South Florida Snook Fishing

West Coast snook getting a break

West Coast anglers won't be dining on snook fillets anytime soon, despite the fact that the season is slated to re-open on the traditional date, Sept. 1, on the East Coast of Florida.

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, acting on the advice of state biologists, agreed to keep the season closed for anglers fishing the Gulf Coast and the Everglades regions through August 31 of 2012, in a continuing effort to allow the snook to recover from the devastating freezes of 2009-2010. By some estimates, up to 70 percent of the population died in exposed bays of many areas along the Gulf Coast.

Though the Atlantic Coast also lost many of the cold-sensitive fish, the kill there was not as severe due to the warming effect of the deep ocean waters near shore, biologists say. Regulations there will remain as they have been, one fish daily between 28 and 32 inches.

So, while there will be no harvest in Bay area waters for over a year, catch and release snooking remains open as it has been every summer—and it's not all that bad according to reports from many anglers from Clearwater south.

Summer is typically prime time for catch and release action; in the heydays, top guides like Scott Moore and Van Hubbard often guided clients to 100-fish days from May through August as the fish stacked up in passes and sloughs to spawn.

There won't be any 100-fish days for anybody for a while, but both these old pros are reporting steady action on linesiders for those who want to exercise a few, and some of these fish are in excess of 30 inches.

Anglers who go after snook now are advised by the FFWCC to use all the usual cautions for catch-and-release fishing; stick to single hooks or single-hook lures with the barbs reduced for easy dehooking; make the fight short and sweet, take a quick photo at boatside, and get the fish immediately back into the water. With this treatment, 99 percent swim off undamaged to complete their spawning chores.

Some of the areas where snook gather at this time of year include the channels into Cockroach Bay, Bishops Harbor and Miguel Bay, as well as all the smaller passes from Clearwater to Naples; Captiva Pass is particularly famed at Pine Island Sound. The entry channels to Bull and Turtle Bay at Charlotte Harbor are also well-known, as is Stump Pass at Lemon Bay. The mouth of the Manatee and Little Manatee rivers are also productive.

By far the best bait is live scaled sardines, with a few extras used as live chum; the silvery baits are castnetted on the outside edge of the grass flats, and typically fished on spinning gear with 10-pound-test microfiber line and 1/0 short-shank hooks.

SW Florida Snook Fishing | Best Kept Secret

When fishing in Southwest Florida there is one spot that is pound for pound one of the best snook fishing holes in the entire region. Gordon’s Pass is such a spot in Southwest Florida. The directions are simple. All one has to do to have a fantastic day of big snook fishing is to head towards Gordon’s Pass and right at the entrance, on the extreme left, there will be a deep hole that produces some of the biggest snook in the area. That’s about all the directions that are necessary to give since there are usually a few snook fishermen tossing live pilchard’s or deep running Johnson Silver Spoons in that general vicinity. The average catch of snook at Gordon’s Pass in the springtime months ranges from 20 to 40 snook daily. Any fisherman would be hard pressed to find any other location in Southwest Florida that produces so many snook in such a short time span as Gordon’s Pass. Of course there will be arguments and those arguments will revolve around all the other great passes in Southwest Florida that are known for wonderful line-side fishing action. Take it from this salty snook fisherman; Gordon’s Pass is the number one location for slot-size to oversize snook fishing in all of Southwest Florida. Normally when anglers head out to Southwest Florida they go straight to either one of many mangrove islands, oceanside beaches, estuaries and other remote fisheries and leave Gordon’s Pass all alone and wanting. That’s just fine with the locals who know and love Gordon’s Pass and the northern hole since that means more snook for these wily ‘in the know’ veterans. There are other great locations all throughout SW Florida to catch a nice-sized snook and they include some of the ones listed below. Lostman’s River

Although the above listed locations for snook fishing are a little bit south of what most would refer to as Southwest Florida fishing, all one has to do is drive a little bit north to Naples’s own Keewaydin Island to slam into a great day of snooking. We will speak more about this island paradise for snook fishing once we get deeper into the Naples area but for now we will concentrate back on Gordon’s Pass.

The greatest snook fishing experience is best attempted during the spring months at GP. There are many good reasons for this predicament and one is that the spring-time snook are skinny and hungry animals and will strike at just about anything to fill their gullet and to re-energize their metabolisms that have been on idle all through the long winter. Once the snook has had a few weeks of smashing everything from finger mullet to blue crab they will start to taper off and school in voracious packs. This is what’s so interesting about fishing in Gordon’s Pass during the spring with the sheer numbers of snook and their weights are quite impressive compared to any other site in Southwest Florida. Don’t take our word for it, head out there this weekend and if it’s warm and sunny and there is a slight breeze rolling across the water. Hang on and make sure you have worked your forearms into the condition that is necessary to pull in 10 to 15 pound snook all day. It’s as if you’re on a head boat and have been situated over a school of 20 pound red snapper. It’s that crazy at Gordon’s Pass.

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