Dock and Seawall Tactics for Florida Snook

By Jan S. Maizler
Article & Travel Editor
Photos By Jan S. Maizler

Background

Florida's coastal housing development – which began basically after the Great Depression – have changed large parts of this state's shoreline ecosystem forever. The natural mangrove shorelines were partially replaced with large dredged islands of now-dry bay bottom ringed by necklaces of concrete seawalls and wooden docks. In other cases, natural sand shorelines were "strengthened" with more seawalls. In essence, large swaths of the mangrove forests, which were home to the snook were decimated in the name of "progress." But the structure-loving nature of snook caused these fish to look for new ambush points and feeding stations… and slowly over the years, Mr. Linesides has learned to substitute the strategic shelter of mangrove roots and canopies for pier decks, dock pilings, and seawalls.

Regarding the reproductive cycle for baby Linesiders, the open water passes that it needs to spawn certainly does remain and has stood the test of time- such as Jupiter Inlet. This is true whether condominiums or pure natural sand and rock do (or do not) adorn the passes above the waterline. For spawning, a good tide, an inlet location and the proper bottom are the features that snook need to spawn in.

Therefore, Florida urban snook anglers need not despair, as any angler- novice or expert- can adapt to, and master the techniques of fishing our state docks and seawalls. By way of qualification, the rough geographical parameters of Florida's viable snook habitat has southern boundaries of the lower Keys, then all the way north to an east-west line running from north of the Space Coast to north of Homosassa Springs. Of note is the fact that this is an accessible fishery often not requiring motorboats so much as friends that have waterfront homes adjacent to South Florida's marine bays and canals.

The Ins and Outs of Docks and Seawalls

A concrete seawall presents a kind of structural simplicity that certain game fish absolutely are drawn to. Snook as well as jack crevalles have taken seawalls into their evolutionary programming and use them as dead-end surfaces to entrap the small mullet they have driven in from the adjacent docks or deeper channels.

There generally must be a seawall to provide a good perpendicular foundation for building out a dock, or as some call it, a pier. A seawall might mean snook passing through on the prowl, but what's needed to hold the snook in place for hiding and ambush abilities is a dock.

One of the best arrangements is to have a dock with an established boat at the end, as the vessel itself provides cover in addition to a bit of heat emission during cooler water times. One of the images in this article shows a fine snook caught right amongst the maze of docked boats on a live pinfish.

The seawall rises from the bottom to present a flat vertical obstruction that gives the fleeing bait no route of escape. Not only do snook and jacks chase bait into seawalls; they also habitually patrol these areas for baitfish cruising the wall as well. Many fish are structure loving and may prefer the seawall as something to hold to.

Again, it's important to see that seawalls as well as the docks that protrude from them provide feeding opportunities as well as resting and holding places. These are extremely close to the deeper water just out in front of the dock that was dredged out for the boats that may or may not be currently sitting on the water's surface.

Inside

The seawalls that border inland canals have much different water conditions. There is less water circulation, resulting in darker, stiller water. Since the canals were man-made with probable docks for boats, there will be a deeper channel in the center of the canal. The canals become an excellent warm water refuge for certain inshore game fish to tolerate the chills of winter. There are many special techniques that have evolved from fishing the canals off the Indian River for wintertime snook that can be applied to south Florida as well. Anglers spend many productive winter nights working canal docklights in Naples Bay for fast and furious snook action.

On the inside canal seawalls with less tidal influence, the fish may be facing all directions in a weaker current and tidal variation. All it may take is a good rain to get the inside canals pushing a freshwater current toward the ocean. Although this creates a preferable side of the dock and seawall to cast to, the fish will eventually leave that canal if the salinity drops too low. Snook, because of their nature, may remain under the docks during a freshwater runoff longer than will snapper, trout and redfish.

In addition, on the lower tides of the inside canal docks and seawalls, it pays to cast to the front of the dock, under the boat moored to it, and all the way into the channel. Game fish rest on the canal center if they sense too little water under the dock.

Outside

For seawalls on the open bay, there may be relatively fast currents of clean ocean-based water flowing alongside, especially if the wall is close to an ocean inlet. These seawalls will need pinpoint –versus "180 degree"- casting and fishing techniques. Outside docks and seawalls with faster currents stack snook in an uptide-facing posture that makes decisions about where to place casts quite simple.

An angler will generally find that on the "outside" docks and seawalls influenced by greater ocean tides may yield more fish underneath the shadows (or nighttime shadow lines) of the dock on the higher phases of the tide.

Dock-Snooking Both Day and Night

During the day- when tidal levels permit-snook will sit directly under the dock and lie in wait for passing prey, much like largemouth bass in cover. Snook generally don't want a plug ripped across the water surface alongside a dock and/or seawall. A more appropriate presentation is a D.O.A. shrimp or TerrorEyz cast well into the recesses of the dock (and its pilings) with the lure being slowly worked back.

During the day –especially the midday hours-the snook are generally "holding" deeper in the water column quite close to the bottom. If the dock is in the midst of deeply- dredged water coupled with a high tide, the water column might be as deep as eight to ten feet. In these cases, lures like bucktails lend themselves to bottom-bouncing retrieves.

As snook feed more strongly at night, they tend to rise in the water column alongside seawalls and docks during dusk, dawn, and especially, the "wee" hours. These are the times to focus angling efforts on docks that have a bright light focused right into the water. Some waterfront homeowners who love to fish for snook install "snook lights."

The lights work as a great nighttime bait attractor. Snook can easily see the bait it the bright light and can strike upwards at the bait- be it pilchards, minnows, or shrimp- with great effectiveness.

Nighttime snook also spread out from the dock into the lume of the lit-up water. Therefore, casting efforts should begin at the edges of the lume and proceed towards the actual shadow line of the dock. I have found that one of the best baits for these conditions is a large live shrimp fished on a small eighth-ounce jighead: this rig should be fished at a crawl all along the water column.

Dock Snook Tackle and Fighting Tactics

The ideal snook tackle consists of spinning or plug outfits, which feature an ultrastiff graphite rod, a high retrieve ratio reel and braided line. The setup gives the angler a zero-tolerance fighting tool. Leader material should be fluorocarbon and should never be less than thirty to forty pounds because of the severe line pressure placed on it along with a gamefish that routinely chafes through leaders.

Once the snook is hooked, a quick combination of striking, pumping and reeling is absolutely essential to get the snook away from the dock. There can be no room for the fish to turn back into the dock, or the cutoff will be rapid.

Armed with the above basics, anglers have a core plan for pursuing Florida's dock snook successfully. Additional refinements will occur while fishing as anglers encounter the variations in dock habitat across the state.

See all the photos from the outing in Jan Maizler's Photo Gallery.