Sebastian Inlet Report

09-23-14 TUESDAY: REDS, SNOOK, MACKEREL, JACKS, BLUE RUNNERS AND MANGROVE SNAPPER 

Ahh, the first day of fall and the weather actually feels a little cooler; the high today is predicted to be less than 90 degrees! We have a lot of cloud cover over the inlet this morning, winds are blowing out of the South at 7 mph, gusting to 10 and there is a light chop on the water. The NOAA forecast is calling for a good possibility of showers and thunderstorms. 

An update from inlet regular Mike Riccardi of Vero Beach reported that yesterday's outgoing tide produced several Mangrove Snapper and several Reds but only two were in the slot. Mike landed a 29" C/R Red along with several Mangrove Snapper. Spanish and Cero Mackerel were busting up the schools of wall to wall mullet. Lots of Snook were visible and feeding on the mullet but none were landed during Mike's time on the jetty. Big Jacks were active as well; everything was being landed on finger mullet. 

From Whites Tackle - Ft Pierce / Stuart

Inshore the fishing has been great with the mullet starting to show up around the mangroves and the islands to the north of north bridge snook,trout, and redfish are in them live mullet and top water plugs have produced the best.The inlet has had a bunch of tarpon and snook around on the incoming tide pink jigs and wind cheaters in the green and black back have produced well.

Snook Week #7

 Lures for Catching Snook

Many anglers find that catching fish using manmade artificial lures adds flavor and challenge to the adventure of catching fish. This is especially true for the many snook anglers in Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico, and in most of the world's sub- and tropical water. People pay a lot of attention to snook, and there are almost as many lures for snook as there are people fishing for them. But once you understand a few basics about why some lures work better at certain times to catch snook, choosing one over another will be easier. You should consider having a tackle box of lures specifically to catch snook with; the 'snook tackle' box could be developed – the lures anyway – from this simple article about picking lures to catch snook.

  Picking the Perfect Snook Lure

Challenging, tough, and tasty, the species called Robalo by our Spanish-speaking angling community fights hard and is never too easy to fool. Picking the perfect lure for the species can only be done if you consider the season of the year, where the fish are likely to be, and which sort of bait they're eating at that time. Even how hard the wind is blowing is important to selecting the right snook lure to match the situations at hand.

Topwater and Floating Lures for Snook

The first lure to consider for snook are Topwater lures, also called Floaters. The best time to use them is in the spring or summer, but they work all year. They work best when the wind's hardly blowing or not blowing at all. They need to be seen to work, and very rough conditions make them invisible to you and the fish.

Snook are so-called 'Superior Fish', which means they're built to look sideways and up. They look down, and they eat baits from the bottom, but the fact that their lower jaw is longer than – and extends past – their upper jaw means they look up more than then look down. A lure that floats at the top of the water column will attract their attention when times are right and conditions are calm or at least not windy.

A topwater lure can come in many different colors, shapes, and sized. But they can be categorized by what they do and/or what sounds they make – and what they do to the surface of the water.

Propeller lures. Propeller lures are usually (but not always) cigar-shaped, longer then they are thick. Pointy ends make way to small propellers – on both sides or only on the back or front. The propellers spin and bubble and cause a 'wake' just like the propeller of your boat does. The wake and the noise the props make when they turn and bubble on the surface attracts fish. They either thing it's an injured baitfish or are angry that it is making that stupid noise, but they strike them.

When a fish hits a topwater lure, it is very easy to pull hard or try to set the hook. If you do you will almost invariably pull the lure right out of the snook's mouth. The lure will move too fast, and move away from the fish. If you see a fish hit a topwater bait, simply lift up the rod and feel the weight of the fish before you give it an ever-so-gently snap to set the hook. Pull too hard and too fast and you will either lose the fish or kill the fish trying to pull all twelve or eighty hooks out of the side of the fish. Set the hook soft when you're fishing with topwaters and you will do better and be a better steward of the species.

Suspension Lures for Snook

Suspension lures work all year, and are very effective lures for catching snook. They are designed to simulate real fish, and can include vibrating, rattles (most have them, in fact), lips, fins, and probably soon they will have their own propulsion systems and will transfer fish over the internet. But for now they look like fish. Although fish will certainly hit weird looking lures (buzz baits come to mind), suspension lures that look remarkably like live Scaled Sardines, Pinfish, Threadfins and Shad have caught a lot of snook.

So your first ones should be ones that look like the bait you think the snook are likely to be eating. In the wintertime it's pinfish, and in the summertime it's Scaled Sardines or small Threadfin. And it's small mullet all year round. There are suspension lures that simulate all four. If you are going to target snook throughout the year and you want to do it with lures, think of having a few sizes of all four suspension lures.

A suspension lure suspends. It might have a lip, and it might dive so deep it gets stuck on the closest rocks, but if you stop reeling it will stop moving. It might float up, and it might float down (or sink fast, but that's another lure altogether) slowly, but suspension lures – increasingly popular with snook fisherfolk – suspend in the water. Combination lures exist, of course, but lures that suspend in the water are very effective for snook fishing.

Something you want to consider when building your snook tackle box is exactly where in the water column the baits suspend themselves in the water column. In the wintertime, snook are likely to be deeper in the water. As the water warms and the fish head out of the deep residential canals and into the passes and onto the beaches for their annual spawn, they start feeding higher in the water column. Snook will hit a nicely-presented suspension bait all year – don't get us wrong. But in the winter and hottest summer, when fish might be looking deep to stay warm, or are near the deeper residential docks, pick a suspension lure that sits a third of the way down. 12' of water requires a lure that will suspend at 8'. Summer flat fishing for snook calls for a lighter suspension factor, so a Scaled Sardine lure should sit at perhaps a foot – or less – to keep it in the strike zone of snook feeding on grass flats.

Sinking Lures for Snook

A sinking lure sinks to the bottom and will simply sit there if you do not retrieve it and make it move, scrape, or bounce off the bottom. Most sinking lures used for snook fishing are meant to simulate a shrimp or other crustacean, and lures like lead jigs are usually what comes to mind. That said, you can find lures that look like fish and still act like a dead fish sinking to the bottom.

Sinking lures work all year, but they are particularly deadly when the fish are in, or moving into or out of deeper water. They seem to work best in the deeper channels and on the bottom where snook live on nearshore structure. They draw hits from just about any fish species, but snook are aggressive, and will beat a redfish to a properly presented sinking lure.

Sinking lures can be any color, and usually have a soft-plastic tail attached to them by the people that use them. The jig head can be very effective if flavored by a strip-lure made from a natural substance like shrimp or fish – draw strikes. Several companies make such strip lures, and they're an excellent alternative to actual dead baits like squid or frozen shrimp for the committed lure anglers.

A general statement about snook lures

As mentioned, there can be suspension lures that will eventually sink to the bottom. There are also baitfish simulators that will float to the surface and stop – sitting there and often drawing a hit when making not a dimple on the vast ocean. They attract fish – as do all floaters – simply sitting there doing nothing. But start reeling them, and they start swimming down. Reel fast for ten seconds and it dives to four feet; stop reeling and POP! – it shows up again like a Russian sub popping to the surface after losing power on the north pole. Other lures will start to sink when you cast them, but stop once it's sank five feet and not an inch more. Lure manufacturing – and analysis – gets more sophisticated every day.

A spoon, for example, can catch snook all year and almost anywhere. It can be retrieved fast and kept on the top of grassy flats and draw hits from snook as quickly as it would have on a freshwater lake's lilly pads, where black bass bedding below strike rapid-retrieve gold weedless spoons.

 Retrieve it slowly, and develop a "cadence" on the retrieve, and an angler can make it rise and fall from eight feet to the surface and back again, creating a wave pattern if seen sideways that will have some fish hit the lure on the drop while others – on other days but similar conditions – will only it it when you're raising its motion by rapidly picking up the tip of the rod during the sequence called the retrieve. Reel it slow enough, and bounce it on the bottom? You can make a jig out of a gold, silver, or colored spoon.

So when you're picking the perfect lure for catching snook, think about season, where the fish are might be, and pick a topwater/floater when they're near a calm surface, suspension lures when they're midway in the water column when they're below the surface, and bottom lures – sinkers – when the water's coldest.

From Todd / Eric @ Juno Bait -Juno Beach

No golfer would try and tackle an entire golf course with only one club; just like no angler should try to use only one fishing rod and reel for all fishing situations .

Over the next few days we will look at different types of rods and reels to use in different fishing situations and their most common uses.

Included will be offshore, inshore, surf, pier, and some freshwater rods and reels...stay tuned!

                       "Rod Terms"

Over the next few days we will take a look at some different types of rods and reels and their specific (and/or general) uses for south Florida fishing applications.  Let's quickly talk about the five most common terms that are often used when describing fishing rods.

ACTION- Action is used to describe the bend of the blank (Most companies use action ratings extra fast, fast, medium fast, moderate fast, moderate, slow, etc...).  A extra fast action blank bends mainly in the tip and then stops, where as a slow action blank bends more through the whole rod(often described as a parabolic bend).

 Blank Material- Very simply stated, this is the material that the rod blank is made from.  Typically rod blanks are fiberglass, graphite, or a combination of the two.  The material used has some bearing on the action and power of a rod.

Line Class- The manufacturers suggestion for what pound line should be used on a rod.  Typically given in a range, Example 10-17lb.

Lure Weight- The manufacturers suggestion for what size lure/bait is ideal to use on blank.  Also typically given in a range, example 3/4-2oz.

Power- Power is used to describe the pulling power of a rod, typically ranging from ultralight to heavy.  (Different than action as it is not describing how the rod bends, just the pulling power it has)  There is no set table for "power" so the feel of a Heavy Shimano rod verses a Daiwa Heavy rod may be completely different.   

Sebastian Inlet Report

09-22-14 MONDAY: SNOOK, REDS, TARPON, JACKS, BLUE RUNNERS, MANGROVE SNAPPER AND SPANISH MACKEREL 

It's a real pretty morning at the inlet. The water is calm and winds are blowing out of the Southwest at 4 mph, gusting to 6. 

We received an update from inlet regular Mike Ricciardi who fished the north jetty again on Friday morning. Mike reported a good early morning Redfish bite. Five or six slot fish came over the rails and there were 8 - 10 oversized fish that were returned to the water. Unfortunately, Mike didn't land a Red, but he did go home with 4 Mangrove Snapper, 3 of which were landed on mojarra and his largest at 14" was landed on live mullet, along with a decent sized Flounder. The Reds were all landed on finger mullet which have started their fall run. Spanish Mackerel were around for angler free-lining live greenies and big Jacks were taking finger mullet. Mike saw one Snook come over the rails at 34" which was released, there were several hook-ups, but no keepers. 
  Our photo of the day features Mike Ricciardi with a Flounder he landed on live finger mullet Friday morning.

Snook Week #6

                                            Natural Baits for Snook

The concept of a big fish eating a small fish is not new, and often the subject of cartoons. But the real world is not a cartoon, and if you’re a small fish, the chances that a big fish is going to see you, smell you, or hear you (before killing you) are very high. If not swimming naturally, baits yell “EAT ME!”. Even moving quietly they can be smelled, seen and felt.

If you fish with live or dead natural baits on a regular basis, then you know that on any given day fish will eat whatever you put in front of them. Soft plastic baits, in particular, are increasingly manufactured with components making them smell like natural bait. But live and natural baits work best.

The Best Baits for Snook

Certain baits work better at certain times of the year, while some bait cannot be found when you need them. Days we could only get nasty frozen baits have turned out incredible.

 Shrimp

Shrimp are the best bait to use if you want to catch a snook. The fish will eat them in winter up the rivers, and in residential canals or in clear summer waters. You can buy shrimp at most bait and tackle shops, and they’re a natural bait anywhere snook are found.

Scaled sardines are our personal favorites. But not everybody can throw castnets, and making live sardines takes effort and time. Add to that wading and surf-fishing -- and pier and other shore-based locales – and whitebait is not the best bait for snook. They’re the most productive, and the most natural, but they’re not the best. Shrimp are the best. In the wintertime snook are easier to catch on shrimp because the shrimp are easier to cast and keep in the strike zone without recasting.

 Grunt

Grunts make a grunting noise and that’s where their name comes from. Grunts will catch snook nearly every time you put them in the water. Assuming you’re fishing where the fish are, if you put a grunt near a snook, he will eat it.

Get a pigfish (grunt) and you'll get a snook.

The sound they make is unlike the drumming sound you’ll often hear from a redfish or black drum. They make the sound if you touch them, and if you put them on a hook, they grunt a lot. When they grunt, they’re calling snook from places you did not know they lived. Grunt are arguably the single most productive live baitfish you will ever use to catch snook, but they’re not easy to find and catch. Look in backwater estuary mouths and the outside corners of residential canals.

 Scaled Sardines

There are many different baitfish in our waters, and being predators, snook are likely to reach first for the ones they see the most. Remember, predators are lazy. Lazy means they eat what is most available: what we call Whitebait. Whitebait is normally found early in the springtime, when water temps get above about 68 F. When the water temps fall below 65 F or so, whitebait becomes hard to find except in deep waters, and even then are scarce. Warm winters can result in the baits being around all year.

 Pinfish

Pinfish are an all-around bait for all Florida sport fish, drawing strikes from grouper in 200 feet of water as quickly as being grabbed by a redfish in eight inches of skinny water. Snook love them, but you will draw more strikes if you give them a “Hair Cut” and clip the sharp and (to you and the snook) dangerous barbed tip of their dorsal fins.

The ubiquitous Pinfish.

“Finger” Mullet

Mullet are common in our waters, and they are generally eaten when smoked or fried. But they’re also eaten by snook. Small mullet – called Finger Mullet because they’re roughly four-to-five inches long – are a top-knotch bait for local snook. Hook them through the tail or lip and they’ll live for hours if not struck by a marauding linesider.

 Ladyfish

The biggest snook caught are caught on live ladyfish, often 12” and longer. This shiny and stinky fish are a favorite of bigger fish, although using them as bait is often challenging to somebody that thinks a 30” fish is unlikely to eat a 12” bait. But they do – and their 40 or 50 inch older and more experienced brethren eat them like candy. You can use chunks as dead bait (called Live-sticking)

Silver Perch

A bait you will often find in your castnet when you’re trying to catch killifish is the silver perch, which have been called “Whacky Baits” by some of our friends because of their unusual look.

But the shiny white and lively bait is very productive – especially in the wintertime. We do not catch them on purpose, but they can be found on sandy edges of grass flats and in deeper sandy holes on the flats themselves.

 Sand Perch

Sand Perch are another species of the perch family, but their color, and seemingly their attractiveness to hungry snook, seems a little higher than their silvery cousins. Sand perch are another of those baits we catch once in a while, but when we do we get them on a hook – freelined or under a small cork popping bobber – get them quickly. They are very productive and effective if you’re trying to catch snook that aren’t cooperating.

 Threadfin

Threadfin are in the Herring family. They’re called threadfins because of the long extension they display on their dorsal fin, which reaches almost to their tail. They grow considerably bigger than sardines, often reaching five or more inches.

The Threadfin Herring is a great snook bait.

They are very popular tarpon baits, and are caught more often in open water than in the shallow water where you’ll find whitebait. But they are very effective snook baits, albeit a little more tender and likely to die quicker on a hook.

 Crabs

The last bait we’ll talk about in this brief article are crabs. Whether they’re blue crabs with hard shells (smaller ones are better than bigger ones), softshell crabs, or even fiddler crabs on small wire hooks, crabs are baits that snook eat under normal conditions, and will definitely eat if you have a hook on them.

A Pass crab is great bait for snook.

Other baits that will Catch Snook

Almost anything – if it smells or looks or sounds good – will attract hungry snook or anger one enough to strike the line. Without a doubt, live baits and shrimp are better, but we have ways you can catch a fish on a jellyfish, but that’s best left for another story.

Squid are generally used in the winter for snook.

Try a strip of squid fished on a Fishfinder rig. This outstanding producer can attract almost anything that swims. A basic fishfinder rig will put the bait in the strike zone – especially in colder months when snook tend to stick closer to the bottom.

From Capt Joe Ward @ Bait Shack - FT Pierce

 The inshore fishing has been good even with all the fresh water runoff. There has been a lot of legal size snapper along the channel edges both to the north and south in the river and around the local bridges. Some of the mangroves have been up to 2lbs. Try using a live shrimp or a small white bait. The trout bite has slowed some but, I am still getting reports of some nice fish at places like Bear Point, Herman's Bay and the Mooring's Flats. A soft plastic bait has been the best way to go but a live shrimp fished under a popping cork is still a good choice. The catch and release snook & tarpon action has been red hot along the beaches. Just find the bait schools and match the artificial bait to the size of the live baits or if possible try and cast net some live ones.