Winter Snook Fishing

Fishing for snook in north and central Florida in the winter time can be a bit challenging sometimes. When water temps are down snook get very lethargic, and seem to almost disappear at times. When water temperatures get down to 50 degrees and below they even start to die, snook are a tropical warm water fish but over the years have adapted to the cooler water of winter here in north Florida and we are lucky to have them. Snook are a great gamefish that live in the backwater and can be very fun to target in shallow water with fly gear or spinning gear.

Lets talk about a few ways to be more successful targeting snook in the cold months of winter here in Florida. As I mentioned earlier snook become lethargic when the water starts to get cold, but that doesn’t make them impossible to catch. As the fish slow down so should you, working artificial lures and flys slower is going to help you be more successful. For spin anglers choosing baits that are better for slower retrieves is a good start, paddle tails are a go to bait for saltwater anglers, but weighting them a little bit lighter will help you slow that retrieve down and get more bites, so instead of a 1/4oz jig head go with a 3/16oz or even a 1/8oz. Twitch baits and jerk baits are great options for snook as well, working them slowly and giving them a small pause here and there gets me a lot more bites as they will usually strike on the pause as the bait slowly sinks.

For fly anglers looking to target snook in the winter time, baitfish patterns are my favorite. Black and purple is a great option as well as natural colors like white, silver, grey, tan, and olive, as far as size goes I like to try to match the size of the bait that I see in the area that I am fishing, witch could be 1” up to 5” or larger I typically like a 2.5”-3.5” pattern though. Retreving the fly can be done many ways, I like a medium length strip at a slow to medium speed, looking to get a reaction bite, lots of pauses and erratic movements will get a snooks attention.

Areas I like to target for winter snook, I like to look for areas with good amounts of current flow moving the bait around to the snook so that they don’t have to work as hard to feed, snook are considered an apex predator in inshore estuaries, but a somewhat lazy one at that not wanting to work to hard for there food. Pinch points and small creek mouths with outflows are great places to target as this is moving there food right to them. Snook are very structure dependent fish, so areas with downed trees, logs and rocks are places that snook will hold. When the water is cold fishing the sunny sides of a creek or a bank seems to produce more action for me, as the fish will get up shallow and sun themselves. Hopefully theses tips will help you catch more snook this winter!