Also known as Linesider (Florida), Robalo (Sp.), Common Snook. Bait, technique, tide windows, and where the bite is on right now.
Snook — Florida inshore ambush predator — lights, docks, mangrove edges. Also called Linesider (Florida), Robalo (Sp.), Common Snook.
Snook are sensitive to water temperature below 15°C — a single cold snap that drops Florida back-bay water into the low 50s F kills hundreds of thousands of snook across the state and resets the fishery for a decade. The 1989, 2010 and 2018 freezes each took a generation of trophy fish out of the population. Catch and release is now the dominant ethic.
Snook is also known as: Linesider (Florida), Robalo (Sp.), Common Snook. Florida inshore ambush predator — lights, docks, mangrove edges.
Regional names can confuse anglers and cause misidentification. The table of common names below covers the most-used alternatives across Australia, New Zealand and the US:
Key to correct identification: check the regulations-authority species sheet for your state or territory before keeping any fish — minimum legal sizes, bag limits and identification guides are published by each fisheries department and are the authoritative source.
Hero spots in our coverage where Snook is in season for June. Click through for the live forecast.
Dock lights at night: anchor up-current, drift live pilchards or 5" jerk baits into the shadow line — snook hold facing into the current on the dark side of the light. Mangrove edges: cast tight to roots on the run-out tide; work plastics with twitch-twitch-pause. Beach: cruise the surf at dawn looking for cruising snook in 1–2 ft of water — sight-fish them with a soft plastic. The strike is unmistakable: heavy thump and instant run for structure.
Run-out tide along mangroves and dock structures is the textbook window — bait is pushed into ambush zones, snook intercept. Dock lights fire on the run-up too as bait drifts past. The first hour of a tide change at a known feeding lane is the absolute prime time.
Snook are night-active throughout, but the dark of the moon (new moon nights) is consistently the best dock-light window — less ambient light makes the light shadow lines starker, snook hunt aggressively. Full-moon nights can shut down the dock bite (they've fed all night already).
Florida: 28–32" or 28–33" slot (Gulf vs Atlantic — verify), 1 per person, snook permit required ($10 plus license), strict closed seasons (typically Dec 15 – Jan 31 and May 1 – Aug 31 Gulf side; Dec 15 – Jan 31 and June 1 – Aug 31 Atlantic side — verify FWC). The Gulf had recent further closures after red tides killed adult fish. Treat them as a recovering fishery; release with care.
From our training corpus of ~1.1M angler-logged catches across 14 regions. Last refreshed 2026-05-18.
Olli-Mikael Vaittinen has fished his whole life. Fifteen years of fly fishing, guiding seasons on Norway's Lakselva — his favourite Atlantic salmon river — and a blue marlin landed in Vava'u, Tonga. Founder of Fishare — the app that puts the data behind the decisions every angler makes on the water.
Fishare tracks your home spots and pings you when the next 3-hour peak window opens. Log catches and blanks to teach the model your local patterns. Free forever for everyone who joins now.
Open Fishare