One very calm and windless night, I decided it was finally time for me to get my first snook. I checked the tides and they were looking decent, enough for me to have a shot at getting one. I called up my friend to see if he wanted to head out to try and help me get one, and he said sure, why not. I head over to his house and we decided not to leave until dusk.

As we head down to Sebastian Inlet, which is a very popular place to try and get snook, we see that not a lot of people are there and we were in luck. If it was crowded, the chances of me getting my first snook would have been ten times tougher, because you would have had to deal with everyone and their lines in the water. But since it was not crowded, the chances were in my favor.

As we carefully walk down the rocks on the north side of the inlet, trying not to slip on the rocks, or shine our lights in to the water (The snook are normally hanging against the bank), we slowly move to our spot that has been know to hold big snook. I get in luck and find a nearly flat rock, which is rare because there are very few there. I was also on the down current side which gave me a lot more water to fish, which gave me the best chance. As I get situated on my rock, my friends moved down to give me some room, but mainly so they can cover a lot of water. As I was just sitting on the rock, waiting for the sun to go down, I was wondering what a snook would fight like, would it fight like a big redfish? A big Cobia? Or, well I did not know, so I was prepared for anything.

As the sun went down, it was game time. The tide was strong and the fish were popping mullet out of the water. I was trying not to get nervous but almost every 10 seconds I would hear a snook pop a mullet within 20 feet of me. After my first few casts I started to become more relaxed and a lot more mentally focused. I also started to get a feel for my bait more, like the action and the feel of it diving. On my next cast, which was around my fifth one, I felt something thump my line. I held my rod tight and drove that hook into the fishes’ mouth, it was now fish on! The snook was fighting like nothing I had every fought before, I was making long runs, trying to get into rocks, and everything else imaginable! After a solid 15 minutes of fighting, I finally wear the fish out and big him to my rock. My friend helps me land the fish so I can get a photo of my very first snook! I get a few photos of the fish by myself and with my friend. After that I released him and he swam off nicely. A few casts later I hook into another fish and it was fish on again! But this time, he pulled the hook at the very end. I was not mad because I had gotten all of the fight I had wanted out of him.

Through out the night I could still hear the snook popping bait everywhere. And in the end, I had gotten two snook total with the first one at 32 inches and the second one at 36 inches. I missed 2 snook total, but I didn’t care. My goal was to get my first snook before the school started and I did. I had a blast and I kicked my friend’s butts that night. They only got one between the both of them and I got 2 all by myself. It was the best night of fishing that I have ever had!