"All the bridges, all the docks, marinas, grass flats, ledges, pilings and moored boats hold fish. "Every shallow rock pile along the beach, and in the inlets and rivers, have snook on them in late summer," explains Heaton, who leads his charters to hundreds of snook annually. Sight fishing for pods of cruising snook along beach "surf lines," in 2 to 4 feet of water is extremely productive, especially for anglers tossing lures. Lucie Inlet), Fort Pierce and Jupiter inlets are famed for summer snook action, even from the beach. But around deep water bridges, anglers should employ diving plugs and jig-like lures that run 6-to-20 feet down.Īugust night fishing around Stuart-area bridges and docks is excellent, too, and a choice time for fly-rodders, jiggers and plug fishermen to tally fish.īeach areas just outside Stuart (St. Other great snook spots at dawn are bridge abutments. Snook position on drop-off edges waiting for an easy meal. Snook cruise flats edges, so anglers cast big mullet-imitating plugs into 1-foot depth water, retrieving them out to 3 or 4 foot depths. Sam Heaton will fish at first light for giant snook, using top-water plugs on shallow flats 1 to 4 feet deep. In a typical day of summer Stuart fishing, snook-catching aces like charter Capt. Kayakers also can hit snook gold in this area. It's a small boat fishing paradise, with flats skiffs and bay boats ideal for working inlets, beach areas immediately north and south of inlets, and vast "inside" areas of creeks and rivers feeding inlets. Anglers who praise snook, or want to learn why they are so honored, should get in on the action in the waters in and around Stuart, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach and Palm Beach. Traditionally the tail end of the east-coast snook spawning season (late July through August) is best, with inlets jammed with linesiders making nooky. Plenty of snook, lots of huge fish, light fishing pressure - who could ask for more? And this can be done by anyone with even a small boat capable of launching into any of a number of Florida east coast rivers from Fort Pierce to Palm Beach, with Stuart at its central hub.Ĭonsider also that during July and August comparatively few snook fishermen are on the water in South Florida because the snook season is closed. I still scratch my head at the seemingly implausible incongruity of catching snook-after-snook from under a dock where five boats of various designs and sizes are moored in front of a 25,000-square foot mansion worth more than the gross national product of some small countries. And one of the best spots is Stuart - smack in the heart of the booming retirement home, mega-mansion, golf course-laden land that is this part of the Sunshine State. And while I've caught plenty of linesiders in Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela and elsewhere, none compare to the superb snooking available in Southeast Florida. Over the passed 40 years I've had the very good fortune to chase snook in many places, spots that have long and storied reputations for producing giant snook in mind-boggling numbers. I've not seen that anywhere but in Southeast Florida. Literally every piling that broke tide flow harbored a healthy snook, or two, or more. Then I saw a swirl near another nearby piling, and several more and bigger fish were stationed there.Īs I looked around the pilings of the marina dock in early morning light, there were dozens and dozens of snook, and plenty in the 20-pound class. There are so many snook in southeast Florida now, that at dawn, while standing on a dock near a clear-water inlet waiting for a buddy, I looked down and saw a pair of 10-pound snook hanging in slack water behind a piling directly below my feet. But if you've ever wanted to catch (photo and release) a snook 20 pounds or more, now is the time to do it. To preserve vulnerable spawning snook, by law it's all catch-and-release fishing through August. Great fishing for snook can be had now from Sebastian Inlet to Miami, but Stuart is snook central, and it's incredible by any measure. Stuart currently is the epicenter of snook angling because the hard-striking, fast-running, high-leaping, line-sided gamefish are spawning in huge numbers in and near southeast Florida inlets. STUART | Drive four-hours south on I-95 to the coastal town of Stuart and anglers now can enjoy what is arguably the world's best fishing for one of the greatest light-tackle gamefish on the planet - the snook.
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