Happy Monday Spacefish!

Snook, we all love them. Some of us are better than others at finding them and catching them. The question I think we have all been asking ourselves. Does John Page have superpowers??? Yes, maybe. Probably not, but possibly so. JP may be otherworldly in his ability to consistently land big Snook – but science, research, and data tell me that his ability to consistently find them has nothing to do with dark magic, and is the result of years and years of hard work and dedication. Which is why, if you are looking to hire a guide to put you on a big, once in a lifetime Snook, you should hire John Page. Seriously though, as I write this report, I just saw a Facebook post from John about being up all night catching a ton of big fish. Lots of people love fishing, but there is not anyone on this planet more dedicated to his craft as a profession than John!

Below is a look at Snook migrations. How and why they move from west to east, then back again throughout the course of a calendar year. How there are times when finding them can feel like trying to locate a needle in a haystack, but a look at the data, and a better understanding of why they move and hold in certain areas may be the key to better game-planning, and make for more happy hunting.

Snook: General Information

Snook (Centropomus undecimalis) are found from South Carolina to Brazil, including the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas. They thrive in various habitats as long as the water quality is good and temperatures remain above 60°F. As euryhaline (fancy word) fish, snook can move between fresh and saltwater, but they are not considered freshwater species. If you plan to fish for them, you’ll need a saltwater fishing license.

All Snook are protandrous hermaphrodites (is this even a real word/phrase?), meaning that as they age, males can transform into females. This change happens between the ages of one and seven years, or when they reach a length of 12 to 35 inches. The transition is rapid and involves both male and female sex cells appearing in the gonads. During this change, female gonads develop directly from male gonads soon after spawning. Because of this, Snook have the unique ability to spawn once as males and again as females within the same breeding season (what a long strange trip it’s been).

They typically spawn from April to October, with peak spawning occurring in June and July, when days are longest. During this period, they gather in specific spawning areas. Salinity is crucial for successful spawning because the density of saltwater helps make the eggs buoyant, increasing the chances of the eggs and larvae being carried to appropriate habitats. Once spawning starts, a snook can release up to 1.5 million eggs every other day, typically around a new or full moon. The eggs hatch after about 28 hours, and the larvae drift toward nearby estuaries on the incoming tide, where they settle once they find a suitable environment.

In their early stages, snook prefer habitats with low salinity or freshwater backwaters, where they can feed on planktonic insects, mollies, and mosquito fish. They seek areas with dense vegetation or emergent plants to protect them from predators like birds. These quiet, sheltered spots with minimal water flow are ideal for their survival. Young snook also have unique adaptations that help them survive in low-oxygen waters, providing them with protection from many other fish that can’t handle such conditions.

After about a year, Snook start to move toward the lower estuaries as they lose their ability to thrive in low-oxygen environments. At around 10-12 inches in length, they begin to share the same habitats as adult Snook but must be cautious of being eaten, as larger snook are cannibalistic. To avoid this, smaller Snook often hide around docks and other structures. At this point in their development, their diet shifts to include fish, shrimp, crabs, and plant material.

Male Snook usually become sexually mature by the age of two to three, though some may mature as early as one year. Female Snook typically reach maturity at three to four years old. As they grow in size and age, the chances of a snook being female increase. In Florida’s west coast, by age five, the population of snook is about 50% male and 50% female. While most males transition into females, not all do. The oldest recorded female snook was 15 years old in the Gulf of Mexico and 18 years old on the Atlantic coast. The oldest male snook was 12 years old on the Gulf coast and 15 years on the Atlantic. While the oldest known snook lived to 18, it’s believed they can live for at least 20 years, and possibly as long as 30 years.

In southwest Florida, fish make up about 70% of an adult snook’s diet, with pinfish (20%) and minnows (16%) being the most common, followed by shrimp at 13%. Snook consume pinfish more than ten times as often in the summer than in the winter, even though more pinfish are available in winter. This is likely because pinfish are smaller when they enter the estuary in the winter, and adult snook prefer prey that’s roughly 14% of their own size. Therefore, the tiny pinfish in winter aren’t as attractive to them. Snook eat shrimp year-round, but their consumption increases in the winter months.

During winter, Snook typically have only about a quarter of the stomach contents they would have in summer. This is likely because cold temperatures slow their metabolism, reducing their need for food. Snook are highly sensitive to cold and may become sluggish or even die if water temperatures fall below 60°F for too long.

Snook: Migration Patterns (Indian River Lagoon System)

Snook in the Indian River Lagoon exhibit seasonal migrations influenced by spawning and temperature. Mature snook move to near-shore, high-salinity waters for spawning in the summer (peak in July-August but Spawning can occur anytime between April-October), then move back to the cooler, brackish waters of the lagoon for the winter. Juveniles also migrate to the lagoon’s brackish waters after spawning.

Pre/Post Spawn Migrations – Snook primarily spawn in nearshore waters with higher salinities during the summer months. After spawning, the juvenile snook migrate to the brackish waters of the Indian River Lagoon, where they grow and develop. As they mature, they eventually make their way back to the higher-salinity ocean waters, where they integrate into the adult breeding population.

Winter Migrations – As cold-blooded tropical fish, snook become sluggish when water temperatures drop below 65°F. To escape the cold and avoid predators like sharks and barracudas, they migrate to the upper estuary and lagoon, where they find shelter. During the winter months, Snook typically move to the low-salinity areas of the lagoon, where they remain until temperatures rise again.

Factors Influencing Migration – Snook are influenced by temperature, migrating to cooler waters in the summer and returning to warmer waters during the winter. They prefer to spawn in areas with higher salinity but move to lower salinity regions as winter sets in. Their spawning behavior is linked to specific locations with ideal conditions, which directs their initial migration. During the winter months, the brackish waters of estuaries, like the Indian River Lagoon and its tributaries, offer a safe environment for juvenile Snook and stay-for-the-winter adults.

The Indian River Lagoon is an essential habitat for Snook, providing crucial areas for both spawning and spending the winter. Understanding their migration patterns is important for effective Snook fishing and conservation practices.

Where will the Snook Be?

So as we move through spring, and into summer there are some trends and data that I feel like you should be aware of as an angler. I am using data from a study conducted by the FWC and The University of South Florida, where they tagged 498 total Snook and tracked their movements during spawning seasons from 2008-2014. The Snook tagged ranged from 21-43 inches so keep in mind that everything I say below is looking at adult (sexually mature) or nearly adult Snook.

Spawning season for Snook can vary from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic, but looking at the spawning season on the East Coast from Cape Canaveral down to Palm Beach County we’re looking at a window from April to October with the peak season being July/August.

At any given time during spawning season 70% of the tagged Snook could be found in the inlets; 18% could be found in nearshore waters along the beaches, and 12% could be found in the Indian River Lagoon Estuary.

Not All Inlets Are Created Equal

One of the trends that stood out in the data was that certain inlets seem to hold much denser concentrations of adult Snook during spawning season than others. The big 3 are Sebastian Inlet, the St. Lucie Inlet, and the Jupiter Inlet. There is something that these 3 have in common over the others in the geographic range. Rivers, all 3 of these inlets have rivers that essentially flow in the inlet. The St. Sebastian, the St. Lucie and the Loxahatchee which provide Snook with a convenient winter holding area.

Other Noteworthy Facts

So this last section is kind of a hodgepodge of other facts that I thought were interesting and worth keeping in mind. Snook spawning is asynchronous which means that they all do not go in together at one time, but arrive at different times throughout the spawning season. The average Snook spawns for 38 days. The average Snook is 6x more likely to go to their primary inlet (an inlet within 25 miles to the S/SE of their non-spawning residential area). The average start date for spawning is July 15th. Which means If you wanted to target spawning Snook off the beach, Mid July-Early September would be the time to do it. Lastly, East Coast Indian River Lagoon Snook typically have a “bouncing” migration which means they will travel from the Rivers/Creeks to their Inlet with a stop/start cadence. They will move a bit and then hold up, which means throughout the spring the larger Snook can be spread out anywhere between the tributaries and the inlet. Which means that spoil islands could be great places to check out this time of year.

After spending the last month or so pushing deep back into the tributaries of the Indian River Lagoon I plan on field testing my research and seeing if I can catch some Snook in that 20-40 inch range in the areas in between Melbourne and Sebastian Inlet. Let the games begin!

Sources Used

I’d like to offer a special thanks to… The University of Florida and their Institute of Food & Agricultural Science; The Indian River Lagoon Project; The University of South Florida; The Florida Wildlife Commission; and The Sport Fish Restoration Program of the Federal Government’s U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Thanks to the data, and research of the aforementioned organizations and institutions I was able to write this report.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope you find this information helpful and informative. As we approach Easter there is no better time to go shop at Kayaks By Bo, and give yourself an adult Easter basket filled with YakAttack accessories and Fish Skinz shirts!
I’d like to sincerely wish you a Happy Holy Week. May God bless you, and keep you! Stay safe, be happy, and go catch some fish! Until next time!

Happy Monday Spacefish!

Picture yourself on a boat on a river. Just like John Lennon famously sang, just try and do it without psychedelics. Well, I guess you can. You’re an adult, and I’m not here to judge. Regardless, picture yourself in a boat on a river. That river is actually a creek, and there are overhanging trees casting large shadows everywhere. You look down and see a smaller male Bass guarding his fry which is the result of recent spawning activities. That Bass has been waging war against a pesky crab that wanted the eggs, now he looks up and sees Tarpon gliding past, Tarpon that would love an easy meal of baby Bass. What a long, strange trip it’s been. He wonders why he couldn’t have been guarding a bed, and his fry in a small farm pond somewhere. Bluegill make for a much more manageable adversary. It’s a surreal environment, but you refocus on the task at hand…

You pick up a 7 foot spinning rod loaded with moss green braided line, with a few feet of 20 pound test monofilament attached to the braid. The mono is tied with a snug knot to a 3/0 EWG Worm Hook and it has a Zoom Horny Toad, soft plastic topwater, in Watermelon Red Pearl. You make a perfect skip cast under a tree and your bait gets smoked before you even have a chance to start the retrieve. You are not sure if it’s a Snook, or a Tarpon, a Bowfin, or a Largemouth Bass. All of these species may be hanging out in the shade, waiting to engulf some poor baitfish that wanders too close. The explosion happens and you weren’t quite ready, but you manage to get a hook set in, and this fish has some weight to it. You know there are downed trees, rocks, and barnacled stumps in the water. Dangers to your fishing line all around. You cup the spool and pull back and the fish comes off, the hook set wasn’t good enough. Damn. You’re disappointed, but you realize that there are hundreds upon hundreds of overhanging shade pockets along this creek and that you have a full day of fishing ahead. Possibilities endless with a plethora of species to target. But one that I tend to overlook deep in the brackish water tributaries of the Indian River Lagoon is America’s favorite gamefish. The Largemouth Bass.

So over the past few weeks I have been concentrating my efforts on the backwater areas of Crane Creek, Turkey Creek, and a few weeks ago I went back a decent way into Horse Creek as well.

The more time I have spent back in these creeks targeting Snook I have come to realize that they hold more Largemouth Bass than I previously realized. I mean I figured there were some. But when I am not targeting Tarpon, I am targeting Snook. Fishing for Snook for me means skipping soft plastics, and that’s a great way to catch Largemouth Bass in creeks and rivers as well.

Before I get into the specifics of Crane and Turkey Creeks I want to talk about tackle and baits.

Backwater Slam Setup – Less is More

One of the reasons I wanted to post that picture above was to show how beautiful some of these areas I have been fishing are. But I also wanted to show how many overhanging trees there were. This is pretty consistent throughout most of the Turkey Creek Sanctuary. Crane Creek isn’t as bad, but there are areas where you don’t want to have rods sticking up out of the back of your kayak.

I typically take 3-4 rods out when I go inshore fishing, and if I were to go Bass fishing at Lake Toho, or Headwaters, I would probably bring 4 or 5 rods with me. For these trips I have been taking 2 rods. One rod rigged for Snook/Largemouth Bass, and one rod rigged for Juvie Tarpon. The other day I went out after school and finally got that Crane Creek Tarpon. I actually pulled off the “backwater slam” a Snook, Tarpon, and Largemouth Bass all in the same day. I did this with the two rods set up. I caught the Tarpon on a Gold DOA Tiny Terror Eyez, and the Bass & Snook on an NLBN K-Tail, in Kalkutta – which I rigged on a 2/0 BKK Screw Lock Hook. I ended up catching several Bass on this trip.

This past weekend I fished the Turkey Creek Sanctuary. My last NLBN got chewed up by a Gar, so I switched over to a 3/0 Worm Hook. I fished two baits, a Zoom Horny Toad in Watermelon Red Pearl, and a Zoom Fluke in Golden Bream. I ended up catching close to a dozen Bass, 3 Snook, 2 Mayan Cichlids, and a Mangrove Snapper. I had 2 Tarpon eats on the frog, but they spit the hook. I have caught Juvie Tarpon before on Zoom Flukes. It’s not the best Tarpon bait, but they will hit it. That’s the part of the downsizing process, is having confidence in my small arsenal of baits. I may only bring 3 or 4 different bait presentations with me, but they are presentations that I know can catch a wide variety of species.

Not only am I cutting down the number of rods I take, I am only bringing out 2 or 3 packs of soft plastics, and a small tackle trey with the hooks I need and a few extra Terror Eyez, a ring of Ande Mono Leader. I also bring my braid cutting scissors, boga grips, and a hook remover. Trust me, with the amount of Gar swimming in these waters you will want to invest in one of these.

What’s nice about downsizing gear and the amount of baits packed etc is it reduces the clutter on board, but it also forces you as an angler to focus on finding fish, finding little nooks and crannies to cast, it is a great way to hone in and really focus on, and take in/enjoy the environment you are in.

Crane Creek

The area of Crane Creek I have been fishing for Tarpon starts when the creek narrows close to the water treatment plant, and I follow it back to when it starts getting really tight and winding. I have caught more Snook than Largemouth in these areas, but if you are fishing for Snook by skipping soft plastics under overhanging cover then you definitely have a great chance of catching Largemouth as by-catch. Which sounds kind of crazy to say out loud.

A recent survey conducted by the Anglers Journal suggests that roughly 14 million people per year fish for Largemouth Bass in the United States. According to the American Sportfishing Association over $9 Billion was spent on Bass fishing in the US in 2023. I also went and analyzed data/results from the highest tier of professional Bass fishing – Major League Fishing and Bassmaster, I looked at recent tournaments in prolific Bass fishing spots in Florida and averaged the bottom 10 results. Men that have devoted their lives, money, time and resources to catching Bass. The bottom 10 of these high level professional anglers average 5.2 pounds caught per day on a 5 fish limit.

I say all that to say this. Accidentally catching a 2-3 pound Bass is objectively cool. But if you throw the right baits in the right colors I think you have a great chance of enticing both Largemouth and Snook, and possibly Tarpon to bite.

But once you hit the area where Crane Creek tightens down, you have a chance to catch a Largemouth, the further you go back, the higher your chances get. Look for laydowns and overhanging cover. There is no grass, hydrilla, or lily pads – so looking for downed timber or overhanging cover is the key.

Turkey Creek

The cool thing about Turkey Creek is I know guys that have caught Largemouth near the railroad tracks. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe John Page once told me a story about catching a Turkey Creek Largemouth, releasing it, then having a Dolphin chase it down. What a long, strange trip it’s been.

But I went back this weekend and fished the Turkey Creek Sanctuary, I used the kayak/canoe launch in the sanctuary. There’s pro’s and con’s to this launch. The pro is that your’re in the sanctuary as soon as you launch. The con is it’s a logistical challenge to get your kayak and gear from the parking area to the water. It’s a long trek, but also you have to go downhill on a rudimentary set of stairs that have been inserted in the side of a river bluff. But once you’re in you can start immediately catching Largemouth.

It’s pretty similar to Crane Creek, it’s all about timer. Downed logs and overhanging trees that create shade pockets. You can go out in the middle of the day and find shady pockets. I was catching Bass on a top water frog at 2 pm on a warm sunny afternoon yesterday. That’s pretty awesome.

There is a plentiful number of Bass in the sanctuary, but there is also Snook, Tarpon, Mangrove Snapper, Sheepshead, Mayan Cichlids and Gar. I have caught all of these species in Turkey Creek at one point or another. This weekend I caught roughly a dozen Bass but also mixed in small Snook, a Mangrove Snapper, some Mayan Cichlids, and a Gar.

I had my last NLBN K-Tail shredded by the Gar early on so I fished primarily with the Zoom Horny Toad, and the Zoom Fluke.

Conclusion

A trip down way back in these creeks truly is a trip full of magical mystery and beautiful strangeness. Like many places, the fishing can be hit or miss. But I promise if you fish in these places you won’t regret the time spent in such a beautiful waterway.

Thank you for taking the time to read this report. If you are looking to upgrade your kayaking, canoeing, or paddleboarding game so that you can go way up a creek and target brackish water Bass, then make sure to stop in at Kayaks By Bo! Whatever you are looking for, I am confident in saying they probably have it!

Stay safe, be happy, and catch lots of fish! Until next time!