Best Times of Year to Fish for Southwest Florida Snook

Best Fishing Times For Snook



Best Times Snook FishingSouthwest Florida snook are a year-round resource and can be caught throughout the annual months of January to December. Depending on the time of year, snook can either be plentiful or difficult to find. The best way to catch up to the snook of Southwest Florida will be to determine where they are in their annual cycle and use the migratory pattern of snook to your fishing advantage.

Summer is Spectacular

During the warm summer months from about April through the beginning of September snook can be located in magnificent numbers all along the beaches and in the passes of Southwest Florida. The reason the snook are there is for spawning and the big females that are normally found there are packed with roe and should be placed immediately back into the water with as little handling as possible. This perpetuates the Southwest Florida snook species and allows the younger generations to be able to continue fishing for the fantastic snook.

Fall is Fine

Once fall ushers in, the snook began to retreat back to their winter nooks and crannies behind the sand dunes. It is within these less turbulent and warmer flats, mangroves peppered with oyster bars on the high tide and also in the deep holes on the low tides that snook can be found and in great numbers.

Spring is Superb!

Imagine 10,000 snook invading the summer beaches, and then subtract a fair percentage for natural demises such as sharks and other accidents that can happen to a snook in the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and then do the numbers. If you think that at least 75% of those 10,000 snook have made it behind the sand dunes and are now in a more limited environment such as flats and mangroves and you would be correct. This is why early fall fishing for snook in the backwaters is one the most fantastic times of year to catch one of these great and highly appreciated Southwest Florida gamefish.

Winter is Drab

As winter blows in, snook fishing grinds to a halt. The reason for this is that the snook become tight-lipped and do not need to feed for up to two months at a time. When they do desire to feed it is best that you use a methodical, slower paced rhythmic drawl to get a slowed-down snook to strike in the rivers and creeks of Southwest Florida. Some anglers just skip over winter and look forward to the springtime when snook are so hungry that a rusty spoon trawled at a high rate of speed just might do the trick!

Spring has Sprung!

As spring comes in and warms the waters of the flats, the Southwest Florida snook population move out of the rivers and creeks and start the cycle all over again. As mentioned earlier, the snook have been laid up all winter and you can certainly bet that they will be lean, mean and hungry fighting machines. All you have to do is find the snook and that can sometimes be a difficult task. But in the end, through patience, experience and live shiners you’ll be able to hook into some fairly productive snook fishing all throughout the spring months.

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