Catching a giant snook on fly is a rarity—they usually prefer larger lures—but it can be done. (Photo courtesy of Capt. Bryon Chamberlin)
October 17, 2024
By Frank Sargeant
It ain’t as easy as it looks on Facebook.
While Florida has plenty of monster snook these days—probably more than it has in decades due to the long closed seasons and the very tight slot limits allowing more giants to survive catch-and-release—it’s still no easy matter to catch a true giant.
A snook 40 inches and over is likely to be at least a decade old and weigh 25 to 30 pounds if caught on the Atlantic side of Florida, where they grow heavier, and around 22 pounds on the Gulf side, per Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission biologists. They weigh a bit less if caught in winter, a bit more if caught during the summer spawn.
Though giant snook are easiest to catch on large live baits, they can also be caught by persistent fishing in the right spots with a variety of artificials. (Photo by Frank Sargeant) The Atlantic fish live longer on average, up to 15 years, compared to 12 years for Gulf snook, per FWC, so that may be part of the reason they’re bigger, as well as the fact that the Atlantic fish can gorge on the spring and fall mullet runs that swarm along the beaches.
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In general, there just seem to be more of the giants on the east coast, maybe because it’s so easy for them to escape cold weather by simply running out the inlets to the deeper water of the Atlantic. Gulf Coast fish have a much longer route to any real depth, and this could be a factor in occasional cold kills wiping out some of the biggest fish.
Where Giant Snook Hang Out Some very large fish are showing up on the West Coast north of Crystal River, in territory where they were rare or absent 20 years ago. (Photo courtesy of FWC) While fish up to 8 or 12 pounds can be found anywhere there’s good habitat, including coastal rivers with mangrove shoreline, potholes on the grass flats, residential docks and other cover, the giant fish tend to gravitate toward deeper water.
They’re most often found in ship turning basins and commercial harbors with water of 20 feet and more like those around Tampa Bay. What’s left of the old Phosphate Docks at Boca Grande also hold big fish much of the time. During the spawn, these big fish head out to the major passes and hang around the jetties, and immediately after they may cruise the beaches for a few days, but eventually they return to deeper refuges.
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Oddly enough, snook newly migrating into more northern areas of the West Coast, including Cedar Key, are among some of the larger fish on this coast—the fish are apparently working northward as the waters are gradually staying a bit warmer in winter.
Giant snook like this are lifetime trophies, but Florida has good numbers of large fish at present. (Photo by Frank Sargeant) During the annual mullet migrations along the east coast, the big fish will be out on the beaches feeding among the tarpon, sharks and king mackerel slamming the bait anywhere from right against the beach to a half-mile out. The fall peak is typically September and October, while in spring prime time is March and April. All the inlets from Sebastian’s southward have lots of big fish, with St. Lucy and Jupiter among the standouts. Government Cut in Miami is another big fish producer.
There are also fair numbers of large fish on the Gulf Coast that head well offshore to reefs and wrecks—divers sometimes report schools of large snook on wrecks 10 miles out or more. Small wrecks in Florida Bay also produce big fish.
Good sonar can help pick out schools of big snook in passes and turning basins, where the largest fish often hide. (Photo by Frank Sargeant) Live Bait is Key While plenty of big fish are caught on artificial lures, if you really want a braggin’ size snook, a big live bait is the best way to get hooked up.
Live mullet are among the favorite baits on the east coast where they’re easily available. A mullet 6 to 10 inches long gives you the best combination between a bait that you can keep alive in a baitwell and attractive for lunkers, though they will eat baits up to 15 inches long at times.
When fishing the mullet runs on the east coast, you can simply heave a snatch hook into the mullet schools, jerk it a few times and reel in your bait. Put it back out there on a 5/0 circle or larger hook through the upper jaw and hang on—if the sharks and tarpon don’t beat the snook to it, you’ll be hooked up to a trophy linesider pretty quickly.
East coast jetties, inlets and coastal rivers are all known for producing giants like this. (Photo courtesy of Captain Dave Pomerleau) Most anglers put a circle hook inside the mouth and up through the upper jaw for casting these baits, or behind the dorsal if the bait is to be allowed to swim out free-lined from a boat. Some anglers also slow-troll jaw-hooked live mullet around bridges near the inlets to connect with lunker fish.
On the west coast, mullet also do well, but so do pinfish and scaled sardines. Again, the bigger baits get the bigger fish, maybe because they don’t get gulped down by smaller ones before the big gals decide to eat.
Big snook not only eat live baits, they also eat fresh dead bait. A mullet head or a pinfish fillet fished on bottom in a ship turning basin has accounted for many a trophy linesider. This takes some patience and you’ll probably catch plenty of sailcats between snook, but it does work.
Casting big natural baits, live or cut, takes big tackle—fish an 8-foot heavy or medium-heavy action spinning rod with a 5000 or larger reel and 40-pound-test braid or heavier, with at least 60-pound-test Mason’s hard mono or fluorocarbon leader. If you fish around the bridges or in the turning basins where there’s lots of debris on bottom, even heavier gear is a good idea—some guys use 100-pound braid and 80-pound leaders.
Inlets during the summer spawn produce lots of really big fish, particularly those on Florida’s East Coast. (Photo by Frank Sargeant) Artificials for Big Snook While large live baits weed out the little snook that may take your baits, you can also connect with big fish on a variety of artificials.
On the east coast, a favorite is the Flare Hawk jig, made by a number of local companies. It’s basically just a lead head on a strong hook, dressed with (usually) nylon fibers to look like a bucktail, and with long red tail fibers sticking out the back six inches or so. This is usually fished at night around the jetties and bridges over the coastal passes, worked with the tide.
Handle a caught snook with care before releasing. (Photo by Frank Sargeant) A 6-inch Savage Gear Pulse Tail Ballyhoo or a Z-Man MulletronZ are also good choices, and these realistic-looking lures work day or night, reeled just fast enough to make the tail pulse. Also effective are the DOA Shrimp in 4-inch and 6-inch sizes, and the Z-Man PrawnstarZ. These latter baits are worked by simply letting them drift with the current through deep, snooky cover—the less you work them, the better.
When the fish are in the mullet along the beaches, just about any noisy topwater with strong hooks will do the job—the Yo-Zuri Top Knock Pencil and the Super Spook are among the favorites. Work them fast and loud.
A 7-foot, 6-inch medium-heavy action spinning rod, 4000 sized reel and 30-pound-test braid with 40-pound leader is a good compromise between power and castability.
Night fishing ups the odds of catching a giant fish, especially on strong tide nights in the wee hours. (Photo by Frank Sargeant) Night Stalking Proportionally more big snook are probably caught at night, considering the relatively low number of anglers who fish in the dark. This is partly because snook are nocturnal feeders, to some extent, and maybe also because the water calms down and there are no other anglers or boats to spook the big fish.
Be that as it may, if you fish at night on good tides, particularly from about 10 o’clock on when everyone else is home sleeping, your catches of big fish are likely to jump significantly.
Monster snook deserve special care and prompt release so that they can grow even larger. (Photo by Frank Sargeant) Catch-And-Release Tips Because all the fish we’re talking about here are over the slot, release tactics are important. No gaffs, of course, including lip gaffs—they damage the fish too much. Instead, use a gloved hand to latch on to their lip when the fish is exhausted, and then put your other gloved hand under the tail to hoist the fish aboard for de-hooking and a quick photo or video.
On release, it’s a good idea to make sure the fish has equilibrium before letting it go—push and pull it back and forth under the water until it begins to move on its own. And keep an eye out for bottle-nosed dolphin—in some areas, they have learned to shadow anglers and nail every snook and redfish that comes back over the side. If you see a dolphin close by, slide the fish into your aerated baitwell, move a few hundred yards and let it go close to cover so that she’ll have a better chance to survive.