How to Catch Giant Snook on Jigs and Topwater Lures [With Jupiter Snooker]
- By: Joseph Simonds
- on
Do you want to catch the snook of your lifetime?
Looking for techniques and spots to chase down trophy-sized linesiders?
Catching big snook is one of the most difficult and rewarding experiences you can have as an inshore angler. These fish are powerful, smart and picky. Learning how to catch these big snook takes time, patience and persistence.
We decided to talk to Captain Dale Ash, aka Jupiter Snooker, to see what he does to target lunker snook.
Captain Dale Ash: Jupiter Snooker
Captain Dale was born and raised in Miami. He grew up fishing Biscayne Bay with his dad, the Miami canals for peacock bass and other exotic species and the Florida Keys for tarpon and snook.
After attending the University of Central Florida, Dale moved to Jupiter, Florida about 15 years ago. Once there, he started learning about the tides and working docks and lights for smaller and slot snook in the Jupiter area.
He tangoed with some trophy-size snook a couple times while learning the area and quickly realized he wanted that to be his fulltime fishing endeavor.
Dale’s been specifically targeting giant snook in Jupiter ever since and is now one of the best trophy-snook fishing guides in the entire country.
His clients come from all over the world to catch these monster snook and Dale has his fishing spots dialed in — consistently catching 40+ inch snook all year long.
Check out Dale and his client with one of his monster snook in the picture below:
In this podcast episode, we go over the following giant snook topics:
- How to Find Giant Snook
- What Lures to Throw at Giant Snook
- How to Rig Your Rod for Big Snook
Do you fish for monster snook? What’s your favorite tactic for targeting them?
Let me know in your comments below!
Note: Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to the Fish Strong podcast on iTunes or Google Play.
Jupiter Snooker on the Fish Strong Podcast
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Note: Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to the Fish Strong podcast on iTunes or Google Play.
Throwing Jigs for Big Snook
Dale started targeting giant snook by learning to throw big, heavy jigs that allowed him to fish deep water with fast-moving current.
He says that it takes a little while to learn how to work these jigs the right way. It took him four overnight snook fishing trips throwing the jig before he even hooked up to a snook.
Breeder snook spend most of their time sitting on the bottom in deep water. Sitting on the bottom allows them to sit just out of the heavy current and ambush prey that is swept over their heads.
Fishing big jigs allows you to effectively work the bottom of these giant snook spots and get your presentation right in front of them.
Dale’s go-to snook jig is a 1.5 oz First Light Lure Bucktail Jig. He says a 1.5 oz jig allows him to fish the bottom in 8-14′ of water in a medium current. This is Dale’s go to lure for night fishing, which is the time of day he catches most of his beast snook.
If he can’t feel the bottom with his 1.5 oz jig, either because it is too deep or the current is too fast, he switches to a 2 oz jig and will keep increasing the jig size by half an ounce until he can effectively bounce it off the bottom.
Topwater Lures for Big Snook [Video]
When Dale targets big snook in the early morning on the flats, he almost always throws big topwater lures.
His favorite topwater lure is the Yo-Zuri 5″ Bronze Hydro Pencil. He likes throwing this lure because it is usually designed to target big fish offshore and has high-quality hooks that hold up against lunker snook.
Dale also uses this topwater because it is heavier than most topwater lures, which allows him to cast longer distances to reach snook that are farther away.
Check out the video below where Dale talks about why he uses the Hydro Pencil to target trophy snook:
He attaches the lure to 60-80 lb fluorocarbon leader using the Rapala Loop Knot.
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Conclusion
Check out Dale’s Instagram page to stay up to date with all his monster snook catches.
To book Dale for your next trophy snook fishing charter, check out the Jupiter Snooker website here.
What did you think of this episode? Have any big snook fishing tips we didn’t go over?
Let us know in the comments!
To learn more about the Insider Fishing Club, click here now.
P.S. – To see all of the past podcast episodes, click here now.
Tight lines!
Related Posts:
1. 5 Shortcuts For Catching Snook In Florida
2. Snook Fishing: Tips On Catching Snook In The Summer
3. Are You Making These 3 Deadly Mistakes When Releasing Snook?
Related Course:
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I had the pleasure of going out with Captain Dale recently and I highly recommend him to anyone. Took my 16yr. old daughter and he made sure she had a blast….what else can you ask. We caught great fish and had a fantastic time. Booking again for next year.
Great podcast.
That was cool. Big jigs in the rivers and creeks in the ENP?