04 / SALT / SNOOK
Snook live in places where you can't throw most lures — under docks, in mangrove roots, along seawalls. The lures that work are the ones that match the bait (usually mullet or pilchards), can be worked on a slow retrieve, and survive the structure. These picks cover dawn topwater, midday deep structure, and everything between.
BOMBER
Slow-sinking twitch/walk bait built for flats. The mullet profile is what everything inshore eats from June through October. Twitch it, let it sink, watch the rod double.
LIVETARGET
Photo-finish realism for clear-water inshore. Snook see colors. Yes, really.
RAPALA
Topwater walk-the-dog for saltwater. Snook blow up on it at dawn, redfish crush it over oyster bars at dusk. The saltwater version of the Zara Spook argument — and Rapala's answer.
BERKLEY
Six inches of pearl white scented plastic is the big-trout bait when schoolies ignore everything else. Rig it weedless, work it over oyster bars on a slow retrieve, and find out how big the speckled trout get in your creek.
PAUL BROWN
Hand-poured suspending bait. Texas seatrout religion. The most expensive thing you'll lose to a redfish today.
MIRROLURE
The flats jerkbait that has redfish writing letters to the FTC.
RAPALA
The freshwater darter with VMC saltwater hooks. Same dance, salt-grade hardware.
FIELD JOURNAL
Berkley Gulp for Inshore FishingVIEW ALL
Inshore Jerks.