Top 10: These Great Lure Styles Are Best for Catching Snook

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The top all-time snook lures are a moving target because newer, more effective lures are coming out every year, and just about every snooker who has been at it a few years has a different list.

However, there are a number of general designs that should be in the arsenal of every angler who hopes to regularly hook up with linesiders. Of course, the lineup varies, depending on whether you fish the inlets of Florida's East Coast, the backcountry creeks of the Everglades or the potholes and oyster bars of Charlotte Harbor and Tampa Bay.

The best lure is always matched to the habitat. A lure that gets close to the structure where the fish are holding is a must, so fishing a topwater in a deep inlet is not often a good plan unless the fish are obviously busting bait on top. (Topwaters can be good along vertical structure like the piers in a shipping basin, though, even though there might be 30 feet of water under them.)

Whatever lure you choose, fish it on a 30-pound-test or heavier hard mono or fluorocarbon leader—snook have very rough jaws and sharp gill plates that will cut lighter leader. And don't forget to tie any lure on with a loop knot. You'll get a lot more hits than with a fixed tie.

Topwater Lures

I'd rather catch one snook on topwater than three on a jig, and so would most anglers—the violent strikes are the stuff of fishing memories. There are a lot of great topwaters for snook but my current favorite is the Rapala Skitter V because it's so easy to zigzag or "walk-the-dog" with minimal rod action. Also good are the Yo-Zuri Inshore Top-Knock Pencil, Mirrolure Top Dog, MirroProp and MirroMinnow, Heddon Spook and the Berkley J-Walker 90. Get the cadence down and the lure seems to come to life. Work it fast in current, slower in still water.

Floater/Divers

Floater-divers are among the most realistic of hard baits, closely imitating a baitfish that is struggling to get back down after being disabled. Jerk it hard enough to dive two or three times, then let it sit a few seconds, then repeat. Good ones include the Rapala BX Minnow and the Original Rapala F18 and the Bang O Lure Spintail, which has a prop on the tail to add to the action.

Suspending Jerkbaits

For really shallow water, basically fish on the knee-deep flats, shallow runners like the LiveTarget Scaled Sardine and the Mirrolure Mirrodine are hard to beat. Twitch, pause, twitch, pause and repeat. For deeper water, to about 6 feet, deeper runners like the Berkley Juke SW and Rapala Husky Jerk, which have diving lips, work very well, both as twitch baits and also cranked steadily with an outgoing tide around bridge pilings and other cover.

Flare Hawk

The Flare Hawk design is a fiber-hair variety of the bucktail jig, with a long streamer tail that aficionados feel is essential to draw the big bites. There's no arguing with success—a half-dozen small companies make versions of this lure from 1/2 to 3 ounces, and they all catch big snook. Choose one with enough weight that the lure skims bottom, whatever the depth and current. Hop them along bottom with the flow. (You'll lose plenty so buy extras.) They're primarily fished around bridges in snook country after dark. R&R is one of the best known makers. randrtackle.com

Conventional Jigs

Whatever model head you buy, suit the jig hook size to snook, not trout—3x strong wire and size 3/0 or larger hooks are a must to hold big snook on stout lines. Also, buy an assortment of weights—often in strong currents a 1/4-ounce head won't get your lure deep enough, you might need up to 3 ounces. Use long, soft tails like the DOA CAL 4-inch Swimbait or the Z-Man SwimmerZ in 6-inch size, in natural baitfish colors like pearl, white and pale green. When it comes to the heads, the Bottom Sweeper Jig, designed for sheepshead, is also a good snook lure when baited with a finger mullet or a mullet strip and cast uptide to sweep around pilings and riprap shorelines. Spro Bucktail jig heads have a fishy profile, stout hooks and are available in the right sizes and weights to fool snook.

Soft Swimbait

Soft swimbaits require a touch to fish, but they can really produce. They're basically jigs that can double as swimbaits. You can either bottom hop or swim them steadily. They do really well cast in passes and swung with the current. One of the best looks least likely—the DOA BaitBuster Mullet is not particularly lifelike, but snook (and tarpon, too) just can't leave it alone. Also good are the Hogy ProTail, Storm Wildeye Swimshad and Tsunami Swimshad in 4- and 6-inch sizes.

Line-Through Soft Plastics

This relatively new class of lures is a bit tricky to rig—most require a rigging needle. But, they are so amazingly lifelike that they're worth the extra effort. For fish on the flats or in snaggy terrain like oyster bars or rock holes, the single hook models like the Z-Man Mulletron are best, while for open water, those designed for a single treble like the Savage Gear Pulse Tail Mullet assure more certain hookups. Because they're so lifelike, they work well in clear water like that are found in many passes on incoming tides and around upper Keys bridges.

Shrimp Imitations

Once anglers learned how to fish artificial shrimp lures, it was game on for snook—in the right place at the right time they are unbeatable. Basically, the trick is to find an area where strong current flow is pulling lots of shrimp through snook habitat—a deep pass, a rocky bend, a pier or bridge or dock—and fish the fake just like the real thing. That is, toss it uptide and let the current drift it back down, while you give it little or no action and wait for the "bump." The only thing you can do wrong is move the bait too much. In mangrove creeks, hang the shrimp a couple feet below a popping cork and drift it right against the mangrove edges, popping it every 10 feet or so—deadly, and you'll catch some nice reds as a bonus. Good ones for snook include the DOA 4" Shrimp, LiveTarget 3" Shrimp and the Z-Man PrawnstarZ.

Spoons

Not generally thought of as snook lures, spoons can be very useful in special situations. Snook sometimes lay up on shallow grass flats at the edge of potholes where treble hook lures quickly pick up loose grass and lose their action. A weedless spoon like the classic Johnson Silver Minnow or the H&H Weedless in 1/3 ounce to 1/2 ounce models with a thin ribbon-like plastic tail or even better a thin strip of mullet belly will go through this stuff without fouling, and will fool some big fish. (You'll catch plenty of redfish on them, too.) Crank just fast enough to make them wobble and flash.

Scent Baits

Snook not only feed by sight, but also by scent. That's why experts often catch monsters on a chunk of cut ladyfish or pinfish soaked on bottom. If you want to take advantage of this but not have to deal with carrying natural baits, scented lures can be the ticket. Berkley's Gulp and GulpAlive baits are among the tops in this category. Crabs, shrimp and baitfish imitations all work. The FishBites Fightin' Shrimp is also good. The Berkley PowerBait Champ Swimmer adds scent/taste to a really natural profile that’s hard to beat.

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