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During this transitional spring pattern, Taylor said that the popular linesiders are now on their way out of the rivers and probably setting up around some river mouths, out on the flats, but ultimately migrating towards the inlets, passes and their summer shoreline spawning sites.

Typical of excellent snooking locations would be places like Terra Ceia Bay in Manatee County. One can find snook in there year ‘round, especially along that northwest shoreline, fishing those flats and cuts with an excellent prospect of finding some hefty keeper snook. “That whole area is good all the way back to that first series of concrete seawalls,” advised Taylor. “There are two creeks there that go all the way to Rattlesnake Key. And they love to get in there during winter. In the spring and summer, they’ll just stay at the mouth of that creek. This is typical of the kind of habitat that snook prefer.”

Taylor suggests that there’s one common necessity for finding large numbers of snook – current flow. “For example, on a two tide day, with slow movement of water, you might as well keep your tacklebox in the garage – don’t even think of going fishing. Therefore, if you’ll be targeting snook, you have to fish a location with good current. You’ll also need an area with deep water nearby that falls off in low tides.”  He said that you should seek an area with some kind of structure, as well as a grass flat in the vicinity, which typically holds a good food supply in the form of baitfish and crustaceans. Snook also prefer cover and structure in which to hide so as to avoid predators.

While good tidal flow is critical to your snooking success, very strong tides can actually shut down the bite. “That’s like you and I, able to stand breezes possibly up to 35 or 40 miles an hour. But if you stood in stronger winds, you’d get uncomfortable and want to go inside. It’s the same way .with snook and most species. I’d say that if the current gets much more over 3 or 4 knots per hour, they’re not going to stay, looking for some kind of structure to get behind until the current flow diminishes.”

Taylor added that the best time to snook fish would be at the top of the tide when it starts to go out.  “I do well about two to three hours into the outgoing tide.”

He contends that our snook populations are robust here on Florida’s west coast.  “The east coast appears to be a bit leaner when it comes to snook populations. There, the numbers and recruitment (more generations of snook) have been down for the last three years. While there are many adult fish, the amount of recruitment snook is definitely dropping. So that’s why we had to change some of the regulations.”

Biologically speaking, according to Taylor, snook populations in Florida are probably at an all time high. “I know that’s difficult to say in the face of these new regulations. But what we’re looking at are some increased measures to account for potential problems that we can’t predict, plus those low levels of recruitment on Florida’s east coast. “In other words, it’s just like putting out a grass fire before it becomes an all consuming forest fire.”

According to Taylor, the extra month’s snook season closure on Florida’s west coast, put into place a few years ago was “biologically almost a moot point.” He said that if he was going to manage these sticks from a biological perspective, that month would not have been required.  “But the stakeholders demanded that we adhere to the 40-percent spawning potential ratio (SPR) goal that was set by the commission in 1994. They would not move from that goal. It was absolutely mandatory. In the face on increased exploitation, reduced recruitment on Florida’s east coast, and in the face of destruction of available juvenile snook habitat, we had no alternative but to change the regulations.”

Is all this a good thing? Absolutely,” said Taylor. “We never would have gotten to where we are today with our abundant snook populations had we not adhered to that 40-percent SPR these last several years.”