Common Snook

Identification

Unmistakable: a hard black lateral line running the full length of the body and into the tail, a sloping forehead and a protruding lower jaw. Bright silver flanks, yellowish fins on fish from clear coastal water.

Habitat & Range

Estuaries, mangrove shorelines, coastal rivers, passes, inlets and surf beaches. Highly temperature-sensitive and vulnerable to cold kills, which sets the northern limit of the range.

Florida and the Gulf of Mexico south through the Caribbean to Brazil. In Florida, abundant from roughly Tampa Bay and Cape Canaveral southward.

Diet & Feeding

Ambush predator. Pinfish, mullet, pilchards, shrimp and crabs, taken from current seams and around structure, largely at night and around tide changes.

Spawning & Reproduction

Spawns through the warm months, broadly April or May into September or October, aggregating at the mouths of coastal rivers and in the major passes and inlets. Spawning concentrates around the new and full moons. Snook are protandric — most begin life as males and larger fish are predominantly female, which is why the biggest fish in an aggregation are the ones a population can least afford to lose.