After a long and hot summer, good news comes in the form of OPEN SEASON for snook! Fishing for snook is very fun during the September because of the sheer amount of bait and snook around local beaches. They have readily inhaled live bait and artificial presentations the last three months, but once the season opens the bite gets a little tougher. September separates the men from the boys.
Don’t be discouraged. September can still be very good for snook fishing in general. If there is enough of the summer bait still around, they will still be available for the taking. I have seen some months of September where you have summer bait like pilchards, threadfins and sardines actually overlap the beginning of the fall mullet run. That will depend on when we get the first cold fronts from the NW and then followed by NE winds. Depending on the air and water temperatures towards the end of the month, snook will move and stay near local inlets versus the beach. As the temperatures drop in the following months, the snook will move deeper inside the ICW and to local bridges. Snook regulations will be 28″- 32″ with a pinched tail for a legal “slot” fish. 1 fish per angler per day bag limit.
Moving on to other species, there should be tarpon, cero mackerel, jack crevalle and barracuda around the bait schools. These species can be taken on a variety of artificial lures, live bait and at times cut bait. After hours species include mangrove and mutton snapper. These are usually caught on cut bait on bottom. Fresh dead bait can be a killer. Fresh caught pilchards or spanish sardines are hard for snapper to pass up. I usually fish around the pier pilings with a spinning rod in hand to get my limit of mangrove snapper. There is a daily bag limit of 5 mangrove snapper per person and they must be 10″ in length. I fish for mutton snapper with cut bait out on the reefs. Mutton snapper must be 18″ in length to harvest. The daily bag limit for snapper is 10 fish per person aggregate. Make sure you do your math when the bite is hot!
Overall, September is a great month of transition from summer to fall fishing. Because of the possibility of a variety of bait being around the beaches, the chance of hooking a ton of different species makes fishing exciting. Plan ahead and bring multiple presentation options to the pier. You never know what may swim by!
If you have any questions or need an updated fishing report, feel free to contact me on Facebook or at T&R Tackle.
Josh Manso
aka “King of the Pompano Pier”
T & R Tackle Shop
Lauderdale By The Sea
(954) 776-1055
facebook.com/tandrtackle