Happy Monday Spacefish!

I hope everyone is having a nice 3-day Holiday weekend, hopefully you did not have to work today and got an extra day of fishing in!

It has been a topsy-turvy last couple of weeks of weather that kind of feels like a roller coaster ride! One thing I wanted to commit time to this winter was being able to gain confidence in my ability to catch higher volumes, or quantity numbers of Snook throughout the bleak mid-winter.

One thing I can say about winter time, sweatshirt weather Snookin’ – it’s like being on a magical mystery tour. Think about it this way, you are targeting a tropical game fish species while contending with the cold winds barreling down from the north. Each trip, in and of itself, is it’s own puzzle to be solved. But for me that is what makes it fun!

One species of fish can be totally different from one season, to the next. Two summers ago, I wanted to catch my first ever 40+ inch Snook on artificial. So I went and fished Sebastian Inlet one morning when the right tides, and sunrise would align for feeding during low light conditions. I fished a topwater plug with heavy casting gear and landed two 40+ inches within an hour. It was cool, don’t get me wrong. But I felt a little deflated after. I knew the fish would be staging up in the inlet for spawning season, and I really didn’t “hunt” for them.

The game I have been playing is one that is at times complex…especially after a few formidable cold fronts barrel through the peninsula. When the water temps drop below 70ish degrees the cold-blooded Snook will rarely feed. Finding them is part of the battle, this is one that with proper planning, and experience, the angler can control. The other part is hoping the Snook will want to bite – this is one that the angler has to rely on the Snook to participate in the game.

I will offer a disclaimer, this report will outline a formula, and gameplan for locating and catching high volume, numbers of Snook inshore. This is something I have been able to achieve as of late, the inshore trophy fish are not my area of expertise, even though I did hook an absolute giant recently, and lost. I have hooked my fair share of them inshore on light tackle, and usually when I do – I lose.

That being said, if catching an inshore giant is what you seek, then I highly advise you to book the Snook guru John Page for a guided trip! As he is arguably the foremost trophy Snook on artificial kayak angler in Central Florida, if not the entire state!

So without further adieu, let’s dive in!

Launch Spots & Gear Used

This is a rare occasion that I am writing a report without giving a suggested launch spot to go try. I went on several fishing trips over the past month where I have been conducting live, evolving in real time “research & development” on this formula.

As I write this report, I have new areas in mind as well to go try, to keep testing and looking for new areas to be on the lookout for. Hopefully, more of that will come in future reports.

But for this trip, I will be referencing recent trips on the Eau Gallie River, Goat Creek, the Mullet Creek Islands/Canals of the Indian River Lagoon; as well as places accessible from my beloved Wabasso Causeway launching area, the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge and the docks/mangroves that line the intercoastal waterway between Marsh Island, and Orchid Island.

All of the fish caught for me recently have come off of 2 main presentations. Fish catcher #1 has been the NLBN K-Tail, rigged weightless & weedless on a 2/0 BKK Screw Lock hook; and the Fish, or Die Minutemen Paddletail rigged on an Owner Twistlock, or Mustad Screwlock weighted hook. Both hooks I have been using are ⅛ oz, and in the 3/0 size. One key tackle tip I have to offer is something I have evolved into doing after a specific moment. What I have been doing is tying a long piece of 14 pound Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon mainline to my braid with an FG knot, for this piece I like to go 4-6 feet in length, and to that I will tie a “bite tippet” of 25 pound Seaworx Fluorocarbon leader, usually the tippet is 4-6 inches. I have seen a huge increase in total bites since I started doing this.

The incident I mentioned earlier was seeing a Snook suspended outside of the mangroves, skipping the bait past him, then watching him spook. Not at the skip cast, but after seeing, or probably more likely FEELING the leader, and it’s thicker diameter gliding past him. I had a 3 foot length of 30 pound tied on and this seemed to alarm the Snook and he darted off. So that is why I am experimenting with this rig that is championed by a local legend fishing guide Peter Deeks. So far life has been good since utilizing the “dirty deeks” rig.

The Formula for Finding Winter Snook

So let’s start by talking about the characteristics of Snook. They are a cold-blooded animal that is considered tropical, so being able to regulate their temperature during the colder months of the year is crucial. They also are pretty lazy creatures by habit, so when trying to figure out the crossroads of laziness and comfortable water temps I try to look for areas of shallow water close to deeper water, close to hard structure & ambush points. While during most parts of the year moving water is better for Snook, the areas that offer wind protection which keeps the water warmer seems to be better, as well as areas with a muddy bottom that retain warmth better than andy bottom areas.

Sunbathing Snook

Launch Spot

I launched from the 69th Street Kayak Launch in Vero Beach, this spot is located just south of the Wabasso Causeway. Even though it is a little bit of a drive south from where I live in Melbourne, I have enjoyed great fishing success in the areas between Sebastian and Vero, the borderlands between the Space & Treasure Coasts have really clean water, a healthy and thriving population of Snook, and more Seagrass and Oyster beds than you will encounter fishing between Titusville, and Palm Bay. Cleaner water, and natural structure makes for good fishing! The fishing was so hot at this spot, that I really never covered much ground. Once I launched, I paddled across to Hole in the Wall Island, did a big circle around it, took my time and fished slow and methodically, and 4 ½ hours later pulled back into the launch after a great morning of fishing!

One of Those Days

This was one of the best Snook mornings I have ever had, I didn’t catch some egregiously large number, but I hooked 3 large overslot Snook! One I successfully landed. It was the one in the header picture, I was able to use the Old Town pedal drive to reverse pedal and keep this massive fish out of the mangroves while I wore her down. I was using a heavy action casting rod, with a baitcaster reel, 20 pound braid to 50 pound mono leader. I was able to use the leverage of the pedal drive, combined with the heavier tackle to keep leverage and horsed her in, in roughly 2 minutes.

So if you are out fishing, and it is right after a cold front, the Snook may move to a shallow flat to sun bake, these are usually pretty hard to catch as they are pretty much comatose, plus in my experience they don’t usually seem to be too keen on feeding out in the open without a place to ambush.

That being said a few weeks ago, I fished Goat Creek and there was this open area next to the main creek bed where the sun had been baking an area and there were baitfish being harassed and I was able to catch a few quality sized Snook while they were feeding. So when game-panning a trip if there is an area of shallow water closer to deeper water than could get drenched in sunlight during the hours of the day in which is the sun is high in the sky, don’t discount it, but don’t waste too much time fishing it, if there isn’t activity in that area.

Depth Changing Docks + Deep Mangroves Pockets

So the next few areas are places that I can blind cast with confidence. Any area with depth change, structure, and wind protection is pretty likely to hold Snook. Dock lines with longer docks are good, especially one like the area pictured below that the above pictured Snook came from. There is deep water in the intercoastal waterway’s main channel, but the docks along the shoreline of nearby Orchid Island offer length that goes from, and also the docks along the South fork of the St. Sebastian River. Both of these areas have water that fluctuates from 0-2 feet along the mangrove shorelines and the docks offer structure to the Snook in 3-5 feet of water. So if it’s a chilly day and the sun is not coming out, you can try and target those fish in deeper water. This is when switching over to a weightless/weedless bait to one with a weighted hook or jig head could come in handy as these fish are likely in the deeper water to be lower in the water column.

Also on post-frontal days the barometric pressure is likely to be higher, which affects the buoyancy of the fish from predator to baitfish, so these fish are more likely to want to feed on the bottom then.

Deep Mangrove Pockets (No Docks)

If you are fishing an area that is all mangroves, and doesn’t have docks – that doesn’t mean there is no depth change or contour. I use the Smart Tides app on my phone which has “layers” that show depth, seagrass, and oyster beds. They also have a tab to click on weather radars, and wind directional information. It’s a one stop shop phone app for all of the information I need to be able to access while out on the water.

So when I’m in an area that’s nothing but mangroves I’ll pick out areas where the contour lines go back into the mangroves because Snook like hanging out back in there, but I’ll scan the area and look for area where there might be some contour or a deeper hole. These are areas that an ambush predator like a Snook is the most likely to be holding in.

The areas pictured below are spots I have fished recently that have held good numbers of Snook. One of them is from the Mullet Creek Canals just south of Honest John’s Fish Camp and the other is an area from the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The area from the refuge offers more true contour, but the canal I circled, I chose to fish because it was deeper along the mangrove edges than the other canals. Another thing I like about that canal is that it has some downed timber in the water. Much like their bucket mouth brethren, the Largemouth Bass, Snook love downed timber too.

Recap & Conclusion

I know I covered a lot of information. I really hope it was helpful and not confusing. Paralysis through analysis is a real thing, and I hope that I didn’t cause anyone to become confused. To recap there are a few key points I want to touch on for finding high volume Snook spots in the winter.

Depth Change
Structure
Wind Protection

If you have an area that holds these factors then you are likely to find Snook, may the odds be ever in your favor that they are willing to bite!

Thank you for taking the time to read & support the work we do here at Spacefish. Thank you to Kayaks By Bo for being our official paddle partner for our weekly kayak fishing reports. Make sure to support their business when shopping for kayak fishing stuff!

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and has a great week ahead! Stay safe, be happy, and catch fish! Until next time!