3) Baits and Lures

Most spinfishermen freeline live shrimp, or cast plastic shrimp, small plugs or jigs to dock light fish.

Among the best natural baits are live pinfish, pilchards and shrimp. Gibson is emphatic on which one tops his list.

“Nothing beats a shrimp floating through there,” he says.

Soft-plastic shrimp lures, slow-sinking plugs, white bucktail jigs and small spoons are top artificials for spinning and bait casting.

My favorite flies include my own Crystal Schminnow, white Deceivers, glass minnow imitations and white Clousers with gold crystal flash. I almost always use the Schminnow because, with its clipped marabou tail, it imitates both a shrimp and a minnow. Gibson likes “a very sparsely tied white bucktail fly with a little bit of silver flash.”

Gibson maintains—and I agree—that big bait for big fish idea is a myth when it comes to snook. “It seems to me, the smaller the better,” he says. To doubters he poses a question: “Have you ever seen an elephant turn down a peanut?” And as proof he offers the fact that the biggest snook he ever landed (45 inches and 31 pounds) was caught on a No. 2 white bucktail jig at night from a beach on Sanibel Island.

4) Presentation

Pick the most likely lies and work them methodically. Start by casting directly into the brightest circles of light. But do not forget the shadows. Because they can expend less energy when they are shielded from the current, snook like to hold on the downcurrent side of pilings. They also lurk under boats, docks and on the edges of lighted areas, as well as close in along mangrove and rocky shorelines.

Whatever your choice of gear, one tactic is de rigeur if you expect to land any dock light fish: fighting the snook down and dirty. Even with a fly rod, keep the tip low and pull to the side to turn the fish away from the structure. If you can turn the fish’s head, the battle is half won.

Also, because it is dark the normally leader-shy snook are less picky. This means that fly fishermen can shorten up to 7 feet instead of the 9-foot-plus leaders they would use during the day. But a minimum 20-pound-test fluorocarbon bite tippet is still a must with any gear. The leader and tippet issue is always a tradeoff: Go with lighter tippets for more hookups or heavier tippets and fewer fish lost. For Gibson, the choice is clear. “I like to use as light a leader as possible,” he says.

Though developed shorelines simplify the choices and tactics of night snook fishing, there are also many topnotch spots with no docks or lights. Just as near the dock lights, the key to success is understanding the fish’s behavioral patterns. The same fish that a few months earlier cruised the beaches, casual and carefree under the high summer sun, revert to their standard winter mode of favoring stealth, shade and structure. But when the sun goes down they come out from under mangrove branches and move up out of channels and potholes to range more freely.

Again, the best spots tend to be places with strong tidal flows: creeks, culverts and outlets from estuaries, bayous and bays. Many of these areas are accessible only by boat, a fact that presents navigational challenges.

Plan to get to your fishing spot before sunset, taking careful note of channel markers and, if appropriate, using your compass and GPS to pre-plan the return trip. Use marked channels whenever possible and always make sure you have adequate lighting equipment, including a high-candlepower spotlight.

Southwest Florida Hotspots

The Fort Myers area has many great spots for docklight snook fishing—but don’t be surprised to find that some of your favorites have dimmed in the wake of last year’s crazy hurricane season. Traditionally, one of the best is Matanzas Pass in Fort Myers Beach. The U.S. Coast Guard station and a long row of private docks on the north side of the pass offer myriad possibilities. Anglers should be careful not to violate the security restrictions at the Coast Guard facilities. On the south side of the pass a large resort complex also has many good lighted fishing spots.

Hurricane Bay in Fort Myers Beach is also a prime area. So are the Sanibel Harbor Resort docks at Punta Rassa, near the Sanibel Causeway. Other good local light spots include the canals on the east end of Sanibel Island, Roosevelt Channel on the back side of Captiva Island and many of the canals in south Cape Coral. Gibson has also had good success at the T-dock at South Seas Plantation on Captiva—but here, especially, there was a lot of damage from Hurricane Charley.

Pine Island Sound has many first-rate spots, both on the Pine Island side and the Sanibel-Captiva side. Some of the best are the cuts that empty out of the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge. The north end of Blind Pass—between Sanibel and Captiva—can also be very productive on a falling tide.

Many of these spots are easily reached from the Intracoastal Waterway, making for a comparatively straightforward cruise back to shore when the fishing is over. The same is true of Matlacha Pass, which has excellent snook hangouts on both sides. Gibson also fishes the channels and edges of sandbars near the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River.

FS