Snook & Redfish

I have a trip planned for mid November. I'm heading to Naples FL. for a week. The guys down at Everglades Angler told me that Snook and Redfish will be my best bet and I am considering hiring one of their guides for a day. I don't know squat about Snook or Redfish. I know very little about saltwater angling in general. I do know that these are the types of situations where I will spend 47 hours at the vice tying 11 shades of still-born squid emerger patterns in sizes 24-3/0. I'll pore over maps, charts, forums, reports and gossip columns trying to crack the nut. I also know that despite my hard work and research...I'll have a great time. It's the paradox of my angling life: Fear the unknown and numbness to the familiar. Ok, maybe it's not quite that extreme...but that's the gist. I always have a great time when I haven't got the foggiest notion of what to expect. I also suspect I could have a better time at home if I always approached my fishing with that perspective. The danger with observation and learning, especially as it applies to fly fishing, is that the more you know the less you'll be willing to venture. I tend to think that the guy nymphing with a deer-hair mouse who is absolutely clobbering big fat fish may not be an anomaly. I have a friend who asked me to tie him some size 10 mahogany spinners. I wasn't aware that he was fishing the isonychia spinner fall, so I asked him about it. His reply: "Oh, no I like to swing a them down and across...". Like I said. So despite the revelation that learning is my own undoing, I'll continue to study the tides and read the latest "Snook Book", right after I finish up the slate gray and light olive still-born squid emergers in 1/0, 2/0 and 3/0 and maybe a dozen deer-hair mice with a size 10 mahogany spinner dropper.