Wade Osborne shows off a snook he took while wade-fishing in Tampa Bay. Photo by Capt. Rodney Smith.

Of all the species we fish for here in Florida, snook is one of the favorites. These fish are only found in the American tropics and subtropics. Six species of snook live throughout portions of the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. In the Pacific Ocean, six different species are found from Mexico south past Panama. All snook species sport the same dominant features: a single body-length black pinstripe; an extended bottom hooked jaw; razor-sharp gill plate covers; and a shallow v-tail.

There may be smarter fish swimming in our inshore waters, but none is more respected than the snook. At our home, we believe there are few better-tasting or harder-fighting fish to be caught. The average snook angler probably spends 10 times more energy and time pursuing a keeper-sized snook to place on the dinner table than he does chasing most other Florida game fish.

SUNSHINE STATE

SNOOK HISTORY

There was a time well before Disney and professional football came to Florida when anglers did not consider snook the prized game fish that it is today. Back then, there were no bag or size limits on snook.

A story recalls one old-timer standing on Fort Myers Beach fishing all night catching and piling snook on top of each other until they were stacked chest-high beside him. Back in those days, these fish were referred to as “soap fish” because when cooked with their skins on they had a soapy taste. In fact, they do have a soapy slime you can see on them after they are dead for a couple hours. At the time, snook were considered no more than a trash fish. Once folks discovered that removing their skin before cooking improved the taste of the filets, things changed completely. Snook quickly became the fish to eat.

Back in the 1960s, regulations were needed partly because of increased angling pressure and the snook population’s sensitivity to cold weather and water temperatures. To give you an example of how well regarded snook have been through Florida’s history, back when you could keep 50 redfish per day per angler, snook were protected with a strict four-fish limit.

The difference between Florida west coast and east coast snook populations is not easily detected. But the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has found enough differences to regulate these two fisheries separately.

Today anglers are allowed only one snook per person on the Gulf coast, while east coasters can keep two per day. Also the spring snook season closes May 1 along the west coast, a month earlier than on the eastern shore.

When we were boys growing up in Florida, we tried to learn the details of snook fishing from experienced anglers fishing around bridges and piers, from Indian Rocks Beach Pier to Clearwater’s Big Pier 60. Back in those days, there was no closed season for snook, but honestly it was rare for us to ever see anyone catch more than one or two of these gamesters from the Gulf beach areas we fished.

As we grew older, Florida’s closed seasons better protected spawning snook, and this quickly began to have a compounding positive effect on their populations. Soon it was not such a rarity to catch increasing numbers of snook on both coasts of Florida.

Snook are very sensitive to cold water and prefer the water temperature to be above 70 degrees. These fish have a difficult time surviving in water temperatures below 60 degrees for any extended period of time. However, it seems each year coastal populations of snook are migrating farther north along both coasts of the Sunshine State. This is usually reversed in years when a couple of arctic blasts freeze Florida.

During warm winters, snook can be taken as far north as Amelia Island just below the Georgia/Florida border, but during hard freezes they can sometimes be found floating stunned in the northern Everglades. Year to year under normal conditions, you can expect to find decent numbers of snook living from just north of the Tampa Bay area along the west coast south and around the Florida Keys, then north to the far reaches of the Indian River Lagoon’s Ponce De Leon Inlet at New Smyrna Beach.