Snook Fishing In Florida Canals

I’ll admit, I’ve never been much of a snook angler. Most of my saltwater fishing has been done in Northeast Florida, where snook are pretty rare. Over the past few years, however, we’ve been going to Southwest Florida on vacation, and we did a lot of fishing while we were there. We’ve seen some huge snook hanging out under fishing piers, but we couldn’t temp them into biting.

Last month, we vacationed on a canal in Bradenton, FL, and things changed. My grandsons, ages ten and seven, are avid fishermen, and they spent a lot of time casting their lines in the canal behind our vacation rental. I was shocked when they pulled in the first snook. It was small, but it was still a snook! Actually, the boys were after some redfish they saw in the canal, but the reds had lockjaw. The snook, on the other hand, were more than happy to “play” with the kids. The boys caught numerous snook, which were all released.

The canal was lined with mangroves on our side, and I suppose the snook were cruising the roots, looking for dinner. There were plenty of pinfish and small mangrove snapper to be had, so the kids caught some pinfish to use for bait. They used small pinfish and freelined them in order to entice the snook. They got the most bites and landed the most snook near high tide, by the way.

All the snook the boys landed were small, but they were big enough to provide some fun and excitement. Hopefully, it also provided some hands-on experience that the kids can use for larger snook during the snook-fishing season.