Sight casters work on island shoreline bordering the open Gulf of Mexico.

I hopped onto the casting deck as my buddy poled into the first of the Everglades bights that we planned to fish. The morning was still and the Gulf looked like a big pond broken only by the occasional swirl of a mullet or two in the shallows closer to shore. Typical for July, it was already steamy with air temperatures in the low 80s. You could cut the humidity with a knife. From experience, we knew we were hitting this spot at the perfect time.

I peered ahead at the shoreline where the mangrove prop roots were still mostly exposed, but fast-rising water would change that in short order. The rising sun was just reaching the lowest treetops, and we avoided moving inside the shadow line, fully aware of the Everglades’ notorious bloodthirsty no-see-ums and mosquitoes. Just ahead, a school of glass minnows showered, and fell back like heavy drops of rain. A bullheaded wake pushed up from behind the fleeing bait, followed by a snook’s signature pop and telltale foam ring. Four strokes of the pole had me in casting range but I wanted to get closer. I prefer to spot a fish first so that I can make an accurate cast.

Patience paid off. I finally spied the edge of the fish’s rounded forked tail and then its dark lateral line in the tannic water. I tossed my deerhair slider ahead of the fish, chugged it then swam it under, and the snook turned and moved in. I twitched it again, and the snook briefly inspected it before clobbering the fly.

My knees knock, my mouth goes dry, and I speak in tongues at the sight of a big snook in shallow water. It rivals the buck fever that inflicts anglers (including me) after sighting big tarpon, bonefish or permit. I guess it is more novel to spot snook up shallow. Fewer anglers dedicate themselves to stalking them “bonefish style.” You can expect to get numerous shots per day when the fishing’s best. And a summer fishing trip to the bights, flats, oyster bars, creek mouths and mangrove shorelines of Everglades National Park Gulf coast can provide some of the most dependable sight fishing for snook in the state.

Typical summer weather puts the odds in your favor, though you’ll quickly discover that snook are among the spookiest fish on the flats. As the old saying goes, “A snook you see is a snook that sees you.” But they are certainly not impossible.

The most common sight is the backside of a snook as it blasts off the flat. In fact, experienced flats anglers talk about a snook’s “signature” departure. Unlike a redfish that swims away steadily, only to settle down and resume feeding, a snook will move off with a series of powerful bursts, similar to a bonefish, and rarely slows until reaching deeper water, or perhaps nearby shoreline cover. Spooked snook rarely give you a second chance to cast. But do everything right, spot the fish as far from the skiff as possible, make a good cast, and get it to eat, and you will enjoy a snook’s spirited short runs, head-shakes, and surface-clearing leaps. A good one will take appreciable drag on light tackle.

Snook Like an Easy Mark Snook, like most gamefish, prefer an easy kill. This is in great part why plugs and softbaits that walk the surface score so many snook. It is easy to impart the erratic actions of wounded bait to a lot of lures, and that includes spoons and jigs. For that reason, fly fishermen should strive to work their flies in a similar manner whenever possible, and be sure to fish floater/divers that imitate wounded or struggling baits.

The real key is to find shallows that hold fishable numbers of snook. Countless tidal creeks, larger rivers, and numerous coves punctuate the southwestern shoreline of Florida, from Rabbit Key Pass out of Chokoloskee all the way down to Shark Point just above Ponce DeLeon Bay. The opportunities for shallow-water snook that this lengthy and diverse shoreline presents are nearly endless.

You can find snook in the shallows from late spring right up until the first cold fronts of late fall. By then, water temperatures drop and drive snook to deeper waters or into the sloughs and bays of the deep backcountry of the Everglades. Snook like water temperatures in the low to upper 80s, so the best months are June, July, August and September.

The best time to fish is when you can go, but whenever possible, try to fish between the full and new moon, basically for two reasons. One, you want to avoid the extreme highs and lows a full moon spring tide brings. This tide doesn’t give you much time to fish, and a shallow flat gets deep in a hurry, and vice versa. Also, snook are largely nocturnal and the full moon encourages them to feed all night. Mornings after a full moon have rarely produced good sight fishing for me.