Snook Fishing Charter In Miami

(Centropomus undecimalis) - Robalo - or Common Snook, no matter what you call it the Snook is one very fun fish to catch.  Miami Snook fishing is something that is exciting for all skill levels of fisherman.  Here in South Florida and Miami we can catch Snook all year long.  Their size ranges from 6" all the way to a Massive 40+ Inches. Their initial strike is explosive and is often times followed by a challenging fight to keep them from getting tangled in the mangroves. Here you can see a juvenile snook jumping out of the water caught using a Rapala X-Rap in the Flamingo backcountry inside Everglades National Park.  This fish like many others like to sit under structure similar to Large Mouth Bass and ambush baits as they come pass by.  The whole reason for this is so they can hide from preditors like Sharks and also conserve energy by allowing the tides to bring their food to them.  These fish will eat a wide range of baits including live shrimp, pinfish, mullet, and ladyfish.  Because they eat so many different kinds of live fish this allows us to throw a wide rang of artifical lures and flies and be quite successful at it.

Miami Snook Fishing

Miami Fishing charters for Snook are legendary.  Not only are Snook similar to a Large Mouth Bass because of the way they hunt but also because of their lack of teeth.  Therefore, these fish have to strike hard to swallow the entire bait they intend to eat so get ready for an abrupt stop when you are retrieving your lure or fly.  We like to throw a lot of soft plastic artificial lures, small plugs such as the Rapala X-Raps and Twitching Raps, as well as many different types of fly fishing flies.  Though, the most common colors are probably white and chartreuse.  A normal flyfishing outfit would be somewhere in the range of a 7-10 weight fly rod with floating line and about an 8' 20-30 lb leader to keep their sharp gill from slicing through the line.  For any new fly fishing angler this is probably your best species to target here in South Florida because it gives you many opportunities to make corrections to stripping and fighting techniques.

Miami Snook Fishing

Miami Snook Fishing is great all year long and during the day and night. Snook are pirmarily nocturnal eating species so yes, many people choose to fish for them at night.  However, we still catch plenty of them during the day time.  Just like any other fishing destination or type of fishing there are certain spots that local knowledge really pays off so that is why we always recommend you fish with a guide especially in the Everglades.  Out Captain's are all native full time fishing guides that have been fishing these waters since a child.

Snook Fishing Fact:

Snook have a very prevalent black line downt he side of their body.  This is called their "lateral line."  Snook use this line to pick up vibrations through the water to hunt.  So if you lure is slashing through the water in a spastic way it can often signal a snook in the area that there is a wounded baitfish that is an easy meal in the area.

Fishing For Snook in Miami

Well like we mentioned before Yes we do fish and catch snook all year long.  We would have to say there are certain little windows in the year Snook tend to bite better.  For example, during the winter months of Jan & Feb it can be cold here in South Florida so most of the Snook pile up in deep backcountry creeks where we would fish live shrimp on a really cold day and lures during a warming day.  Normally this time of year produces 10-75 fish per day in all sizes.  During March-May the snook are migrating out of these backcountry creeks and can be found on the creek mouths of the Evergaldes eating everything they can to get ready to spawn in the upcoming months. During these months we also catch about 10-75 fish per day in all sizes on these fish are probably more active than winter fish because of the warmer temperatures.  During June & July the snook can be found on the west coats beaches and cruise up and down the edges eating tiny glass minows.  These months we still catch snook however we choose to not fish too hard for them because we would rather let them have some privacy during their spawning months so they will increase in numbers for the next year.  We would say 10 fish per day is about average for this time of year.  During Aug-October we can still catch snook however because of the temperatures the bite is normally only till about 10 AM.  So we will probably recommend catching a few first thing in the morning and then moving into Redfish or Tarpon if we are in the Everglades or Bonefish and Permit if we are in the Florida Keys. During Nov-Dec the snook fishing normally gets very good.  The waters are starting to cool and the bite nothing short of awesome!

Juvenile Snook In Miami

First Snook with his family

Here is Chris Bonnell that came down with his wife and fished with Capt. Rich before they went on a cruise.  They caught snook, grouper, jacks, ladyfish, and snapper during their trip to Flamingo.

Capt. Rich writes: Hey Chris thanks for the kind words about the trip in your email.  And yes you are probably right about the fish being 36" instead of 35" they always grow when you get home.  Can't wait to fish with you guys again!

 Miami Snook Fishing

Here you can see one of Capt. Rich's regualar clients Jim Saxon from naples with a nice backcountry everglades snook.  Rich and Jim have shared many days on the water toghether fishing for Bonefish, Tarpon, and Snook.

Capt. Rich writes: Hey Jim it's always a pleasure to fish with you.  I wil have to say you are definitely my best caster and still trying to get in the runing shape that you are in.  Come on back anytime Jim we still have to get that ellusive Permit to complete our adventures!

 Miami Snook Fishing Guide

Here you can see Gail holding what is nothing short of a monster snook.  This fish is way over slot size and was released carefully so it can fight another day!

Capt. Rich writes: Hey Gail, thanks for coming down to fish with me.  You are truely a hard core fishin' gal and would love to upgrade your snook to a Giant Tarpon!

Chris Bonnell's 36" Snook

Jim Saxon's Snook 

Gail's Monster Snook

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