Outdoors Column | Couple shares the joy of landing a 40-inch snook
When Chris Flannagan moved to Sarasota more than 11 years ago he didn’t immediately take to saltwater fishing.
“I grew up fishing in lakes in Auburn, Alabama, catching bass, brim, blue gill and catfish,” Flannagan said. “I was intimidated by saltwater fishing and never gave it much of a chance. Last year I got a little 17-foot boat and it’s changed my life. Not sure I ever want to leave Florida now.”
With the new boat came a new found love for the saltwater. Flannagan found himself going fishing before work and after his kids went to sleep. He explored new spots and tried to learn as much as he could through trial and error and research.
Slowly he began to catch snook, which became his obsession.
“A couple months ago, I had the time of my life catching a 25-inch snook,” recalled Flannagan, whose goal was to get one that was 40-inches long. “It was so exciting, the rush was incredible.
“A week later I landed a 29-incher, then the next day it happened. At 5 a.m., throwing a bucktail jig, I got the thump. It ripped my pole like I’ve never felt before. It was a great fight and my arms were jello when I got it landed. 40-inches on the dot.”
Not long after catching his first 40-inch snook, Flannagan kept adding to his big snook tally. A 37- and 35-inch linesider joined his memories along with many between 25 and 30 inches. Knowing his love for snook fishing was growing, Flannagan’s wife Kristi Lyn organized a fishing date night for Fathers Day.
“She grew up fishing in Stuart, her dad being an avid fisherman. She’s caught some big reds and smaller snook but wanted to get some big snook action bad.”
They headed to the snook spot in the evening. As the low tide ended and started to come back in, Chris first hooked into a fish around 30 inches. Not long after, a bigger fish came tight.
“You can tell it’s big because it’s heavy as hell and it won’t jump, just making huge swirls instead,” the excited Flannagan said. “But I lost that one and was feeling pretty defeated.”
Ten minutes later with darkness setting in Kristi Lyn got a thump on her rod.
“The drag starts flying. I run over and tighten it a notch then grab my net and jump down off the wall and into the water up to my waist. I’m yelling encouragement to her and she’s really wrestling this monster.
“It keeps making runs. Straight out, then she gets it close, then it shoots left towards a bunch of big rocks. I’m telling her to pull hard to keep it off those rocks. It did not want to stop fighting. I get wrapped up in the line a little but managed to get it in the net. We both let out a huge sigh of relief!”
The couple measured Kristi Lyn’s snook right at 40 inches. After a quick picture it was released to fight another day.
“After that, we were both lit up,” Flannagan said. “Just in the best mood for the rest of the weekend. Having a Fathers Day with just my wife and experiencing something like that together was something special.”