Tims Big snook of the night
Tims Big snook of the night

the bait you NEED
the bait you NEED

Whether you own a boat or fish from land, the fall bait migration is a specatable for everyone.   Large pods of mullet, pilchards, sardines, etc flood our coastline and rivers bringing predators with them.

The local fish stage where they know they get can get an easy meal and thats your best bet:  Bridges and Inlets.

When targetting big snook at bridges the first thing you need to do is to step up your tackle.  If you are fishing from the bridge or boat you need heavier than normal tackle for that first 10 seconds of the fight where you are almost at 100% drag to pull them away from the structure.  Literally palming your spool to keep them out.

This is much easier done from a boat, as you can get an angle on them away from the pilings by having the boat as far aways from the bridge as possible.  This will allow you to pull away from the bridge rather than straight up and down.  If you are fishing from the actual bridge or strucutre than an 8 foot rod is going to be a huge help along with atleast 80lb leader.

The trick to getting big snook is figuring out when they eat.  In most cases you can't go wrong in the late hours of the night, however knowing your tides is going to be a huge help.  Genenerally the bridges are most active when the tide is flowing from North to South, so figure that out for your bridge.  As you get closer to the inlets, an outgoing tide is great as well.

We are only fishing live mullet for these big snook during the bait migration.  You will see them blast moving pods and if you get a bait in front of them they will eat it.  

On many nights there is too much bait and fishing is tough, for this I alway recommend doing something different to make your bait appear injured and an easy meal for predators.

The most effective method is by adding a small amout of weight.  That mullet will have no choice but to dig down deeper and look unsual compared to his mates.  That weight will be pull his nose down.   You can also clip the tail with scissors to take a little fight out of the mullet making it easier for tarpon to find and eat them.  

Another method is simly to fish a dead bait whole or just a head.   Experiment while you are out there.  You don't want to give the snook too much credit, as when they are hungry they will eat.   

In the following video I was using:

20 Lb Spinning Rod
40 LB Baid
50 BL mono leader (using bristol knot)
6/0 Circle Hook

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Tight Lines
Captain Mike

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