BigBendFishing.Net

Hey guys I,m thinking of taking trip this April to the Clearwater area and fishing the docks, sea walls, and mangrove islands in the bay for snook. I wanted to know if anyone on here has had any experience fishing for snook in that area and any advice you may have for targeting them.

I lived in N. Tampa for 30 yrs and grew up fishing the area you are talking about. My advice would be to hire a guide.

There is so much fishing pressure down there that the fish are wise to most all artificial lures. To have success you need to cast net a bunch of live greenbacks and keep them very lively. The locals guard their bait holes even closer than their fishing holes, and have giant livewells on their boats to load up on bait.

If you choose to pursue it on your own, the residential canals behind Culbreath Isles is a good place to start. You need to study aerial photos of the bay and pick out the docks with deeper water / holes under them. Put a live greenback on a lightweight circle hook and skip him up under the dock, then watch for your line to twitch. If the bait doesn't get real active under the dock, go to the next one. If the bait starts struggling, hold on to your pole. When the snook hits the tug of war is on to get him clear of the dock pilings. If you get him clear and he runs to the opposite side of your boat, do not put as much pressure on him as you did to get him out. If you do, he will run right back under the dock.

The exception to needing live bait is night time fishing. The snook and reds will hit artificials at night but you need to be familiar enough with the bay to navigate. Lighted docks are good fished with live bait as described above. The fish are not too spooky because they are used to boat traffic. On some occasions, when the bay is clear, you can troll up to a dock and see the fish laying underneath then back off and catch them on live bait.

Some of those nice South - Florida residents will come out on their dock and scream at you for fishing there. They are convinced they own the water as well as their yards. On a couple occasions, I got to talk to a local police officer as well as the resident Yankee. Being a land surveyor, I normally knew more about riparian rights in Florida than the responding officer and was able to finish fishing the dock however, it is not relaxing to fish like that.

Overall, the fishing is better up here and less trouble.

Good luck if you go.