Collection: Snook Tackle

Jig heads, soft plastics and the leader that stops a snook cutting you off.

Snook fishing is an argument about abrasion. A snook's whole escape strategy is to run you into something sharp — a barnacled piling, a bridge fender, a mangrove root — and it will do it within the first three seconds of the fight. Everything about snook tackle is built around that one problem.

Which is why fluorocarbon leader is not optional here, and why most people fish 20 to 25lb rather than the 15lb they would use for redfish. You need abrasion resistance more than you need invisibility, and fluoro is the material that gives you both.

For lures, a paddle tail on a sweeper jig head slow-rolled past a dock light is as close to a guaranteed presentation as inshore fishing offers. Snook stack up on the dark side of the light and ambush bait drifting through.

Fish the outgoing tide at night around passes and lit docks from Sarasota through the Keys and up the Atlantic side. Check current closed seasons before you keep one.