An “inhalation bite” is how Jupiter, Florida, Captain Jared “Dingo” Boshammer describes this snook attack on the 5-inch topwater Yo-Zuri Topknock lure Jean Bruun was “walking the dog” with on the Loxahatchee River in early March.
Tarpon snook is one of the four snook subspecies found in south Florida estuaries and tidal rivers. An extra-large eye and upwardly curved tarpon-like snout signify this smaller but handsome gamefish that grabbed a Nomad Design Ventrix tiny soft plastic, vibrating lure.
An “inhalation bite” is how Jupiter, Florida, Captain Jared “Dingo” Boshammer describes this snook attack on the 5-inch topwater Yo-Zuri Topknock lure Jean Bruun was “walking the dog” with on the Loxahatchee River in early March.
Tarpon snook is one of the four snook subspecies found in south Florida estuaries and tidal rivers. An extra-large eye and upwardly curved tarpon-like snout signify this smaller but handsome gamefish that grabbed a Nomad Design Ventrix tiny soft plastic, vibrating lure.
Early or late, day or night, along seawalls or under bridges, amid slowly filling shallow mud flats or creek drain openings masked by leggy mangrove walls, the remarkably unique resonance of snook “popping a bait” is unmistakable. Hearing such a treasured sound guarantees smiles from those who appreciate this sensational Florida game fish.
At a young age I turned into a snook addict while literally fishing “under a bridge” connecting our residential island dredged up from Miami’s Biscayne Bay. At night during an outgoing tide hordes of pink shrimp from surrounding grass flats swept through this 100-foot concrete span. These helplessly snapping and darting crustaceans induced splashy surface mayhem from ravenous jacks and acrobatic ladyfish. It was kid heaven casting flies and lures into this frothy smorgasbord, either from Mr. Harrison’s or Mister Pru’s bridge-adjacent north and south seawalls and docks. But extreme magic descended whenever solo and so identifiable “snook pops” echoed under the bridge.
Nearly 60 years have passed since my first Sunset Island bridge snook battle, yet that memory resurfaces whenever a new opportunity allows tossing flies, jigs and plugs around likely snook residences.
Every modern cast I make is guided by experience gained from endless hours of wading and boating graduate study with a variety of superb snook hunters. Patience is their mutual foundation for success as well as years of deciphering currents and recognizing the best tidal periods to present artificials to fool a robalo, the Spanish/Portugese name for common snook.
Snook are hard-fighting, clever customers that make a living ambushing baitfish, occasional crustaceans, including crayfish, and confirmed bottom dwellers like hardhead catfish and croakers. They are specialists in current utilization to bolster feeding opportunities and use cover for both protection and to trap quarry. Some snook are caught by accident, but consistency at landing snook demands skill to improve your odds.
One more intriguing aspect of common snook is they are hermaphrodites, meaning the males change into females after spawning season. Males sexually mature sooner than females, but the gals live longer (about 21 years) and grow much larger, potentially reaching a massive 48-inches. See MyFWC.com/research/saltwater/fish/snook for an excellent Florida snook outline.
Locating and catching snook are two different matters. The easiest place to begin is nighttime fishing around bridges that showcase daily tide movements. Such tidal current pinch points are bait collecting funnels. Predictably snook locate facing the tide and at night are usually inside up-current bridge shadow lines. Lighted docks offer similar nighttime spotting and casting opportunities. Bridge pilings and dock supports feature sharp barnacles and usually other invisible adjacent obstructions. These are bonus advantages, along with their razor-blade-edged gills, for hard-fighting snook to slice leaders and lines.
A majority of my snook pursuit is with flies, plugs, bucktails and soft plastic swim jigs. However, valuable behavioral information is gained by observing reactions to shrimp, pilchers, croakers and mullet, which are serious snook chasers’ live bait favorites.
I learned from dedicated Stuart flats-wading fly-fishing guide Marcia Foosaner to toss flies and lures around passing schools of cruising mullet, as snook regularly tuck in these parades to be close by their favorite foods.
Captain James Cronk of 772 Charters calmed my tendency to set up too soon after landing a live pilchard perfectly in front of a nighttime Sewall’s Point dock-guarding bruiser. I expected an instant reaction when such a tasty morsel landed in its zone. Instead, the snook took its time. After what seemed like forever, James called for my hook set.
Surprise snook strikes can happen just about anywhere in prevalent areas such as mangrove shorelines, current-washed islands in bays and tidal rivers and even on vacant mud flats. Especially during cooler winter months, careful searching of unobtrusive flats criss-crossed by silver mullet and tiny bay anchovies (glass minnows) may reveal a dark, solitary line that for all the world looks like a stick or piece of a snag.
When pushing his skiff via a 21-foot graphite pole over such barren ground Everglades City’s snookmeister Steve Huff urges, “Watch it long enough for the slightest rotation or surface vibration and you may discover a laid-up snook.” Making a quick backcast with a fly rod kept very low and landing a streamer softly 3 feet ahead of that dormant target can result in an explosive, heart-stopping strike. “Miss the cast and you’ll get an enormous pile of giant silver scales,” jokes expert fly angler/writer Chico Fernandez.
Think saltwater bonefish are the shallow flats navigation champions? Obviously you’ve never watched a sizable snook crawl after bait in what is best described as barely moist bottoms.
Florida’s snook population has an affinity for moving up tidal rivers and creeks, often well into freshwater areas where they can thrive. Creeping about these twisty tidal ribbons has become our favorite snook pursuing method. That’s mainly because it perfectly suits our miniature SaltMarsh, a 14-foot Kevlar/fiberglass hybrid skiff built in Fort Pierce.
Endless docks in various stages of disrepair, small islands, oxbows, seawalls and overhanging shade and cover from Brazilian pepper, live oaks dripping with Spanish moss and fallen cabbage palms provide too many likely shots.
Dissecting the best tide phases and finding enough room for a backcast are continuing challenges. Most of the snook Jean and I tangle with are smaller subspecies like the swordspine and fat snook. We’ve hooked, landed and lost some adequate common snook in the process, but never to my knowledge have we landed a tarpon snook, the fourth available subspecies.
Jared “Dingo” Boshammer is both a backcountry and ocean fly/light tackle guide who especially thrives on river snook dwelling in the Loxahatchee River near his Jupiter headquarters. For a “surprise birthday gift she couldn’t refuse” I arranged an early March trip with Captain Dingo for Jean to enroll in a river snook studies doctorate.
We achieved a comprehensive education in exploring both incoming and outgoing tides, the latest Simrad Side and Down Scan electronics magic and following cruising snook from place to place.
With breezes touching 30 mph, Dingo gave Jean a Temple Fork baitcasting rod and various miniature, fast sinking Nomad Design Vertrex Vibe soft plastics. In deeper shelving drop-offs near bridges, docks and seawalls, a cast followed by a soft, double yo-yo “Vibing” retrieve proved irresistible to snook, jack crevale, ladyfish and baby tarpon. In an hour and a half Jean landed and released every Florida snook species, including the handsome curved head and big eye tarpon snook from a school Dingo saw on his Simrad sonar screen.
The lowest outgoing tides have provided our best tidal river action. So Dingo’s “follow the cruising fish in with the tide” concept was a surprise. For this Jean cast a floating, 5-inch bone-colored Yo-Zuri Top Knock and used a “walk-the-dog” retrieve style from shallow to deeper water.
An Australian who grew up fishing with his dad, Sid, Frasier Island’s pioneering light tackle and fly rod guide, Dingo likened the snook’s “inhalation bite” both to his native barramundi and our largemouth bass.
The larger Loxahatchee River common snook wasted no time in displaying inhalation bites when Jean’s Yo-Zuri casts invaded their turf.
Noisy snook strikes make any birthday fishing trip an adventure.
Paul Bruun writes every other week about adventures and misadventures in the great outdoors. Contact him via columnists@jhnewsandguide.com.
Paul Bruun grew up in South Florida, the son of a newspaperman and avid outdoorsman. He's been fishing, guiding, writing and editing in Jackson Hole since 1973. His Outdoors column appears biweekly in the Sports section.
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