# Sanibel Snook?



## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

Hey all-

Heading to Sanibel for a week in May (22nd-30th). Have had good success with snook off the beach in years past, either with cut threadfin, live/frozen shrimp, or live pinfish. Tried artificials one year and got nary a bite, but I think that's because I was fishing them wrong (perpendicular instead of parallel to the trough).

Any advice you guys can give me for snook off the beach on Sanibel? Current plan is to have three rods; one to freeline a pinfish/shrimp, one to soak a piece of cut threadfin on a fishfinder rig, and one to toss a bucktail or topwater while I keep an eye on the other two.

I know mornings and evenings are best, and mornings/evenings with a good tidal flow are even better. Checked the tide charts, most every day I'll be down there is a 4 tide day, and it seems like I'll be hitting the incoming tide perfectly in the mornings and hitting the outgoing perfectly in the evenings. Throw in the fact that the full moon is on the 27th, and I think I've got the fishing gods on my side for this trip.

Advice for the snook? Do my tactics sound good? How about artificials? Given my lack of success with them in the past, I want to stick with what I know and have confidence in, which is jigs and topwaters (my favorite bass lures here in PA). Like I said, planning on alternating between topwaters and bucktails with my lure rod.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated guys!

Tim :fishing:


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## repair5343 (Jul 8, 2001)

1. you need a fishing license. 
2. catch but don't keep any snook you get, till Sept.1


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## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

Don't worry, I always get a license from The Bait Box as soon as I get down there, and I very rarely keep anything I catch, much less snook on Sanibel. I pretty much fish for the sport and the excitement. Although a nice bluegill/crappy fish fry on a July evening up here in PA is always a good time haha.


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## floridabassman (Jun 18, 2009)

Definitly need to cast parrallel to the trough. Bucktails (white, 1/4 oz) and DOA shrimp. Artificials can be good because they allow you to walk down the beach and cover more ground, but if your stationary its hard to beat a live shrimp or whitebait. try a topwater in early AM for loads of fun, i like the super spook jr. in bone color.


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## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

Thanks man, exactly the kind of advice I'm looking for. I'm going to be grabbing some red tail hawk jigs and a super spook jr or two before I get down there.


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## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

Anybody else have any advice for snookin' off the beach?


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## phikapphil (Apr 28, 2010)

I'm taking my first ever trip to Sanibel the week before that. 5/13-5/20. I plan on spending some time targeting snook too, but the best part of saltwater fishing for me is catching a variety of species. 

What other fish are common to catch off the beach there? Is it common to catch reds in the surf or is that strictly for the bay side of the island? 

All I can ever seem to catch in the TX surf are whiting and hardhead cats. I usually stick to a fishfinder and shrimp. I'm going to hit up Academy this weekend and pick up a spook jr. myself. 

I'm also considering a charter. Anyone have recommendations/endorsements?

Any advice welcome.


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## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

Phil-

I've never hooked into a red in the surf, and from what I've been told/heard reds are more prevalent in the surf during the fall/winter months. During spring and summer I think they're pretty abundant on the bay side in grass flats and along the mangroves. I went on a charter a few years back with...Captain Rod/Rob? I'd have to check my old Sunny Days guide to see exactly who it was. The Bait Box recommended him when I asked about a redfish charter. At any rate, we hooked into 5-7 big reds that day out in Pine Island Sound/Tarpon Bay around the mangroves. Fun time, I would definitely recommend a charter, just make sure you're specific with what you want to hook into. Every guy down there pretty much has his specialty, and if you want to target reds you don't want to be with a captain who is well-versed with sea trout.

Off the beach, depending on bait/lure, you can hook into a BUNCH of different stuff. Sea trout, sea bass, jack crevalle, few different kinds of snapper, smaller grouper, ladyfish, spanish macks, blacktips, pompano, possibly tarpon, and of course SNOOK 

I've found that live bait is usually very dependable, but cut threadfin herring is pretty good as well. If you're proficient with a cast net, bring it along. A lot easier and less expensive to net your own bait, plus you'll be using the exact whitebait all the fish are targeting. I've found that a fishfinder rig down there is best for cut bait, and freelining live bait with perhaps a small splitshot or two to get it down in the current is best. Bucktails, topwaters, mirrolures, spoons, x-raps, are all good lures for the beach. Hit the mornings and evenings with a decent tidal flow and you'll catch fish. Although, I've hooked into snook in the middle of the day too, but morning and evening are your best bets.

Visit Bowman's Beach and Blind Pass as well while you're down there. Excellent fishing, BEAUTIFUL scenery, and usually a little better shelling than the beaches behind the condos. Pay-to-park at both places, but well worth it. Plus, the actual "pass" of Blind Pass was just dredged and reopened a year or two ago, so expect some phenomenal fishing under/around the bridge there in the pass. More current to deal with, so tactics should change a little, but there's a wide variety of fish already established in the pass from what I've read.

You'll love Sanibel. It's one of the most pristine, laid-back, and easy-going places I've ever been to. Excellent food, slow pace of life, and AWESOME fishing!! It's always so hard to leave...

*EDIT* Visit The Bait Box as soon as you get on the island. Once you come off the causeway and get to the intersection at Periwinkle, make a right at the intersection and you'll see it on your left, across the street from the Lazy Flamingo restaurant. They have EVERYTHING you need, offer great advice to us tourists on what is currently working best, and can recommend a good charter for you. Consider touching base with them before you get down there; I've been picking Robin's brain for the past week trying to increase my chances of tons of snook this year haha! Google The Bait Box and check out their site.


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## SnookMook (Jan 7, 2004)

phikapphil--I'll post up some more info later when I get more time, but I can recommend an excellent guide down there who can take you out to Redfish Pass and such and get you up on some nice snook, etc.

Capt. Dave Torrance
http://www.yankandcrank.com/
http://www.yankandcrank.com/Page_2.html
239-994-7768

He is a good friend of mine and is one of the guides who works with the Bait Box. Those photos on his website are mine. 

That big snook measured over slot at 34 inches. We caught about a dozen that size that day and got broke off on one over 40 inches under the mangroves.


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## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

Nice fish SnookMook! I'll be interested to see what info. you can give us, I've read pretty much all of your posts here so far trying to glean what information I can from them!


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## phikapphil (Apr 28, 2010)

Thanks for all the info guys. 

I'm staying at a place near the end of W Gulf Road. Looks like one of the the last condos before several private beach houses (at least as far as I can tell from google maps). I plan on hitting the surf most mornings, and I got a charter lined up for one of the days I'm there. I'll be sure to post the results after the trip.


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## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

Sounds like you have a great place lined up. Anytime you can get away from the tourists to fish it's always for the better. I'll be interested to see how your week of fishing goes since you'll be down there exactly a week before me. Don't forget to post a report! If I can give you any more info/advice before your trip feel free to ask or drop me a PM. I'm still a beginner myself, but I've had good success and think I have a decent bead on how to catch stuff down there.


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## SnookMook (Jan 7, 2004)

phikapphil--Sounds good. Who'd you end up booking a charter with?


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## phikapphil (Apr 28, 2010)

One of the other people I'm going with booked it before I saw your post. We're going out with Santiva Saltwater Team. Now all I gotta do is figure out what kind of fish to tell em I'm after. Guess it depends and what all I catch from the surf so I can tell em I want to target something different. The thrill seeker in me wants to hook into a Tarpon


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## SnookMook (Jan 7, 2004)

phikapphil--The Burnseds' are good people. You'll have a good trip with them. I always stay right there at Castaways at Santiva and I get bait from Jimmy and his brother Joey when they come off the water when there done fishing from time to time. 

I've caught many a sunset snook on the scaled sardines those guys have given me to keep in a bait well after they done fishing with their clients.


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## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

I wanted to ask this in this thread rather than starting a new one...and since SnookMook is in here, I wanted to see what the resident Sanibel/Captiva master thinks!

Braid is going to be a little expensive to spool up 3 reels for just a week of fishing, so I want to go with mono instead. Will 12# be sufficient for what I'm targeting in the surf? Also, with the exception of my baitrunner, my other reels are rated at 10#/100 yds. I know the diameter difference between 10# and 12# isn't substantial, so do you think I'll be ok spooling up with 12#? I won't be casting far, obviously, so I'm not really worried about how it affects casting, I'm more worried about overall line capacity.


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## Cerberus (Nov 1, 2007)

Snook don't make long runs so you should be fine with what you have.

I have fished big snook with line as light as 8lb, but I reccommend using heavier line Summer snook are often pregnant and the stress of a long(er) fight may make them dump their eggs. Tired snook are also easy pickings for hungry sharks and porpoises.

Use heavy enough tackle to close the deal quickly, and you'll be fine.

12lb mainline to a 20-30lb flouro leader is enough.


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## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

Cerberus thanks again! Any other info you want to toss my way regarding hooking into snook on Sanibel would sure be appreciated! 12# mono with a 30# fluoro leader is what I'll stick with.


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## phikapphil (Apr 28, 2010)

Been on Sanibel for two days and just about all we seem to catch are Gafftopsail Cats. Been using dead shrimp and cut bait with fishfinder rigs. Water seems too murky for lures. Visibility is about 9 inches in the surf. I've tried a mirrolure and a spoon, with no results but thinking about getting the spoon wet again. 

I forgot my bubble box at home  Any idea how long shrimp/fish will last without one?


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## Dman007 (Nov 19, 2008)

Those shrimp wont last more than a few hours, if that. You need to be changing the water. I once left 2 dozen shrimp in a 5 gallon home depot bucket. I left it on the dock while, while I was getting the boat out of storage, probably took 2 hours came back and some of the shrimp were already dying.


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## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

phikapphil-

So the water is pretty murky huh? Have storms been muddying up the water or do you know why it's so murky? I'm used to the crystal clear Gulf, don't know what I'll do if I get down there and it looks more like the Atlantic!

What kind of cut bait have you been using? Have you been hitting the tides right? Fishing in the trough? Just trying to get an idea of what's working and what isn't so I can prepare for my upcoming trip.

On an unrelated note, how's the weather down there?


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## Cerberus (Nov 1, 2007)

*Shrimp Trick*



phikapphil said:


> I forgot my bubble box at home  Any idea how long shrimp/fish will last without one?


To keep shrimp alive without water or bubbles, put them to sleep.

1) Put ice in the bottom of your cooler, in a bag is better. 
2) Soak a few layers of newspaper in salt water and lay on top of the ice.
3) Lay shrimp on top of newspaper and close cooler.

The shrimp will go into a kind of suspended animation and last as long as you keep them cool and moist. Don't use so much ice that they freeze, and don't let them get into the fresh water from the melting ice.

The first time I heard this I thought it was pretty bizarre, it but it really does work.


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## phikapphil (Apr 28, 2010)

I've heard a couple of reasons why it's murky. One, the water is really choppy, causing stuff from the bottom to get churned up, two (and more plausibly) they are releasing water from Lake O in preparation for hurricane season and that is flushing the mangrove root systems clean in the waterway and out into the gulf. 

I could have seen water like this in Corpus Christi  Visibility is 9 inches at best.

Thanks for the advice on the shirmp. I'm headed out early this morning to see how the topwater and spoon fare in the trough.

AF, yes I've been fishing the trough, mostly as the tide has come in, gotten high, and gone out. Haven't fished low tide at all. Fighting the surf to stay parallel to the trough while constantly reeling and casting has been more work out than I bargained for! That's why I switched to the fishfinder. No more casting and reeling. 

I did catch one really nice 18in cat. Not sure what the fish i used for cut bait was, couldn't ID it. It was a small white fish. I'll post a picture when I get back home. Just cut it and half and used the tail end.


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## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

Yeah, your murky water is probably a byproduct of the flushing of Lake O. Hope it settles down over the next week or so haha....

Sounds like you're doing a lot of things right with regards to the fishing. Have you tried just freelining a whitebait? Or stop by The Bait Box and grab some frozen threadfin and use that for cut bait for a day or two. With water that murky, maybe your topwater action will be good this morning.

Like I always say to myself though, a day on the water is a million times better than a day at the office, even if you don't catch anything!

Let us know how the morning went, it's nice to be able to get a firsthand report the week before you leave!


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## SnookMook (Jan 7, 2004)

AFMan916 said:


> I wanted to ask this in this thread rather than starting a new one...and since SnookMook is in here, I wanted to see what the resident Sanibel/Captiva master thinks!
> 
> Braid is going to be a little expensive to spool up 3 reels for just a week of fishing, so I want to go with mono instead. Will 12# be sufficient for what I'm targeting in the surf? Also, with the exception of my baitrunner, my other reels are rated at 10#/100 yds. I know the diameter difference between 10# and 12# isn't substantial, so do you think I'll be ok spooling up with 12#? I won't be casting far, obviously, so I'm not really worried about how it affects casting, I'm more worried about overall line capacity.


AF--Sorry it took so long to reply. I've had issues with my computer and had to use a loaner from work while my laptop was being fixed by Apple. 

Twelve pound mono should be sufficient in the surf as long as there is no structure of any sort. If there any sort of submerged rocks, you might be in trouble. There's not much of that down there so you should be okay for straight up surf trough fishing.


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## AFMan916 (Apr 27, 2010)

Thanks for the advice SnookMook. I've been talking back and forth with the guys at the Bait Box and I'm pretty set on spooling my two smaller reels with 12# and filling the shark rig with 50# PowerPro with a wind-on leader.

I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT!:fishing:


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## phikapphil (Apr 28, 2010)

This morning the surf was rougher today with the only low tide happening tonight at 11pm. Tried to fight it for a little while but got tired fast. I was catching cats like clockwork on every shrimp I got wet and they were biting fast. Still no results with the mirrolure or spoon tho. 

In the afternoon, me and my brother headed over to the pier, but stopped at the Bait Box for some live shrimp on the way. We weren't able to keep them alive very long without a bubblebox. I used ice, kept them shaded and changed the water often, but they still croaked within an hour. He caught two more cats and I managed a nice cravalle. It was pretty crowded on the pier and all kinds of things got caught, mostly cravalles, spanish mackerel, and catfish (we did see one snook and one trout though). The water seemed a little clearer on that side of the island.

Hopefully tomorrow's charter gets us going!


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## SnookMook (Jan 7, 2004)

phikapphil--Let us know how you do on that charter with the Burnsed crew out of Santiva.


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## phikapphil (Apr 28, 2010)

:fishing:

Capt. Burnsed got us going alright! He took us to a few grass flats and sand bars in several different places all around N and S. Captiva between 9-12 this morning. We managed 5 or 6 keeper trout (we kept just enough for dinner and caught another 5 or six that were too small), 4 or 5 spanish macks, a couple of jacks, 3 sandbar sharks (I got the biggest one even with out a wire leader), and a couple lady fish that put on a nice show. 

We had a lot of fun. The Capt. admitted the fishing was pretty slow by his standards. I was just happy to be hooking into something besides cats (we managed to catch a couple of those too). We freelined live shiners pretty much the whole morning and he'd chum with them when ever we'd get to a new spot. 

I picked his brain for a little bit about snook and he told me about some rocks that aren't far from were we are staying. Hopefully I get into one soon, because our trip is ending soon.

Pics to come when we get home.


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## phikapphil (Apr 28, 2010)

Finally getting around to sharing these photos with you guys. Caught lots of fish (mostly cats) all week, but the best was our 3 hours on the boat for sure.

Here's the biggest Gafftopsail Cat I caught from the shore.









My Mom caught the biggest trout.









My brother and his shark. Can anyone confirm for us whether this is a blacktip or a sandbar shark?









My first ever seatrout :









The biggest Spanish Mack we hooked:









The big Blacktip. It took me around the boat a couple times:









Finally boated it:









This ladyfish put on a show for us and a fight for my brother:









Mom's Jack Crevalle:









The small blacktip:









On our last day we caught a stingray on the beach off those rocks I talked about. We pinned down the stinger with our beach umbrella pole:


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## phikapphil (Apr 28, 2010)

One last thing. I couldn't ID this little guy. I think its a silver seatrout. I'd love a confirmation from the experts out there though.


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## SnookMook (Jan 7, 2004)

Phi--Nice photos. That first shark is an Atlantic sharpnose shark. The spots are a dead give away. I've caught a bunch in the last month or so up and down the Gulf coast.

I'll have to get back with you on that last fish though. You got me stumped at the moment and I don't have much time to research. I gotta fly out the door.


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## phikapphil (Apr 28, 2010)

Got speculation on another forum that it's a sand trout.


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## brandonmc (May 24, 2007)

We call those sugar perch. Bluefish love them fellers.


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## Smittroc (May 1, 2009)

wow what a variety.


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