where he could spend the winter in peace with little distractions. Leagues of snook fishermen gun slinging the newest fishing lures was not his idea of a swell wintering in the Florida Keys. He did not let Stoney know this time where he had gone, but only left a note that said," Good luck this winter and stay out of dark places", Super Snook. Once again Super Snook’s instinct and caution are one of the many reasons he remains the legend we now know as Super Snook. Stoney ( the stone crab that shadows Super Snook) recently found a flyer on the bottom of the ocean that promised exotic tropical fishing adventures somewhere in South America, and it had a small section on "Catching the Monsters of the Tropical Waters" They were speaking about a Peacock Bass, or “Pavon”. A Bass? How could anyone call any bass a "Monster"? This infuriated Super Snook, but it also provoked Super Snook’s curiosity. He knew that he had a cousin in that region of the world so maybe a visit to see him and then recon this "MONSTER" while he is there. So he figured a quick trip to Brazil and the Amazon River would satisfy his curiosity about this so called "MONSTER" fish while reuniting him with his cousin he hadn’t seen in a while. Super Snook knew that even though it would be a bit of a hump to get to those waters where these so called "Monsters" lived, he was easily up to the task. Run of the mill anglers and lures, in the Florida coastal waters was boring him to tears and he needed a new challenge. This thing sounded promising! So he packed a few extra mullet and left for faraway places and took the flyer with him. Super Snook’s cousin is the current world record Robalo (Snook) and is living in the San Juan River that connects Lake Nicaragua with the Caribbean Sea. Super Snook headed south around Cuba, past Cancun, south to Belize, and eventually reached the San Juan River Basin and his cousin. A few nights with his cousin harassing massive tarpon and dining with/on the local lady fish was just what the doctor ordered and he soon was ready to move on with a new sense of adventure and a few Portuguese gestures that would soon prove invaluable. Once he got serious and the family visit was over, he asked around and soon discovered that these monsters were living in fresh and brackish waters. This made Super Snook a bit queasy but he pressed on. Soon Super Snook was on a cruise swimming up the edges of Brazil’s mysterious tropical rain forest and the mighty Amazon River. He needed to keep an eye out for the giant river otters there that get to over 100 pounds and are the main predator of snook and other fishes in the region. Super Snook finally reached the Rio Negro River, the exact river that was featured in his brochure, Where were these "MONSTERS" at? He had seen nothing that even came close to a "monster" Was this all some clever marketing scheme to get fishermen there? Why had he not seen any fish that resembled a "Monster"? “Wait...up there, ahead; a fish lying in wait near a clump of downed palm fronds.” As Super Snook got closer it looked as if it had been in a fight, it had a large lump on its head ...it blasted away into the stained waters. Hmm, he surmised that if it was one of these" monsters" it would have stayed there. He swam on still looking and watching, senses alert to every vibration and noise. He saw a few smallish tarpon and several weird looking fish but still no monsters. Again, there was a strange looking and colorful fish that had a large lump on it and it was sitting near a small current break along a wooded shoreline. Super Snook went deep and remembering where the fish was, he jetted up to it and this time there was no chance to dash off. With its exit blocked, it stood there shivering and deer eyed as Super Snook gave him the once over. It looked like one of the so called "Monsters" in the flyer. As he checked the picture against the fish that was poised there in front of him the fish made a move to get past Super Snook. One blast of Super Snooks tail quickly stunned this fish so he could inspect it closer. “So this is the Monster" "hmmm, he is smaller than me by plenty, it looks to be around 25 pounds or so and it seems he has a strange lump on head area.”Hmmm, maybe it is from some fight he must have lost recently. Maybe, the real Monster Super Snook was looking for made this lump? Plus, it looked like he was beat up with colored marks all over his sides. Perhaps there was a fight and these were bruises. "I will see if he will tell me where I can find this monster called a "Peacock Bass" or “Pavon”. Still groggy and sporting a new lump the Bass righted itself and asked (in Portuguese) "What happened man?" Super Snook well versed in Portuguese from his cousin, replied, I was just introducing myself, I am “Super Snook and I am looking for the monster called a “Peacock Bass” or “Pavon” ". Do you know where I can find this "monster" of the Tropical waters" The fish squinting through a freshly red swollen eye said, "yeah, I am right here"" I am a Peacock Bass". WHAT? YOU? YOU? YOU, are the "monster" I have been looking for? I took you out with one half hearted swipe of my tail? What type of monster goes down so easily? I could knock you on to that riverbank if I choose to do so; does this make me a "monster"?" I believe it does" “if you are one then I am surely one many times over". And just then, a sharp and sudden swoosh; swoosh noise landed near the two fish engaged in this underwater inquiry. The instinct to hit this noise was soon apparent as both fish raced to the lure in a neck and neck fury. Super Snook hit the lure with such ferocity the lure was immediately reduced to a boil of splintered wood and a mass of sinking tangled wire and treble hooks that Davy Jones now owns.
The smaller peacock Bass had changed gears and hit a similar lure that was casted behind the first lure and it was fighting for its life now. Super Snook ran alongside the peacock bass and told him, "Look for a limb to break the unseen force that holds you on." Every time I feel that pressure I immediately find a limb or snag to dislodge this torture of humanity. The Peacock Bass did what Super Snook told him and made one long run to a sunken set of river logs and dashed among them. The unseen force was lifted and the Peacock Bass returned to Super Snook to thank him. This time the lure was still intact and deeply imbedded in the Peacocks jaw. And it was the worst lures of all to get remove, it was a High Roller Lure from the states. This was a serious issue as a lures massive 4 out hooks imbedded in the jaw of any fish means a slow trip to that big cooler in the Sky. Just then, Super Snook heard a familiar voice in the stained water. "Hey you there Super Buddy? IT WAS STONEY as usual bringing up the rear and following the High Roller Adventures guide he had for the Monsters of the Tropical Waters. Super Snook quickly took Stoney to the Peacock Bass to see if he could remove the lure. After several minutes Stoneys massive crusher claw had reduce the lure to splinters and using his other tearing claw Stoney easily removed the sets of trebles that once held this "monster” firmly.” These HIGH ROLLER lures are the worst to reduce to splinters and I really have to work them over, most other lures I can break with my smaller claw but High Rollers lures are a different story all together. "Seems them American lure guys are still making a quality product but there are fewer
search continues.............
Super Snook heads North
Super Snook has left the winter hole sweet hole and has headed to the western side of the state to enjoy a summer of finger mullet and mangrove roots. His early morning forays are filled with the terrifying screams of frantic finger mullet showering in the first rays of the morning sun. Snook are prime time feeders and early morning and late evening are top times to be on the water in the summer months. They also enjoy a nice swim in the surf and many a linesider has succumbed to a jig grub/shrimp cast parallel to the surf when the waves are behaving themselves. The new mirror lures that resemble pilchards are a huge hit in the Keys for the snook that stack in the passes in the backcountry and they will work equally as well went surf casting for them. The thing to do is be sure you use the lightest leader you can get away with as it really does enhance the bite when the water is clear and the surf is not roiled up. If the surf is heated up wave wise then use a heavier leader then but not as a rule. Use the least leader strength you can to land the fish. More times than not the surf has few places to snag up unlike "HOLE SWEET HOLE" that is loaded with line parting obstructions. As Super Snook heads to the western beaches of the state it is up to you anglers to report and massive hook ups in shallow water and feel free to take a bar of soap with you for that impromptu shower of hot water should be used as a quick shower to conseve water at every opportunity. Cast long and Cast often.
Chapter 5
SUPER SNOOK AND THE PEACOCK BASS (PAVON) ((PAVON)
and fewer doing it these days, and I have seen them all". Super Snook made a brief visit to his cousin’s beach front digs and then after a small meal of Mahooah and mullet he started back across the open Ocean towards Puerto Rico with Stoney clamped on for the ride back. It was an uneventful crossing and after feeding the shallow waters for a few days he and Stoney returned towards the west coast of Florida. Soon the glow of the Skyway Bridge in Tampa was in sight and Super Snook had returned after going face to face with the "MONSTER" of Tropical waters. He swatted the flyer into the nearby water trash can and said to Stoney. "I knew anything that was called a Bass had to be a joke when it's called a monster" If we had not helped out that monster he would be river shrimp pooh by now. With a wink he said to Stoney, "We know who the real monster is around here are, don't we?
The Real Super Snook - Captain Joe Suroviec
www.joesuroviec.com
"I can eat 50 Mullet"
"Half a nice day", SS.
"Your gonna need a bigger boat" ss.
