Senior Airmen at Patrick Air Force Base Kyle Krieger and his brother Garret displaying their catch for the camera.

Banana River Snook Guide

Fishing in the winter for snook in the Banana River? Not a normal catch...

These two brothers from Iowa spent a day fishing with Captain Richard Bradley on the Banana River Lagoon west of Cocoa Beach, Florida. They lost a monster redfish but managed to catch a nice snook in the cold winds of December.

Snook are a tropical fish and tend to get stressed out during the deeper winter months and cold fronts. Like many species of Florida fish, cold fronts can cause the fish to get lockjaw during the fronts but prior to the weather the fish often feed vigorously. The snook above was caught in a backwater canal at Cocoa Beach on a cold winter day and surprised me that the fish had it in him with the water temperatures going into the 50° degree mark. Typically I would have put these guys on deepwater trout but the water temperatures went down so quickly, the trout had not yet retreated to the deeper water and were very inconsistant. The following day, the trout made their appearance and the winter time trout fishing had arrived.

Better seasons for snook fishing in the Banana River are from May to October with May and June being primetime and the rest of the months ranging from good to fair. When the temperatures in the summer peak, the fish retreat to find cooler waters that have some turnover from the winds or tides. Fish in the summer can get as uncomfortable as they do in winter as the water gets to a simmering 90° causing most fish to not feed or to find shelter in shadier areas. (continued...)

Looking for information about fishing the Banana River Lagoon area in Central Florida? Call (321) 868-4953 and Ask for Captain Richard or his fishing mate Captain Gina. They'll be more than glad to talk to you in length about setting up a fishing trip while you're visiting the area.

Your IP Address is: 72.34.229.76

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Because snook are naucturnal feeders you'll find that early morning and evening is the best time to target these gamefish in the Banana River. Personally, I find that morning is better than evening and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because it takes them awhile to get into the night stalking and their stalking mode lingers into the morning. However, we do catch snook in the later part of the evening in the canals and waterways of the Banana River Lagoon.

There are several ways I approach snook fishing in the Banana River Lagoon. First and foremost, I try and get live bait and work a mangrove shoreline or docks. If I have pilchards in great quantaties, I'll use injured pilchards to chum as I'm fishing structure. If I have finger mullet, I probe with a live mullet and don't often use them as chum. secondly, I use artificials like jerkbaits with very little (if any) wieght. Skipping lighter colored jerkbaits under docks and mangroves can produce fantastic results.

In the early days before jerkbaits we would use stickbaits like Rapalas or Mirrorlures with good results, but your casting better be accurate or your hooking branches, docks and other assorted structure regularly. Thirdly, it's the fly... and for the fly fisherman it's often one of the greatest ways to catch a snook and often more productive than any other method, except you won't get the bigger ones as often as you could on live bait.

Recent Fishing Photographs

Try Snook Fishing in the Banana River

Snook fishing in the Banana River is great, whether you use artificials, flies or live bait. Come on aboard with a Lagooner fishing guide and we'll try to hook you up with your Banana River Snook.