# Snook & mack's in the same spot



## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

I've read reports of guys doing pretty well on some over-slot snook up my way, but until today, I've never managed to catch any. 

We started the morning heading for the fish haven's about 13 miles offshore, but the Nor'easter was a bit much and more bumpy out there than we wanted to deal with. Wasn't big, just an annoying short interval chop. On the way back in we hit some rock piles around the 10 mile mark with out much luck either and decided to go in further and start hitting the spoil banks in hopes for a red or two. 

We threw arti's for a couple hours and caught a few jack's, but that was about it. Trey actually fell asleep on the bow and I continued to pound the points and shell bars. Lots of mullet and bait but nothing much messing with them.

We hit one point with a bunch of pichards on it so I told Trey I'd net some and we'd see what we could do with them since the plastic stuff wasn't working... 















































Little black seabass with a big appetite.


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## orlgheenoer (Dec 10, 2006)

Nice snook Eric, How do you cook those macs?


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

Tanner, I usually fillet, skin and blacken them. Hard to ruin anything that way.  

But today, Trey says can we fry em this time, you blacken em last time? I'm like, hmmm, never done that but I guess so, why not.  :-?

So I dipped them in egg and whole milk, then just winged it mixing flour and blackening (of course) seasoning together. Dredged the fillets through that, a little fryola and wholay molay was that good. Unbelievably good. 

I just told Trey next time we're going out there to just wear the mack's out and have us a fish fry.


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## backwaterbandits (Dec 15, 2006)

Good job guys...Looks like a nice day out.


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## JRH (Mar 18, 2007)

Nice snook!


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## mark_gardner (Mar 18, 2009)

yeah nice snook man, been a while since pulling on one myself


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## orlgheenoer (Dec 10, 2006)

> Tanner, I usually fillet, skin and blacken them. Hard to ruin anything that way.
> 
> But today, Trey says can we fry em this time, you blacken em last time? I'm like, hmmm, never done that but I guess so, why not.  :-?
> 
> ...


Sounds plenty good to me, are those fish catchable with the whippy stick


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## phishphood (Dec 15, 2006)

Sounds like good eats. Call me when they are ready.


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

Very cool, congrats!  You certainly are getting plenty of use out of that new ride.


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

> Sounds like good eats. Call me when they are ready.


Jason, yer too late to the party for that, woulda' had to be here before sundown on Sunday. Might still have a couple cold beers in the garage fridge that yer welcome to tho. 

Tanner, yes those mack's are very doable on fly. I've caught a handful already on fly out there and I almost pulled out the 8wt on this trip too. However, the big snook was too compelling on live bait. I was hoping to get another one or more to get a better sense of whether they were grouped up or was that one just a lone wolf. Like I said at the beginning of the thread, there's reports around this area of other guys getting into big snook pretty regular, like several per trip. I know they are fishing the oyster and spoil banks too. So I wanted to try a prove that out on this bank after getting the first one. If I can find an area where they're more likely concentrated then I'll target them with the fly rod too. But I gotta zero in on them first and live bait is best way I know of to smoke-out big snook.   

Jeff, yes we are getting our time in on the new ride and loving it more everyday.   We've been trying to focus more on the offshore wrecks and structure because its something Trey has never done. However, the weather has been a little uncooperative. The Panga certainly could have handled anything we've encountered, but it wouldn't have been fun for Trey. He got a little seasick on the last outing and I don't want to push him too hard yet. On this trip I decided to bail because he had that look coming on again.  We'll have our day out there at some point.

Working these spoil banks at dead low tide though I was able to poke around in as shallow of water as I've ever needed to be in to catch bait or fish. I don't have draft numbers for everyone, but parting schools of finger mullet between the boat and the shore line is shallow enough for me.  I still don't have a push pole either. Instead I was paddling and pushing around with a West Marine 4' telescoping paddle ;D. Wasn't easy mind you, but plenty manageable and certainly enough feedback to know I'll be able to pole the boat with ease. A trip like this one, we went from 2'-3' seas 13 miles offshore to scratching the bottom on oyster beds in probably 7"-8" of water, which covers the "versatility" realm of this "non-micro" skiff very nicely for me.


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## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

DF, I always enjoyed fresh fried mackerel fillets,
but a neighbor of mine put it better as he puffed on his cigar...

                     "Smoke 'em if ya got 'em!"

When we were free lining live 'hoos in Hawks Channel in the winter,
between the muttons and grouper there were always a bunch of mack attacks.
And that evening, while the grouper fingers were frying and the mutton fillets were broiling
the old Brinkman smoker was slow cooking and flavoring those macks.
There'd be leftover grouper and mutton, but never any leftover smoked mack!


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

> DF, I always enjoyed fresh fried mackerel fillets,
> but a neighbor of mine put it better as he puffed on his cigar...
> 
> "Smoke 'em if ya got 'em!"
> ...


Brett, I totally agree with you had I not planned to eat them the day we caught em'.   Cooked off the hook though, they are as good as any other fish. However, once frozen and thawed they drop at least 5 points on the palette scale. 

Frying them vs bake, broil or blacken was news to me though, especially growing up as cracker, taught to fry everything that used to have a heartbeat. ;D

Anyway, after poking around the internet a bit last night I found a few references to frying them in bacon grease, which given the mack's natural oil content, seemed a bit over the top, but tasty I'm sure.


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