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A buddy of mine wanted to know how the heck I catch and release so many snook over 25 pounds. I told him to stay consistent you have to fish a lot of dead baits. He just looked at me like I was pulling his chain. "Dead bait?" he said. Yes DEAD BAIT! Now, fresh mullet heads work the best. Never caught a snook on a frozen bait. So try and just keep your baits on ice. After about three days I empty out the old baits and catch fresh ones. As for bait size, the bigger the head the bigger the snook! I have never been scared to use a head off a 3-pound moose black mullet, or ladyfish. An old man showed me this technique when I was just a little squid, and it really works. This photograph to the left is of a Jensen Beach causeway, "Fatty" caught by Kevin Umphrey's. This snook engulfed a huge ladyfish head and the fight was on! Now for the most part, BIG snook are lazy. They don't like to work the bait schools if they don't have to. They'd much rather cruise below the mullet schools after the jack crevelle's have come through and tore up or injured the schooled bait. That's when the snook move in nice and slow and lazily begin to feed off the bottom. They swim along and scoop up those tasty morsels and pieces of mullet left behind by the jacks, and barracudas. An easy breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and they didn't have to work for it all. The photo to the right is of my good friend and fishing buddy Phil "ShlepRock" Gibbs with a 27 pound snook that he caught on a ladyfish head off of Prosperity Farms Road Bridge several years back. Phil moved to Tennessee so I don't get to fish with him anymore. But, he's a be;liever in "heads and middles."
Like I was saying using mullet heads will definitely produce fish but don't forget about the rest of the bait. I'll use the middle portion of the mullet or ladyfish as well. We call our bait "heads and middles." Just take your filet knife, cut off the mullet head at a slant just behind the pectoral fins. Then I cut the tail off just prior to the top anal fin. I don't use the tail as bait because it produces too many tarpon bites. And when I'm gunning for big snook, the tarpon will have to take a second row seat until later.
Hooks and Rigs:I use a Gamagatsu circle hook (size 8 0's). I like the circle hooks preferably because they are razor sharp and they seem to always catch the snook right in the corner of the mouth, or the "cheese," as we like to call it. And that makes for an easy and safe release for the fish. I use a short piece of 80 to 100 pound mono leader tied to a 100-pound swivel. I may on occasion use fluorocarbon, depending on the water clarity, but in the Ermon River it makes no difference. The water in that river there is so black and dirty that I've even used that Berkley nylon coated cable. The black heavy cable doesn't seen to bother them and I use it sometimes when I'm live baiting a huge shad off the Prosperity Farms Road bridge and have caught many a slob snook on it. The only reason to even use this method in dirty water would be to keep them off of the barnacle covered pilings. And if you know snook, the minute they are hooked they head for any pilings or cover that they can, to try and cut you off or tie you up.
Clicker Shy: Here's a picture of Tracy Butler with her first big snook caught on a mullet head. Nice fish Tracy! I have found that most snook are what I like to call "clicker shy." So, if there is no current in the river, or area that I am fishing, then I use no weight. If I use a weight, it's a barrel lead slipped over to slide above the swivel. But again, just like the permit these snook are very weight and clicker shy. Snook even more so than a permit. A snook will take bait and sometimes run, feel that clicker, and spit the bait all in one solid furious burst of speed. Or by the time the clicker goes off, they'll jump just before you can get up out of your chair and grab your rod. Believe me when I tell you, when snook fishing, use a light clicker reel like a Shimano TLD-15, or a Shimano baitrunner. I have an Accuplate that I had the tension of the clicker adjusted just for this purpose, and it raised my hook up ratio and snook catches probably 85 percent or more. The lighter the clicker the less tension the snook feels, very simple.
People to back me up:Then I let my buddies Henry and Eric Gonzalez from New Jersey come with me and try to catch a 25 pound snook just to show them how easy it was. Henry tossed out a mullet head on his Shimano 4500 baitrunner and that night, he fought, caught, photographed and released a Here's a picture of Henry's 28-pound snook that he caught on a mullet middle chunk at Anchorage Park. Great fish Henry! So if you want to be in the 25-pound snook club, or just want to consistently catch and release over the limit size snook, then take the pier rats advise and try the dead bait approach. Mullet, ladyfish, bunker, sandperch and even dead sardines have worked well for me. Some fishermen will go a lifetime without catching a snook over 25 pounds. My biggest to date is 36 pounds, but two of my good friends have caught fish 40 and 41 pounds. All in south Florida, and all on dead bait, "Heads and Middles." Where And When To FishTides play a big part in order to consistently catch this great fish. You want to fish moving water. I personally believe and have found by experience that snook bite more on the ebb tide(outgoing tide). The reasoning for this is that on a flood tide(incoming tide) the small fish, crustaceans, and other food snook eat (let's call them the groceries) are moving on to flats that had low water on them just hours ago. In other words, there isn't much in the way of food on the flat yet. Plus, the food is scattered all over among the flat and is seeking cover in the grass, oyster beds and what not, trying not to be eaten. Here's a photograph of Tim who caught this monster snook several years ago on an out going tide at the Royal Palm Bridge in Palm Beach on a weigted live mullet. The huge fish weighed in the next day at 36 pounds! The moving tide makes it more work for the snook to seek out all of these hiding groceries. Conversely, let's take the outgoing tide. These groceries have been on the flat through the whole tide. They have to be. It is their only means of protection. They will surely be eaten out in the open water. When the water really starts to fall, the groceries can't keep a foothold in the grass and start to flow with the tide. The stronger the tide, the more groceries flow. They are not strong enough to swim against the current and consequently,just go out with the tide. Snook know this by instinct. They are awesome predators. On particularly strong tides, around the full and new moons, snook fishing is very hot!
Until the next time wishing you all, bent rods and screamin' drags!
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