Capt. Steve Gordon holds a snook caught by Tom Greene in a Palm Beach County inlet.
By Steve Waters
The snook is one of the most sought-after saltwater gamefish in Florida, and there’s no better time to catch one in South Florida than after the season opened on Sept. 1.
The hard-fighting, good-tasting fish are congregated at Palm Beach County beaches, fishing piers and inlets, in the Intracoastal Waterway and at spillways this time of year. They can be caught on live bait and a variety of lures such as jigs and soft-plastic baitfish imitations.
“Swimbaits work great on the beaches and at the spillways,” said Tom Greene of Lighthouse Point, who grew up in Boca Raton, where he started fishing for snook 60 years ago.
In the old days, Greene and his fishing buddies used what he called chicken feather jigs to catch snook at inlets.
Those were replaced by Red Tail Hawk bucktail jigs, which offered more color combinations and are still used today. Lures also have replaced what once were popular baits.
“For 50 years we fished live shrimp,” Greene said. “Now we have fishing lures that look like a shrimp that are better, and they don’t die on you.”
Because snook are so popular, they are intensely managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Anglers are allowed to keep only one snook per day with a total length of 28 to 32 inches along the Atlantic coast.
The season is closed from June 1 to Aug. 31, which is when snook spawn in Atlantic waters.
The open season is Sept. 1-Dec. 14, then it closes Dec. 15-Jan. 31, when the potential for cold weather can make snook so lethargic that unethical anglers could simply scoop up the fish with a landing net.
The season reopens Feb. 1-May 31. (Visit myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/snook.)
A close-up of a snook caught on a soft plastic jig. Photos by Steve Waters/The Coastal Star
To successfully catch snook in local waters, Greene said it is essential to match the weight of the lure you’re fishing to the depth of the water and the strength of the current.
If the lure is too light, it won’t get down to where the snook are lurking. If the lure is too heavy, it won’t swim naturally in the current and might simply plummet to the bottom.
Greene also said to match the lure’s color to the color of the baitfish that the snook are feeding on. Numerous tackle manufacturers offer swimbaits in colors that look like a croaker, a pilchard, a sardine, a sand perch or a mullet, which are all popular snook live baits in South Florida.
If South Florida has a lot of rain in September, Greene recommended fishing at the Boynton and Lake Worth spillways.
After a heavy rain, fresh water is often released at the spillways that flow into canals that connect to the Intracoastal so that water can eventually flow out the nearest inlet. When the spillways are open, snook will be there waiting for small freshwater fish such as bluegills, shad and shiners to be swept out into the canals.
Another of Greene’s favorite snook spots is in and around inlets starting at the end of the outgoing tide. As the tide starts to come in, it’ll bring baitfish with it, and the snook will gather in an inlet to ambush the bait as it swims past.
The start of the outgoing tide is also good because baitfish are being flushed out of an inlet.
Anglers fishing from boats can drift through an inlet while fishing lures or live bait just off the bottom or they can troll through the inlet with swimming lures such as jointed Rapalas.
Bridges across the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Beach County can be snook hot spots at the start of the outgoing and incoming tides. The fish will almost always be on the down-current side of the bridges, waiting behind pilings for the tide to carry baitfish to them.
Regardless of the tide and the location, Greene said a prime time to catch a snook is from an hour before daylight to 30 minutes afterwards.
If the tide is changing during that time period, you can almost guarantee yourself a September snook.
Outdoors writer Steve Waters can be reached at steve33324@aol.com.
Comments