Florida’s backwater bay systems hold deep, dock secrets.

Nearly every Sunshine State charter captain can claim a backpocket snook spot that holds a favorite piece of plank and piling. Docks are structure points, providing the cover and obstacle needed for snook to hide, ambush and pin prey to be devoured. Standard sights around dock pilings include mullet schools being crushed as resident snook up to 30 pounds blow up the bait in, around and under the docks. So what are you gonna throw?

The key to hooking up is understanding how to target actively feeding snook when they have all the food they need in front of them, aka when mullet are thick as pavement. Commotion is key. Triggering an impulse strike is the best trick to pull out of your bag. Topwater offerings such as the DOA BFL and Yo-Zuri Mag Darters ripped just outside of the pilings garner a reactive strike. If that doesn’t work, go a little deeper under the mullet schools with a 3/8 to ½-ounce Kalin’s leadhead tipped with a 4-inch Bass Assassin, or 5-3/4- inch Fin-s Fish in Arkansas Shiner, Albino Shad or Bubble Gum coloring. That’s daytime fishing. Night shifters working the dock lights under the guise of darkness will switch up to a 3 to 4-inch DOA Shrimp, in gold fleck/white or gray and white patterns and twitch the shrimp bait every two or three cranks of the reel. Casts should try and be skipped underneath the planks into the snook’s lair. Konda like the Bassmaster pros do with largemouths. The deeper you can get under the dock, the better. Night time dock snook fishing can be very precarious as a wizened fish will turn away at any offering after the second or third pass, so make your casts count the first time to put the lure in the strike zone perfectly.

When getting in deep under the docks, go with 30 to 50-pound class Power Pro braided running line, and employ the use of a heavier 30 to 50-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon shock leader with a 75-pound class Tactical Anglers Clip to the lure. A hooked, jumping snook will tangle you within the pilings and cut lines with their serrated gill plates on any leader less than 30-pound test so you need utmost pulling power and abrasion resistance to beat the brawny beast.