- November 23, 2024
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Snook season opened Feb. 1.
On the Atlantic Ocean side of Florida, you can keep one snook per person per day. A snook must be between 28 inches and 32 inches to keep, and remember that the tail must be squeezed when it’s being measured.
On the west coast of Florida, in the Everglades, and in Monroe County, the season is still closed until further notice. If you are looking to pursue snook in our area, your best bet would be the Tomoka River or Strickland Creek. If this warm weather keeps up, you may have a good shot at a keeper fishing in either of those places.
There’s a good variety of fish available to anglers at this time.
Trout, redfish, bluefish, flounder and mangrove snapper can all be caught in the Intracoastal Waterway and adjacent canals. When it comes to live bait, I’d say that live shrimp would be my choice. If you prefer soft plastics, small paddle tails on a jig head will do just fine or a Zman jerkbait rigged on a weighted worm hook will work equally as well. When it comes to hard plastics, I would go to a 3-inch Yo Zuri crystal minnow in white. If your weapon of choice is a fly, I would choose white in a baitfish or shrimp pattern.
Trout are abundant at this time. You’ll have to work through the small ones to get a few keepers. If you are persistent in the pursuit of trout, you will be rewarded with a few gator-sized fish. A gator would be considered anything 5 pounds and heavier. I have hooked and lost several gator trout in the past two weeks. I’ve gotten them a few feet from the boat, but then the hook would pull out. By the way, all these big fish were hooked on fly.
There have been good reports of big schools of redfish in the flats on the west side of the Intracoastal, right at the Flagler/Volusia line. Those fish should be there for a while as long as the clown with the air boat stays away.
Last week, I had Tom and Linda Lowry, from New York, my boat. The couple had a great time landing trout, redfish, mangrove snapper and flounder. They caught more 30 fish in four hours. It was a delight to see people who are used to catching small fish actually get to catch big ones — and a large number of them, too. I guess what I’m trying to say is get out and fish.
By the way, all the new manatee signs are now in place in Flagler County on the Intracoastal, and the area around Highbridge is a no-wake zone year-round.
