New regulations for snook fishing in Florida, effective January 1, 2024, establish nine snook management zones around the state along with seasons and slot limits for each zone. The new zones, like those established by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) for redfish in 2022, allow for a more regionalized and responsive approach to managing snook fishing in Florida’s waters, FWC officials say.

“These regions and regulations are part of our holistic management approach for Florida’s most popular inshore fisheries,” said Emily Abellera, FWC’s Public Information Specialist. “Through this approach, seven metrics are used to evaluate the snook fishery by region, which adds a holistic perspective to management decisions and allows our fisheries managers to be more responsive to regional concerns.”

Those considerations for management of snook include fishing pressure, relative abundance, habitat, stakeholder feedback, spawning potential ratio, air temperature, and harmful algal blooms in local waters. Assessments of these factors will be registered in the annual review of the fishery, which is available for each zone on the FWC’s website.

These localized annual reviews contain vital information about snook in each management zone in a brief, condensed, and graphic format. If an angler wants to know more about a local region’s fishery — possibly their home waters — these reviews are a terrific place to learn. They’re also available for redfish.

The FWC’s approach reflects the increasingly important role of habitat quality in fisheries management in contrast to the overwhelming importance of population assessments that dominated management policy in past years.

“It’s good to see FWC is managing snook through specific regions,” said Giles Murphy, owner of Stuart Angler Bait and Tackle in Martin County. His local waters of the southern Indian River Lagoon are known to produce some of Florida’s biggest snook. “In our area, the seagrass is extremely vital in our ecosystem, and it’s been dying off for 20 years. Now it’s completely gone. The redfish and seatrout fishing has suffered because of it. The snook can adapt and live through it, but that might not last forever with development increasing faster every year,” Murphy said.

The new zones will provide geographic boundaries for any urgent regulation changes caused by local conditions. In 2018, snook and redfish were declared catch-and-release only along parts of the west coast due to red tide. Extreme cold weather has also caused emergency closures to snook seasons in parts of Florida in the past.

Years ago, Ron Taylor, the snook researcher who helped guide the FWC’s snook management for decades, told me that management aimed to produce consistent numbers of all size classes of snook including slot-sized fish for anglers to keep and over-slot, trophy fish that anglers can brag about.

“Those goals haven’t changed,” Abellera, of the FWC, assured me recently. “What’s new with the holistic regional management approach is that we are judging whether our regulations are meeting those goals using more metrics, and we’re evaluating our success on a smaller scale that better reflects the anglers’ experiences,” she said.

At this time, the main change to last year’s regulations in the new management zones affect two areas on the Gulf Coast.

“For the Charlotte Harbor and Southwest snook management regions, the summer closure now includes the month of September,” said Abellera. “This is one month longer than the other Gulf Coast management regions. Extending the summer season closure provides additional protection for snook during a portion of their spawning period that overlaps with the typical occurrence of red tide in these regions.”

Snook season opens Feb. 1 in the three east coast zones (Southeast, Indian River Lagoon and Northeast) and snook season opens March 1 in the rest of Florida’s zones. Slot and catch limits remain the same. The slot limit is currently 28 to 33 inches across the state, except for the three east coast zones that have a limit of 32 inches. Check the FWC website to see descriptions of the nine zones.

The post New Florida Snook Zones in Effect appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Forty knot southeast winds drove torrential rains into our faces, soaking us to the bone at 2 a.m. in the dark of night. Crazy Alberto Knie and I were working one of Florida’s inlet jetties, punching 1-ounce bucktails through the spitting snot, fully realizing nobody with any sense would be out on the jetty rocks targeting snook during the ungodly hour and conditions.

The casts barely made it past the rod tip, plunking only 20 feet from the rocks into white-capped froth. Once the slack line was reeled up, my bucktail only sat 10 feet from the jetty rocks. A quick twitch, a little lift of the rod, and the magic happened — every time. In a three-hour span, Crazy Alberto and I landed 17 snook, all between 8 to 36 pounds, one cast after another. 

Was this just a lucky night? Or are there serious snook secrets to be learned about Florida’s inlet jetty rocks?

 Florida East Coast Jetty Fishing

Captain Ed Zyak’s snook playground is the St. Lucie Inlet jetty rocks.

“The prime run of big snook at St. Lucie Inlet is during the spawn, mainly from June through August, but really stretching from May to September, though you can find fish as early as February,” said Zyak. “They are moving through the inlet during the spawn, and that’s when you can really play catch and release with the spawning fish in the 20- to 40-pound class.”

St. Lucie Inlet’s north jetty rocks are jumbled puzzle pieces, many of which have crumbled down into the inlet channel and along the oceanside waters to provide new underwater structure.

“I tend to fish the incoming tides on the outside of the jetties on the oceanside,” he says, “but on outgoing tides, as the water turns and dumps out, they lay more on the inside notches inside the corners of the jetty rocks.” 

Zyak will cast artificial baits off the rocks such as 3-inch soft plastics, fixed on a ½-ounce jighead which he says resembles a sand perch or croaker.

“When there is a lot of boat traffic at the mouth of the inlet rocks, that’s when I go to artificials, as those snook are hunkered down deeper. Cast toward the rock, drift with the tide and give it quick snaps, such as 1-foot hops off the bottom,” says Zyak. “Pressured fish will tend to go for smaller baits like a 4-inch shrimp too. You want to be bombing the bottom with the baits. Sling the bait up-tide, and give it an aggressive hop with slow, sharp twitches.” 

Fishing Jetty Rocks for Snook

Captain Glyn Austin, of Going Coastal Charters, works Florida’s Sebastian Inlet rocks for his snook success.

“I’ll work the outer jetties via boat July through October, casting bucktails, Rapala X Raps or subsurface baits toward the tip of the north jetty on the outgoing tide,” says Austin. “During the summer months, snook will spread out along the beach as they hang around the pier north tip feeding on glass minnows as they spill out with the tide.”

Austin notes the average size of summer snook run in the 28- to 35-inch range, with larger model fish pushing the 40-inch plus mark. Snook will feed aggressively when water temps are anywhere from the low 70s to high 80s. It can be a year-round bite.

“If winter waters never get below 70, we can have snook along the jetty rocks all winter long.” Austin will also opt to go on the troll when the conditions are right. “I’ll drag lipped Rapalas around the tip of the north jetty and along the oceanfront to find snook lying close to the rocks.” 

Livebait fishing for Snook at Jetties

“Live bait really works best when there is minimal boat traffic and less pressure,” says Zyak. “When drifting the inlet with live bait, I like to get up high on the boat to get a visual of the snook — you can see their shadows lying on the bottom behind rocks and off the jetty.”

Don’t be afraid to check the dock or bridge pilings right inside inlet areas, not far from the rocks. When fishing around docks, or when the water is dirty in the inlet, try using side scan imaging to locate snook.

For live baiting, Zyak usually goes with threadfin herring, pilchards or live croakers, but notes croakers are best as they seem to be genetically programmed to swim straight to the bottom. Zyak’s drift rig consists of 30-pound braid main line to a 48-inch section of 50-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon, then a loop knot to size 4/0 or 6/0 Eagle Claw Trokar hooks. Zyak hooks the bait right under the bridge of the nose or underneath the belly just in front of the tail. He freelines the bait without any weight.

“Usually we are fishing 6 to 12 feet of water, and the bait swims straight down.” Average size snook are 10 to 25 pounds at St. Lucie Inlet, with Zyak recommending you concentrate your efforts around the approaching new moon for best results.

“I will also look for structure around inlet areas,” adds Zyak. “Those fish will come off the inlet rocks and explore the immediate area. When I find a nice piece of structure like a fallen tree or submerged rocks, I spot-lock the boat with my trolling motor and pitch baits back to it.”

Drift Fishing Inlets for Snook

Captain Austin also likes to drift live baits inside the inlet waters when the conditions are right.

“Snook stacked up along the bridge fenders and outgoing tides are best to fish with live bait,” says Austin. Live pinfish or pigfish are his preferred baits, with the rig consisting of 30-pound-braid running line, a surgeon knot tied to a 24- to 36-inch section of 40- to 50-pound fluorocarbon leader, and then a size 5/0 to 6/0 VMC circle hook to finish it off.  He will pinch a ½- to 1-ounce split shot about a foot above the bait to get it down into the zone.

“Sebastian has about 12- to 15-foot depths in the middle of the channel, so I will motor up about 2/3 of the way back into the inlet, up to the bridge, then make the drift,” he says. “The bottom structure is very sticky inside the inlet with plenty of rock hang ups, but the key is to drift into the holes between rock boulders.”

Find the right balance between bouncing over the rocks while still letting the bait near the bottom without snagging. Though morning and afternoon hours are prime times, Austin suggests not to overlook drifting live baits during the night hours.

“Those nighttime shifts are also real solid for guys fishing around the south jetty, with both live baits and bucktails,” he says. “You’d be surprised how hot that action can get in the middle of the night.”

My magical night casting bucktails on the rocks opened up a whole new world of snook fishing for me. Mangroves, fallen trees and docks are notorious snook haunts, but next time you’re milling around any inlet jetties that line Florida’s East and Gulf coasts, start thinking about rockin’ some snook.

The post Conquering Florida’s Jetty Snook appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Tucked away in the southeastern corner of the Yucatan Peninsula, this tiny Central American nation (about the size of Massachusetts) was known as British Honduras until 1973. Belize boasts the second largest barrier reef in the world (after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef) with dozens of cays and islets. The country’s 174-mile coastline offers huge areas of sandy flats dotted with patches of turtle grass — ideal habitat for bonefish and permit.

Among anglers, Belize is known for its consistently productive, year-round fishing for both of those prized inshore trophy species. Add tarpon to the mix and it’s understandable that Belize ranks near the top of places in the world where anglers can accomplish a coveted shallow-water slam: permit, bonefish and tarpon in one day. But don’t limit yourself! Belize boasts a good population of snook in its rivers and mangrove-lined bays. Add snook to the other three species and join the ranks of super-slammers. Slam or not, fishing Belize is particularly popular with fly fishermen.

Unique among Central American nations, at least 40 percent of the country’s mainland and coast is protected. The barrier reef system has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1996. The reef runs for more than 180 miles, in places only 1,000 feet from shore but in other areas 25 miles out.

Some popular areas include Turneffe Atoll, the country’s largest atoll, located about 20 miles off the coast, near Belize City. It’s renowned for big schools of bonefish, but also numbers of permit. A marine reserve, Turneffe remains pristine, with vast expanses of mangrove and seagrass habitats around the island. Ambergris Caye is Belize’s largest island, famed for white-sand beaches and turquoise shallows. It’s perennially popular with tourists, being a mere 15-minute small-plane flight from Belize City. Nevertheless, it remains a solid spot for inshore fishing, particularly for sight-casting to tarpon on its extensive flats. Some of Belize’s other outstanding spots for anglers include the Placencia peninsula, and Hopkins and Glover’s reefs in the south.

Planning a Trip

When to Go

As noted above, this is truly year-round fishing. Larger tarpon tend to be more seasonal, given their migratory nature; late spring and summer is a peak time but smaller fish can be caught anytime on flats, in channels, creeks and bays. Winter can be tougher for bones, while fall is prime time for permit. Because fishing can be good throughout the year, timing a trip may come down to weather more than anything. Spring tends to be a bit windier (prevailing trade winds are generally from an eastern quadrant). From late February into May is the dry season, and June through much of the fall, is the wet season. It’s worth noting that the northern part of Belize receives considerably less rain than the south. Also keep in mind the possibility of hurricanes summer and fall. Direct strikes on Belize are rare, but tropical wind and rain spun off by big storms can hinder fishing.

Where to Go and How to Get There

Major airlines offer regular flights from several U.S. cities into Belize City’s international airport. Once in Belize, there are regular flights and ferry service to Ambergris Caye, but more distant resorts are reached primarily via chartered flights that the resorts provide or arrange.

Grand Caribe Belize is a beautiful resort in San Pedro Belize, located 2 miles north of town on Ambergris Caye. The condo style accommodations cater to anglers and families, plus the barrier reef sits just a half-mile offshore their beaches. This year, the resort hosted their 7th annual Deep Sea Classic fishing tournament in July.

What to Expect

English, for one thing: While you’ll hear Spanish and creole, English is the primary, official language, making Belize the only country in Central America where this is true. You’ll find plenty of hotels in Belize City. Most resorts provide tackle, though serious fishermen often bring their own (and fly fishing is particularly popular in Belize’s shallow waters). Though largely overlooked, reef and bluewater fishing await just beyond the flats. Besides fishing, in Belize’s forested interior you can plan visits to the country’s amazing Mayan ruins, remnants of a great ancient Maya empire. Note: upon leaving, you’ll need to pay a departure tax (unless included in the airline’s fare), and only cash is accepted.

Helpful Links

• For general information: travelbelize.org
• You’ll also find more good information at: travel.usnews.com/belize

The post The Beauty of Belize appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Oyster bars attract more cruisers than a sports pub on a Saturday night. In fact, these natural “watering holes” rank as top pickup spots for many inshore gamefish species from Maryland to Texas. Hang out at the right time, and you’re all but guaranteed to catch fish. Baitfish and crustaceans are also bar regulars, prompting a variety of predators to take advantage of ambush spots in and around oyster reefs. Choose the right tide and properly present the right bait, and you’ll increase your odds.

Pick the Right Tide to Fish

“Tide is critical,” says Capt. Jordan Todd, of Saltwater Obsessions in Port St. Joe, Florida, who fishes Apalachicola Bay in the state’s Panhandle. “We have oyster bars in different depths of water, so there are oyster bars that’ll be out of water on low tide and covered up on high tide. Then there are others in 5 to 6 feet of water that are covered up all the time.

“For redfish, you want a low tide that’s starting to rise. The first half of the incoming tide, those redfish will start swimming into it and start feeding around those exposed bars. I normally like to start fishing just as they start to get covered up.”

Todd anchors downcurrent of a bar and throws topwater plugs — ­chartreuse- or bone-colored Rapala Skitter Walks are his favorites — on top of or beyond the bar, working them back with a walk-­the-dog retrieve. He also buzzes weedless, non-weighted soft-plastic paddle-tail lures across the top of a bar.

As the water deepens, Todd switches to a shrimp jig or a D.O.A. or Gulp! shrimp under a popping cork. “A good angler can use a quarter-ounce jig head or D.O.A. shrimp, and bounce it across the bar,” he says. “Hard twitchbaits, like a MirrOdine or Rapala Shad Rap, work very well.”

“We fish a lot of oyster bars ­whenever we’re fishing for snook, redfish and trout,” says Capt. Brian Barrera of South Padre Island, Texas, who likes to anchor his boat by barely exposed oyster bars on a rising tide in the Lower Laguna Madre bay.

“When the tide’s just high enough, big schools of mullet will feel safe right on top of the bars, and the snook, trout and redfish won’t have enough water on the bar to come in after them. They’ll be hanging right around it, waiting to get in there.”

Barrera’s go-to bait in that situation is a D.O.A. PT-7 topwater lure. “Since it’s weedless and floating, you can get right on top of the bar. As you retrieve it, the PT-7 looks like a mullet venturing off the bar, and the fish come up and explode on it,” he says. “I’ll also do that with a D.O.A. C.A.L. 5.5 jerkbait and rig it weedless with a 6/0 screw-lock hook. You can drop that over those oyster beds, and it looks like an injured mullet.”

Oyster Bars Attract Bait and Gamefish

Capt. Brian Sanders, who fishes the Ten Thousand Islands in Everglades National Park out of Chokoloskee Island, Florida, uses live finger mullet, pilchards, threadfin herring and shrimp. He catches the baitfish with a cast net and buys the shrimp.

“The oyster bars in Chokoloskee serve a big purpose,” Sanders says. “They harbor a lot of crabs, shrimp and small baitfish. Raccoons eat the crabs and shrimp at low tide, and as the tide rises, fish come in to eat them too. I’ve seen redfish bellies that are packed full of small little crabs. It almost seems like the redfish use the oyster bars to eat the crabs.”

Sanders positions his bay boat in front of oyster bars over dark bottoms with turtle grass. He says redfish, snook, sharks and jacks cruise over that bottom, and his customers also catch reds and seatrout on top of the bars where they’re mixed in with mullet. Oyster bars also attract black drum, sheepshead, ladyfish and mangrove snapper, which will all eat a live baitfish and a live shrimp.

“The colder months, when there’s not a lot of live bait around, fish a shrimp under a float on a higher tide on top of a bar, and on the edges of the bar when the tide is lower,” Sanders says.

Todd says Apalachicola Bay features a shrimp hatch in spring, so from that time into early summer, he fishes live shrimp under a popping cork. In June, July and August, he switches to small menhaden or cut menhaden for trout; he goes back to shrimp in fall during the white shrimp hatch.

Fish Deeper Oyster Bars During Outgoing Tides

Bar-hopping begins as oyster reefs overtop with rising water or become exposed as the tide drops. Knowing the depths of different bars allows anglers to fish all of them when the conditions are optimal for each. Barrera prefers to fish a falling tide for five or six hours, so when the water drops too low at one bar, he moves 20 or 30 yards to a deeper bar, and makes repeated casts as he waits for the water depth to get right.

“If we hook one or two and it’s pretty fishy, we’ll stay,” Barrera says. “What’ll happen lots of times is we catch one or two and spook the fish, and they’ll ­scatter. Then we’ll move to the next patch.”

Todd also moves to deeper oyster bars on a falling tide and targets seatrout “because those trout will stack up on those deeper bars as the bait comes to them.”

The best bars are not solid masses of oysters but rather clumps of oysters that offer multiple ambush spots for game fish. Bars with sandy spots also can be productive.

“Oyster bars with character, ones that are broken and have little pockets, tend to hold more fish,” Todd says. “I also look for bars that have breaks in them or are horseshoe-shaped or have little holes in the middle of them. The fish can stay in the holes in the bars.”

Says Sanders, “I don’t concentrate on big, giant oyster bars, but scattered oysters near a beach or an island.”

Fishing Tackle for Oyster Bars

Anglers need tough tackle to pull hooked fish away from oyster bars. Barrera uses 20- or 25-pound leaders on his 10-pound braided line and 7-foot, 6-inch G. Loomis inshore rods when fishing in Texas bays. He upgrades to 30- and even 40-pound fluorocarbon leaders when fishing oyster bars.

“A 32-inch snook will pull you into the oysters,” he says. “I tell my clients to try to keep the fish out of the bar as much as possible. As soon as I see it in the bar, or they feel it, I tell them to open the bail, and I’ll use my trolling motor to go up to the bar and get the line out of there.”

Read Next: How to Fish Marshes and Creeks

If you do hang up on a bar, “point your fishing rod at it, grab the spool and pull back slowly, and you’ll usually roll over the oysters, then the hook comes free,” says Sanders, who outfits his southwest Florida anglers with 7-foot rods with 3500 or 4000 spinning reels spooled with 20-pound braid and 40-pound fluorocarbon leaders.

Todd uses a 7-foot medium-heavy rod in the Panhandle, with a 4000-class spinning reel spooled with 20-pound braid and usually a 25-pound ­fluorocarbon leader. When he’s targeting bull reds around deeper bars in 6 to 8 feet of water, he ties on 30- or 40-pound fluorocarbon leaders.

The post How to Fish Oyster Bars appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Most folks might believe you can only chase snook in the U.S. in the southern waters of Florida. That’s not quite true. The southern Texas coast also has snook, with some guides getting pretty good at targeting them.

Captain Brian Barrera, of South Padre Island, Texas, is coming off his best-ever snook fishing trip. “We caught 151 snook between four people,” he said. While those numbers are unprecedented, he has been averaging a dozen snook each trip.

Texas snook fishing is never going to pass up Florida snook fishing; most of Texas isn’t warm enough year-round, so the snook numbers and areas to catch them will always be limited. When Barrera isn’t targeting winter snook, he goes for redfish and speckled trout on the shallow flats of Lower Laguna Madre. “We’re limiting out, with plenty of over-slot fish released too,” he said.

Barrera says winter is the best time for snook and trophy speckled trout. As the water cools through January into March, snook congregate along deep channel ledges while the reds and trout move onto grass and sand flats.

To target snook, Barrera fishes waters as deep as 30 feet. Using his fishfinder, he looks for the thermocline where the warmer surface water changes to cooler deep water. “There is a 3- to 5-foot area where the fish are comfortable,” he explained. With side-scan sonar on his Humminbird finder, he can see snook hanging in specific depths of the water column. 

When he marks the fish, he works a 3-inch D.O.A. lures shad tail on a 3⁄8-ounce jighead. He works the optimal temperature zone by jigging the lure or using a fast retrieve.

Seatrout and Redfish Reign Supreme in Texas

On warm days, Barrera fishes for redfish and trophy seatrout on the extensive shallow bars and grass. “When the wind is light, we wade, but when the wind is blowing, I’ll drift in the boat,” he said. 

In the morning, he looks for fish on the grass flats near the west side of the bay. In the afternoon, he moves to the east side of the bay to fish sand flats behind the barrier islands.

On the grass, he looks for the fish to hang over open potholes waiting to ambush a bait. In the clear water over sand flats, he sight fishes for trophy trout and redfish. He uses ⅛- to ¼-ounce jighead and a 4-inch soft plastic jerk bait. “My favorite color is purple and chartreuse,” he said, emphasizing the chartreuse. For topwater, he likes a walk-the-dog style lure in pink mullet. 

Barrera expects the winter action to continue until spring. He says this is the time for trophy trout, with recent catches of seatrout up to 30 inches. “People come here to catch the trout of a lifetime,” he bragged. 

The post Texas Snook Fishing in Winter appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

In early July Capt. George Beckwith, of North Carolina charter fishing fame, was on a four-day fishing adventure out of Quepos, on the central west coast of Costa Rica, located south of San Jose, the capital city.

First day offshore in the Pacific Beckwith and pals slammed yellowfin tuna to 60 pounds using top-water popping plugs.

On days two and three, Beckwith with good friend and fly-rod billfish angler Jake Jordon did an overnighter out of Quepos. They caught six blue marlin in the 100-to-250-pound class all on regulation fly tackle. Beckwith had four marlin, Jordon two, all released.

With that kind of stellar fishing most anglers would have taken a day off the water to recoup. But not Beckwith.

“I wanted a big snook for a possible 6-pound line class record,” says Beckwith, 52, who runs Down East Guide Service out of Morehead City, N.C., plus trips to Costa Rica. “My long-time Costa Rican buddy Capt. Roy Zapata Calderon was available. So he and I and Jordon went after snook on that fourth day off Quepos.”

Using specialized light-tackle IGFA regulation gear, including a Shimano 4000 Stradic reel spooled with true-tested IGFA 6-pound Black Widow line, and a very long and “forgiving” 9-foot spinning rod, the anglers set out in the rolling swells of the Pacific Ocean to hunt for oversize snook.

First the anglers found and caught live sardines near the beach, then put out the baits for trolling. They caught a couple smaller snook, still looking for a potential record fish, when a heavyweight took Beckwith’s bait.

“That fish made a run and took about half the line off the spool,” says Beckwith. “We ran closer to the fish and the snook tried to jump and got about half out of the water. That’s when we knew it was the fish we were looking for and for sure it was bigger than the existing 6-pound test snook record. At the time Roy thought it might be an all-tackle record because it was so huge.”

Beckwith says they positioned the boat close to the fish again trying to get it in. But the center-console was near the beach and huge Pacific Ocean roller waves the area is famed for was pitching and wallowing the boat.

“The snook was trying to get to the other side of the breakers near the beach where we couldn’t follow it, and surely would lose it,” Beckwith explained. “So I had to really put pressure on the fish to get it out of the area.”.

The long, whippy custom spinning rod he used helped cushion the fight of the heavyweight snook, almost like a fly rod would do in a similar fashion.

Finally, Beckwith got the fish close to his boat, and he grabbed the 10-foot length of 50-pound test shock leader at the end of his 6-pound line. Beckwith then knew the snook was his.

“Holding the 50-pound test leader, I walked the snook to Roy and his mate who held a dip net, and we got the fish in the boat,” described Beckwith. “Then we put it in the boat’s live baitwell, which was barely big enough for it to fit inside,”

The anglers immediately called Quepos alerting them they had caught what surely was an IGFA record snook. They kept the snook alive and got it to Marina Pez Vela in Quepos, where it weighed 43-pounds, 8-ounces. But they were concerned the weigh scale wouldn’t qualify as being a certified one. So they then drove the fish to another set of scales in Los Suenos, where it weighed 43-pounds, 5-ounces on certified scales. The snook didn’t survive the trip to Los Suenos, as it otherwise would have been released by Beckwith.

The Pez Vela scale was certified, however, and the fish’s heavier weight has just been accepted by IGFA as the new men’s 6-pound test line class world record for the species. Beckwith’s snook betters the previous 6-pound line class record Pacific snook by nearly 12 pounds.

The former Pacific snook 6-pound line test men’s record weighed 31-pounds, 10-ounces, taken by Alberto Acuna in May 2005, also in Costa Rica.

“My only regret is we couldn’t release that beautiful snook back into the Pacific,” says Beckwith. “But the drive to the second set of weigh scales was too much for it to survive.

The post IGFA Record Pacific Snook! appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

While Florida’s recovery from Hurricane Ian is everyone’s chief concern these days, the state fisheries department also is looking out for snook in the same ravaged region where the terrible storm came ashore on the Sunshine State’s lower west coast.

So the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has just filed an executive order to extend the catch-and-release-only season on snook in the Charlotte Harbor area until Dec. 1, 2022. This is when normal regulations for catch-and-keep snook go into effect. The executive order effectively closes all snook harvest in the area until Mar. 1, 2023.

The order also includes all waters of the Peace and Myakka rivers as well as their tributaries. But anglers still can catch-and-release snook in the region.

These temporary regulation modifications are in response to ongoing concerns from a prolonged red tide, which was more severe in this area regarding habitat conditions, including seagrass loss, in the waters in and around Charlotte Harbor, the FWC says in a press statement.

“Redfish, snook and trout are important fisheries in southwest Florida,” said Eric Sutton, FWC Executive Director. “The Commission has made significant changes to our process in setting regulations for these species including habitat conditions. Charlotte Harbor was the epicenter of the prolonged red tide and has experienced habitat impacts. We would like to spend more time evaluating these variables.”

Many guides in the area closed to snook fishing are in favor of the new executive order, especially since catch-and-release fishing still is allowed for snook. Other species such as redfish, seatrout and tarpon are fill-in targets for anglers.

Camille Lumbert of Pelican Bay Outfitters (a local tackle and bait shop) told local Fox4-TV that she’s seeing hundreds of over-slot snook near their docks, a sign there are plenty of healthy breeder fish to grow the area’s snook population in the future.

“I’ve heard from our scientists and stakeholders, and I support a temporary measure to give more time to evaluate snook management options,” said Steven Hudson, Vice Chairman of the FWC. “Given the red tide history in this specific area, as well as concerns about habitat, I think it’s important to take a conservative approach.”

The post Snook Harvest Season Cut Short for Parts of Florida’s Southwest Coast appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

With the February opening of snook season along Florida’s southeast coast, anglers can begin to hunt linesiders around boat docks and bridges. Cooler temperatures have concentrated the fish in warmer, inshore zones. And while Gulf Coast snook hover around mangrove islands, South Florida snook seek harbor and ambush spots near manmade structure.

Dock Detective

As with natural habitat, some boat docks prove more productive than others. Capt. Mark Nichols, founder of D.O.A. Lures, likes docks in shallow water that offer easy access to deep zones. The deeper water is warmer, and its proximity to shallow areas allows snook to transit to a dock when they want to pick off an unsuspecting baitfish or shrimp. “If you’ve got a dock with a big boat that sits there a lot, they like that, too,” says Nichols, who lives and fishes in Stuart, Florida.

Nichols says docks can produce day or night as long as the tide is moving. He prefers the last half of an outgoing tide and full light or full dark. “I don’t start fishing until an hour after dark,” he says. “If I’m fishing during the day, I want the sun to be up for a while so the fish go under the dock for shade.”

The best docks for night fishing feature lights that create shadow lines on the water. Snook stay on the dark side of the line and wait for the tide to bring shrimp and baitfish to them.

Shadows and Skipping

To fish such a dock properly, Nichols casts his lure — usually one of his company’s plastic shrimp — into the light and lets it drift with the tide into the shadow. “If the dock has no lights or you’re fishing during the day, then you work close to the structure. Skip your lure under the dock. It’s like skipping a rock. You release the rock low to the water and you want to release the lure low to the water.”

Nichols skips his lure as far under a dock as possible. Even if he has plenty of room to cast a shrimp under a dock, he prefers to skip it because that imitates a shrimp’s natural action. It gets a snook’s attention.

When the lure stops skipping, Nichols lets the bait fall. Too many anglers immediately move the lure, which takes it out of the strike zone. “A lot of people make great casts, then reel in the lure before it has a chance to settle,” he explains. “When you let the bait fall, the shrimp glides down like a real shrimp. I try to get the bait to the fish’s comfort zone, rather than try to make the fish chase the bait.”

If a snook doesn’t hit on the fall, Nichols retrieves the shrimp with a series of light rod twitches. If he’s using one of his company’s baitfish imitations such as the TerrorEyz or Baitbuster, which usually produce fewer strikes but bigger snook, he retrieves the lure with slow sweeps of the rod after the bait sinks to the bottom.

After skipping a shrimp under a dock, Nichols leaves the spinning-reel bail open until line stops coming off the reel. That way the plastic shrimp sinks naturally to the bottom.

Slow Motion

When fishing a grass flat with a D.O.A. Shrimp, slow the retrieve. Nichols holds the rod tip high and twitches the shrimp out of the seagrass. He notes that you don’t even have to turn the reel handle because the shrimp drifts a few feet before settling back into the grass.

Live shrimp with a split shot or two crimped above the hook also can be cast under docks, Nichols says. Live and plastic shrimp, as well as small swimming plugs, can be slow-trolled along the edges of docks to reveal the structures that are harboring snook.

The fun begins when a snook grabs the bait. The barnacle-encrusted pilings of docks can make short work of most fishing lines. Nichols uses 15-pound PowerPro braided line that he attaches with a triple surgeon’s loop to 2 feet of 30- to 50-pound fluorocarbon leader. “The braided line definitely allows me to pull them out from around stuff,” he says.

Anglers also find success this time of year by working jigs and plugs along the shadow lines of lit bridges over the Intracoastal Waterway. Trolling lures such as a Bomber Long A’s or Rat-L-Traps along and through bridges also works.

Personal Experience

Working lures properly really makes a difference. When I fished for seatrout in the Indian River with Nichols, he consistently caught fish while I struggled to get a bite. At one point, I kiddingly complained that he must be using a special version of his shrimp and had given me one of his company’s rejects. So he gave me his spinning outfit and took mine. Then he promptly caught a trout on the shrimp I’d been using, while I remained fishless.

Whichever way you pursue linesiders this time of year, stick with structure to find the best chance of hooking a snook.

Read Next: More Snook Fishing Tips

Snook by the Book

Snook regulations in Florida can be confusing, with different dates and slot sizes for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

Seasons: In Atlantic waters, the season is open from Feb. 1 to May 31 and from Sept. 1 to Dec. 14. In state waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Keys (Monroe County) and in Everglades National Park, snook season is open from March 1 to April 30 and from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30. The season is currently closed through Aug. 31 in the waters from Sarasota Bay through Gordon Pass in Collier County.

Limits: The statewide daily bag limit is one snook per angler. The slot limit in Atlantic waters is not less than 28 inches or more than 32 inches total length from the most forward point of the lower jaw to the tip of the tail with the tail pinched. The Gulf slot limit is 28 to 33 inches.

Tackle: It is unlawful to take snook by any means other than hook and line; also with live or dead natural bait in conjunction with a treble hook.

Licenses: Any angler needing a saltwater fishing license must also have a $10 snook stamp to possess snook. No saltwater fishing license is needed for anglers under 16, Florida residents 65 and older, Florida residents fishing in saltwater from land or from a structure fixed to the land, and anglers fishing from a licensed boat or pier.

The post South Florida Snook Secrets appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

[Editor’s note: Experts advise extra care when fishing on any spawning species. Use adequate tackle, and leave the fish in the water for release, whenever possible.]

If you’ve ever wondered why Florida’s Atlantic snook season remains open in May but closes along the Gulf of Mexico coast, Everglades National Park and the Florida Keys, here’s the reason: Keeper snook are much more susceptible to being caught in the western and southern regions of Florida in May, so officials deemed the earlier Gulf closing prudent.

The state took even more dramatic measures last year because of a prolonged west coast red tide, closing the season for snook, as well as for seatrout and redfish, from Pasco County (just above Tampa) south to Naples.

Anglers could still catch and release snook in those waters during the closure, and they can also release fish during the normal closed season— May 1 through August 31. East coast anglers also can catch and release snook during their closed season—June 1 through August 31. But during May, right-coasters can still keep 1 per angler per day between 28 and 32 inches.

In general, the late spring/summer closures coincide with the snook’s spawning season, when schools gather at passes and inlets, making the fish easy targets for anglers, especially those with a well full of live bait.

Live Lines

Capt. Ozzie Fischer of Fort Myers in southwest Florida, who grew up fishing for snook on Pine Island Sound, prefers live pilchards this time of year, but he also keeps some threadfin herring.

“You catch way more on pilchards, and with thread herring, you catch bigger fish,” he says. “A big snook will eat a little pilchard or a big pilchard, but you fish a thread herring, and a lot of times a big snook hits that when it won’t hit anything else, and the little snook eat the pilchards.”

Herring can become fragile in a well with pilchards. When Fischer live-chums with pilchards, he waits until he sees a big fish before baiting up with herring.

Fischer downsizes his snook tackle in May because of the water’s clarity. He fishes 8- to 12-pound-class spinning rods with 15-pound braided mainline and a 3-foot length of 25-pound fluorocarbon leader that he attaches with a surgeon’s knot. During the summer, when rainfall discolors the water, he uses a 40-pound fluorocarbon leader. “The big fish chew through it [25-pound leader] sometimes,” Fischer says, “but you can’t lose ‘em if you don’t hook ‘em.”

Fischer uses 2/0 to 5/0 circle hooks, depending upon bait size. He ties the hooks to the leader with an improved clinch knot, and hooks all of his baits through the nose.

“If you belly-hook a bait, when you reel it in, the bait spins. By nose-hooking the bait, you give yourself another chance to get a bite when you’re reeling it in because it’s swimming,” he says. “I cannot tell you how many big snook I’ve caught just reeling my bait real slow. Sometimes it triggers them, just like slow-trolling. The bait’s been kind of sitting there, not moving around much. You start reeling and moving it, and a fish grabs it.”

Salt and Fresh

Capt. Brian Sanders, who fishes Everglades National Park out of Chokoloskee Island on the southwest coast of Florida, says a lack of fresh water flowing into the park has made fishing tough for the past two years. The condition, called hypersalinity, means that the water in the rivers that flow through the Everglades into the Gulf is too salty.

“The fish want that fresh water,” Sanders explains. “Three or four years ago (in April and May) we’d see fish in the river mouths and around the adjacent outside islands. Now, I can put a whole day in there and maybe catch snook, and most of them are small. It has really changed what those fish are doing.”

Sanders can catch bait in the Gulf of Mexico and motor 30 miles due east into the Everglades—where he has traditionally caught bass, snook and alligator gar—and the saltwater baitfish remain lively. Significant rainfall could improve the situation for anglers fishing the Gulf side of the park, he says.

Despite the salty conditions, Sanders says that on a good day, his customers still catch 20 or 30 snook, most under 25 inches. A slow day means five or six fish. “Try to find the freshest water in the area,” he advises, “whether it’s in a creek, a bay, or all the way at the top of a river.”

He prefers to fish live pilchards or finger mullet and lures such as jigs, topwater plugs, swimbaits and soft plastics around structure such as fallen trees and oyster bars as well as where feeder creeks empty into a main river system. He uses spinning rods with 20-pound braided line and 40-pound fluorocarbon leaders tied to a 2/0 to a 4/0 hook. Skilled anglers can opt for baitcasting outfits to pitch lures under overhanging mangroves.

Spillway Special

Rain also plays a role in east coast snook fishing. Snook expert Tom Greene of Lighthouse Point, near Ft. Lauderdale, says that when it rains, spillways open to dump the excess water into the Intracoastal Waterway, and snook wait to feed on the bluegills, shad and shiners that sweep through the water-control structures.

Top spillways include Cypress Creek in Pompano Beach, Hillsboro in Boca Raton, C-15 in Delray Beach, and C-16 in Boynton Beach.

“Watch the weather,” Greene advises. “When it rains, all of the snook will be at the spillways. The snook know when the water’s going to run.”

To fish the spillways, Greene uses a ½- or 3/8-ounce jig to hook a live or dead bluegill, shad or shiner up through the bottom jaw and out through the top. He casts the bait into the fast-moving water at the mouth of the spillway and bounces the jig on the bottom.

Other good snook spots include saltwater canals feeding into the Intracoastal as well as the ICW itself. Greene says trolling shallow-running jerkbaits such as a red-and-white Bomber Long A can be very effective.

Greene recommends using a baitcasting rod with 30- to 50-pound braided line. He ties a Bimini twist in the braid and uses a TG knot to attach it to several feet of 50-pound fluorocarbon leader. He ties a loop knot to the jighead.

Lucky Lures

In the Indian River around Sebastian, on Florida’s central east coast, Capt. Glyn Austin fishes snook with topwater lures and jerkbaits, using 7-foot spinning rods. His favorite lures include a Rapala Skitter Walk and two Rapala sub-surface lures—the X-Rap Twitchin’ Mullet and X-Rap Twitchin’ Minnow.

When he fishes open water, he spools up with 10-pound braided line and a 20-pound monofilament leader for longer casts. If he fishes mangrove shorelines and docks, he uses 15- or 20-pound braid with a 30-pound leader. If he switches from plugs to live finger mullet, he ties on a 4/0 J-hook or a 5/0 circle hook.

Read Next: Catch More Snook With These Tips and Techniques

“I fish mangrove shorelines that are holding bait, and I fish in the trees with artificials as much as I can,” Austin says. “Typically, the snook are tight to trees.”

And although Austin says he prefers to release snook even during the open season, he acknowledges that May is the last chance for several months to bring home a keeper for dinner. Once closed, snook season—on both coasts—remains shuttered through August.

The post West to East: Florida Snook Tactics appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

People who complain that South Florida doesn’t enjoy a change of seasons don’t fish the annual fall mullet run.

To anglers from Stuart to Key Largo, nothing signals that fall has arrived like the migration of these baitfish. Silver and black mullet move south in enormous schools along the Atlantic coast, all the while dodging a host of predators such as snook, tarpon, jacks, sharks, Spanish mackerel and bluefish. October marks the prime time to fish the mullet run, both offshore and inshore.

The Game Plan

Anglers never know what they might catch from one cast to the next. They don’t even need live mullet to catch the gamefish species. Half a mullet, topwater plugs, spoons, and soft-plastic bait imitations can be as effective if not more.

“There’s definitely a wave of mullet coming in,” says Capt. Chris Murray of Stuart, who fishes offshore as well as in the Indian and St. Lucie rivers. “They come in in droves, and then they’ll pause, and then there’ll be another drove.”

“We’ve got them both inshore and offshore right now,” adds Capt. Mark Nichols, founder of D.O.A. Fishing Lures. “It seems like there are a lot of mullet in the rivers. They could be here for another several weeks or a month. It just depends on whether the weather pushes them south.”

Murray usually nets several dozen mullet wherever he sees the baitfish pushing water. After catching bait, he cruises around until he spots another mullet school. Then he closely watches to see what the baitfish are doing and what’s feeding on them.

Tarpon often jump completely out of the water, then come crashing back into the middle of the school. Snook hang below the school and suck in mullet with an audible pop. Jacks charge into the school and send mullet flying.

Murray likes to fish live mullet on a 7-foot, light- to medium-action spinning rod with a 4000-size reel spooled with 20-pound braided line. He usually attaches a 40-pound fluorocarbon leader with a 3/0 Owner Mutu Light circle hook and clips an indicator float to the leader, which allows him and his anglers to keep track of the bait.

“I vary my leaders. I like to actually start lighter,” Murray says. “Normally I rig up two that are 25-pound, two that are 30, two that are 40. When I know what kind of fish are there and what kind of heat I have to put on them, normally 40. If they’re short snook, 25 or 30 is fine.”

When drifting or slow-trolling, he hooks a mullet through the upper lip and casts it to the edge of a submerged oyster bar, which snook, tarpon and other species use as ambush spots. Murray then opens the bail of the reel and slowly lets out line.

Jacks Are Wild

On one trip I took in the St. Lucie River with Murray and Anthony Javarone, we cast out, and only moments later, I felt my mullet get very nervous. Suddenly violent splashes erupted, and whatever had scared my mullet nailed Javarone’s bait.

Following Murray’s instruction to let the fish swim for a few seconds before closing the bail and reeling tight, Javarone hooked up to what turned out to be a 15-pound jack. The fish took Javarone from one end of Murray’s bay boat to the other before it finally tired.

“Those big jacks are great practice for people who want snook and tarpon,” Murray says. “They’re a guide’s best friend. They just give you every chance to develop your rhythm.”

When jacks, tarpon and Spanish mackerel successfully raid the schools for a meal, they often stun and maim a few of the baits, which fall to the sea floor. That’s when fishing a mullet head on the bottom can be extremely effective.

The Change-Up

Fishing around the rocks at the mouth of Stuart’s St. Lucie Inlet, Capt. Greg Snyder uses a D.O.A. plastic shrimp to catch all sizes of snook, from under the minimum size limit of 28 inches to over the maximum of 32 inches. He fishes the shrimp on a spinning outfit with 30-pound braided line and a 40-pound fluorocarbon leader.

“They use the rocks as a trap,” Snyder says of the snook. “The bait hits the rocks and gets confused, and the snook take advantage of it.”

Let the shrimp drift with the current and be aware of any taps or hesitation in the drift, because that means a snook has taken the lure. “Let the tide do the work, and keep in contact with the shrimp,” he says, “because you need to be able to set the hook when they eat.”

Why would a snook eat a shrimp when mullet are abundant? I posed that question to D.O.A. luremaker Nichols. “During the first of the mullet run, the fish are all over the mullet,” he says. “But after three weeks of eating mullet, they’re ready for something different.”

I witnessed that fishing with Nichols in the north fork of the St. Lucie River on the last half of a falling tide. His flats skiff was surrounded by mullet and rolling tarpon, but after we threw some DOA soft-plastic mullet imitations such as a Bait Buster and a TerrorEyz without a bite, Nichols switched us to DOA glow shrimp.

Standing at the front of the boat, we waited until a tarpon rolled within casting distance. Then we cast the shrimp just ahead of the tarpon. Instead of steadily twitching the shrimp back to the boat, Nichols advises working it slowly.

“You want the shrimp to go down,” he says. “Then snap the rod and jerk the shrimp sharply, but don’t crank the reel and move the shrimp away. You want it to stay right where the fish was.”

Picture it in these terms: Here’s a shrimp, slowly sinking in the water. Suddenly it jumps up, then sinks right back down. The next time it jumps, thinking it might get away, the tarpon eats it. Using that technique, Nichols and I enjoyed about two dozen tarpon bites.

“I think it’s just easy for them to eat a shrimp,” he says. “They have to work hard to catch a mullet. It doesn’t take anything for them to catch a shrimp.”

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Two other advantages of fishing an artificial shrimp around a mullet school: Bait stealers don’t peck at a plastic shrimp like they do a live shrimp, and Nichols can fish his shrimp exactly how he wants.

To make a D.O.A. shrimp more appealing to a fish keying on a school of mullet, Nichols fishes it below the school or on the edge of the school. That makes the shrimp look vulnerable, which makes it an easy target.

“If you’re not catching fish with a shrimp, you’re fishing it too fast,” Nichols says. “No matter how slowly you think you’re fishing it, fish it slower.”

The post Fishing Florida’s Fall Mullet Run appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.