Boatless Fishing Florida Seasonal Post Summer 2006 Summer 2006---- return to Front page
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Surf Snook'in
Saltwater Features Surf Snook'in
Written by Matt....aka...HammerHd
Snook are a very popular gamefish that is commonly sought after by recreational anglers. Snook are very finicky when it comes to moon phases and tides. The surf snook can be caught with the right presentation. Snook are found all around Florida but less common in northern Florida regions. In the winter months, snook tend to leave the ocean and head to the inland canals to spawn. Snook like warmer temperatures and cannot tolerate cold water temperatures. In the summer months, snook move back into the inlets and along the beaches.
GENERAL Snook are a very popular gamefish that is commonly sought after by recreational anglers. Snook are very finicky when it comes to moon phases and tides. The surf snook can be caught with the right presentation. Snook are found all around Florida but less common in northern Florida regions. In the winter months, snook tend to leave the ocean and head to the inland canals to spawn. Snook like warmer temperatures and cannot tolerate cold water temperatures. In the summer months, snook move back into the inlets and along the beaches. SURF TACTICS Snook are very spooky. Most of the time the snook are in the trough. The trough is the area between the first sandbar and the shoreline. The snook swim in the trough to feed on the baitfish in the area. When you are walking the beach stay away from the water line! They are sitting practically on the sand. You can either cast diagonally or cast parallel to the trough. It may seem that you are casting to nothing but sand, but you will be suprised when the snook ambushes your lure or bait. You can also sight cast the snook by getting a pair of polarized glasses and looking for the slow-moving shadows in the water. In the summer months when the bait moves along the beaches, just look for where the bait separates. This means a snook is swimming through the bait school. TACKLE The basic snook outfit would be a medium spinning reel that would hold 200 or more yards of 10-12 lbs test line. The rod would be a medium- heavy setup with fast action so you could feel the bites easier. Braided line is becoming popular these days because it is more abrasion resistant, small diameter, and no stretch. An example of this ideal setup would be a 4000 series reel and a chaos or star medium action rod. This is not to say that only those work. Any reel with a smooth reel and a good line capacity will suffice. A Flourocarbon leader is very important. A 40-50 lbs leader is recommended for snook. Any live bait hooks up to about a 6/0 will do the job. It is also important that you limit your terminal tackle because they can see and and not eat. BAIT Snook will eat a variety of live and dead baits. Some of the most common live baits include mullet, pinfish, pilchards, sardines, dork jacks, sand perch, and shrimp. They will also eat dead baits like ladyfish heads and all of the above baits listed. For live baits, freeline them in the trough by the bait schools to trigger a strike. Snook can be picky eaters at times so you should keep to a natural presetation. LURES Snook are very readily caught on artificial lures. Topwaters, bucktails, crankbaits, jerk baits, DOA shrimp all work. My favorite snook lure would be the Rapala X-rap. The X-rap has a lot of noise and a life-like swimming motion. No matter what you do. you should always match the color lure with the baitfish they are eating. If you aren't gettig any action on one lure, you should change the type of lure or color to trigger more strikes. TIME OF DAY The best times of day to catch the surf snook are sunrise and sunset. These times of day are when the least people are at the beach and also it is not in the heat of the day. But if you do try the middle of the day, it is good for sightfishing because the sun is directly above the water. LOCATIONS One of my favorite locations for surf snook is Sanibel island. In the summer, the baitfish are thick on the beach which causes the snook to stack up. Other good locations include any beaches by inlets such as Jupiter, Sebastian, and St Lucie. On the west coast, Marco Island, Naples, Sanibel, Fort Myers, Bradenton, and Tampa. These are some tips that will be very useful if you are getting into snook fishing. It is very addictive so once you try it you will be hooked! Tight lines! Media and Photo Section BF Adventures "Crank it and Yank it"
This file is Large it is for Broadband Users
BF Adventure Islamorada Bridge April 8 2006 Video
This file is very Large it is for Broadband User and it still might take a while
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Summertime Bridge Snookin’ 
Written by BridgeFisher....aka...Jeff Dillon
This time of year it seems like inlets take center stage as far as Snook fishing is concerned. For myself, bridges take center stage during summer or any time of the year for that matter. For this article I will focus only on the summer time however.The following tactics mentioned in this article are tactics that work for me in the spots that I fish. These are not guaranteed methods to catch Snook but they should help an angler in certain situations. I am always learning new things. Snook fishing, or any fishing is like this. Once you think you have got them figured out they totally change patterns on you. With that being said let’s get into it. I am going to be talking about early summer. This time of year is probably one of my most productive times for catching big Snook in Palm beach county. This is especially true if silver mullet are still coming through the bridges. I do not know if it is still the tail end of the spring mullet run or if they are just schools that stay behind a little longer. Either way it keeps the big fish happy. My favorite time to fish these big baits is slack low or the first hour of the incoming while the water is still dirty. Its best if that tide stage coincides with the last two hours of darkness. A far as the tackle to fish these baits I prefer a forty to fifty pound rod with eighty pound leader. Now here is where the amount of current decides where I will hook my bait. I use a 7/0 VMC live bait hook or 7/0 mustad ultra point hook. If the tide is slack I will throat hook my mullet in order to pry it down deeper. As the tide slowly starts to fill I continue to throat hook my bait and start throwing the bait up current and to the side at an angle. This allows me to get an angle on my bait that enables it to get down the deepest. Now when the tide really starts to pick up, in a manner that a free lined bait is now longer effective, I will either fish a troll rite with the bait or an 8th of an ounce egg weight directly on top off the hook in the same fashion of a knocker rig. Fishing at the previous times mentioned with the methods I have talked about have landed me more Snook over twenty pounds than any other snook fishing I do.
 Now for the numbers game the whole outgoing tide can not be beat. I have had nights during the summer fishing only artificials were between two people we have landed well over 50 Snook in the 3 to 15 pound range or so. The key to this fishing is finding a large will lit bridge with a distinct shadow line. Just as important is a bridge that has an extremely high current velocity with sections of shallow water and deep water staggered along the whole length of the bridge. My favorite bridge is a quite large bridge were the main channel is all the way at one end of the bridge while the rest of the bridge has many little flats and channels intermittently all the way to the opposite shoreline. Snook of all sizes stack up in the shadow line in both deep and shallow water waiting for baits such as pilchards, herring, shrimp, and crabs get swept through with the current. There are a few artificials that work consistently in this situation. Three to be exact. The first is the D.O.A. Terroreyes. This lure can be fished in a variety of ways and catch fish ranging from juvenile three pounders to adult female twenty pounders. There are three different ways I fish this bait. The must common way I fish D.O.A. is by throwing it up current of the shadow line and reel it back with current with occasional pauses in my retrieve. Another way I fish this lure is to fish just like a bucktail jig by either hopping it of the bottom or with some sort of erratic retrieve to draw a reaction bite. The final way I fish a terroreyes is to let it flow with the current on the down current side of the bridge giving the rod tip and occasional jig. This is the famous Mark Nichols, owner of D.O.A., way to fish for tarpon in the keys with terror eyes. The next lure I like to fish is a white or a white and green Spro Bucktail jig. I am not going to go into detail on how to fish one of these jigs because I never fish it one particular way. I always vary my retrieve until I find what the fish are eating the best. Often these jigs will produce larger fish as they do get down deeper in heavier current to some Finally the last lure I fish are the shad body type rubber fish that you put on a jig head. There is really only one way to fish these lures as far as I am concerned. That is with a steady retrieve with occasional pauses while reeling. You can match the size of the body and jig head with the amount of current and the type and size baits the snook are eating. All the previously mentioned lures catch fish for me. Some just work at better times than others. The key is to watch the snook’s behavior and watch what bait they are eating and how the baits move in the current.  This is a very small insight to some of the many different tactics I employ to catch snook at this time of year. In the future I will continue to write articles on snookin’ so keep an eye out. On another side note, I have learned so much about catching snook by watching. Watching what, everything. On some nights when I am plagued with crystal clear water on an incoming and I can not get a bite, sometimes I will stop fishing all together. I walk around the whole bridge and look at the contours of the bottom, watch how snook move and feed in the strong current, and watch behaviors of baitfish. It is amazing what you can see and how much you will learn. Experience is the best help you can get. There is so much more that I wish that I could put in writing but can not explain. It comes from my passion for snookin’ that I have had for so many years. I hope this writing helps aspiring snook fisherman to catch more snook. They are everywhere this time of year so go get em’. Jeff Dillon.
(Bridgefisher)
Fishing Locations
Please visit each location, you will find Tide, Weather, personal fishing observations, tips and a direct link into that specific forum board where you can get up to date fishing help and info for the locations or area. Anglins Fishing Pier Lauerdale by the sea, Broward County 954-491-9403 Juno Fishing Pier Juno Beach, Palm Beach County 561-799-0185 Dania Fishing Pier Dania Beach, Broward County 954-927-0640 Pompano Fishing Pier Pompano Beach, Broward County(Closed until further Notice) Deerfield Fishing Pier Deerfield Beach, Broward County 954-426-9206 Boynton Inlet and Beach Boynton Beach, Palm Beach County Hillsboro Inlet Pompano Beach, Broward County Boca Raton Inlet Boca Raton, Palm Beach County Jupiter Inlet Jupiter, Palm Beach County Sebastian Inlet Melbourne Beach, Brevard County 561-799-0185 Channel 2, Craig Key, Forida Keys. Islamorada, Monroe County Mile Marker 73 (No Phone) Archive Articles
Snook 05/26/05Summer Mackerel 06/05/05 |
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Last updated 10.1.2006
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