SNOOK
Snook is a small town in Burleson County, population 568. It's also the name of a legendary saltwater game fish once virtually extinct in Texas. In fact, when most sportsmen think of snook, they think of Florida. But these days, the population of snook in Texas has grown well beyond the number of residents in the town of Snook.

Identifiable by the sporty black strip down their silvery sides and by their yellowish tails, Centropomus undecimalis once existed in such abundance that commercial fishermen along the Lower Coast harvested them by the hundreds of pounds. In fact, a commercial fisherman standing on one of the jetties at South Padre Island landed a 56-pounder in 1937 that still stands as the world-record catch.

Unfortunately, because of that heavy fishing pressure, by the 1940s, the fishery had waned enormously, and after 1961, no snook were reported as having been caught in South Texas waters.

Starting in the 1980s, however, the snook began a slow comeback. A succession of mild winters has enabled them to expand their numbers and their range even more. They still are not a fill-your-ice-chest kind of fish, but you can keep one snook inside the 24- to 28-inch slot.

So, while snook are not likely to become a mainstay of your diet, the fish have become increasingly attractive as a catch-and-release sport fish. Port Isabel antique dealer and outdoorsman Rod Bates has become an avid snook fisherman, perfectly content to catch and release these excellent game fish.

Snook are catchable year 'round and have been reported as far north as Port O'Connor. The fish will hit whatever you'd use for trout or reds. In the spring and fall, they are found on shallow flats. In the heat of the summer and on the coldest days of winter, snook leave the flats and jetties and go to deeper inland water, like the Brownsville ship channel, in the ports of Brownsville and Port Isabel and in Brazos Santiago Pass. Whatever type of water they are in, snook will be hanging around structure.

A super-hard freeze in far South Texas could hurt the snook population as well as trout and redfish numbers, but as long as that doesn't happen, Riechers says, this should be another good year for Texas saltwater enthusiasts.

Beyond that, the economic crisis some are calling the Great Recession makes a saltwater fishing trip this year look all the more attractive. It's relatively easy on the wallet, it's easily accessible, it's a great stress reliever, and especially in these times, a fun way to put food on the table.