Fishing with Capt. George Tunison | Snook heading to warm winter spots
Dropping temperatures, less humidity, change is definitely in the air prompting many snook to leave the beaches and start their move inland to their favorite warm wintering spot far upriver. Anglers might find one, or a school almost anywhere holding temporarily around choice structure and choke points in the river or along wind-blown island points, waiting to ambush your live bait, fly, or lure. Depending on water depth and location and with water temperatures ranging from 75-84, faster moving search lures like spoons allow anglers to cast far, and cover water more efficiently. Treble hooked spoons are a high percentage bait meaning they not only cast far, but can be retrieved at a moderately fast pace and also attract, hook, and hold on to high flying linesiders as long as an always starving redfish doesn’t intercept them first.
Not all spoons swim the same but no matter the brand, a medium fast retrieve causing the lure to wobble and flash -without ever spinning- is the right retrieve. Always use a small, high quality swivel (SPRO) and a 24″ minimum leader although I believe 36″ or longer leaders get more bites.
Top water plugs are also great search baits that cast far and should be worked back quickly with much faster, snook attracting, splashy, erratic retrieves, rather than slower paced “walk the dog” styles one might use for flats redfish. Snook enjoy the chase while the waters still warm.
When fishing high percentage spots along the way like island points which snook use to ambush prey, before casting position the boat and cast up tide bringing your lure down past the point or structure with the tide and past the waiting ambush, as the predators will typically be facing into the current waiting for a free spooned handout to come around the point. A lure coming from the opposite way is unnatural as bait fishes don’t sneak up on predators from behind.
Oyster bars, edges, and drop-offs with good current flow are always reliable places to prospect for with snag resistant topwater plugs.
Again, proper boat positioning before casting increases your chance of success when casting to any type of structure from bars to docks to bridges, especially when current and wind are present. “Setting up” or proper boat positioning before casting is often referred to as “reading the water”.
As the week’s progress and the waters start to cool, spending a beautiful day on the river slowly fishing an endless parade of docks is a great way to catch a whopper traveling eastward. When it comes to fishing docks and other overhanging structure, first practice your skip casting techniques to fish much more efficiently. Edge casting a dock may excite a young, eager snook but move a jumbo, well-seasoned snook to come out of her dark protected comfort zone? Probably not. Now, skip cast a nice DOA Shrimp far back and under and let it fall on her face? Hold on!
When it comes to our October schooling redfish the two lures the spoon and the top water are basically all you need to get in on the action. For open water redfishing a spoon is always a top choice, search bait, beating out a topwater because of its better hooking properties. If weeds come close to the surface topwaters win out.
For tailing reds, a softly presented plastic shrimp or crab imitation is always hard to beat. Try a DOA Shrimp and or a Berkley GULP crab cast 3 feet in front of the fish and let sink to the bottom in the hungry reds path. Game on!
Even though red snapper is open to harvest this Friday to Sunday, predicted wind gusts up to 30 MPH for Saturday will keep most in port, hoping for better conditions in the following days. If you work Monday through Friday chances are the weather will be near perfect all week. Sorry sailor, safety first!
Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. You can contact him at captgeorget4@yahoo.com or 239-440-1621.