Outdoors: Big snook test patience of anglers

If you are like me, you have searched around the flats endlessly looking for potential fish to catch. Your eyes stay peeled to the water for any movement as you drive along slowly wanting to find that next group of snook or redfish. As you come over a big sand hole, you see one, two, 10 or 20 big snook. You've found them, and now all you need to do is get your bait in there and they will eat it!

You circle around, anchor, and fish, hoping your loud approach didn't scare them. These snook are known as celebrities: You can look, but you can't touch. These big mamas don't eat for everybody.

This seems to happen far more often than not. Big snook are notorious for their ability to lazily stay in one spot and not eat anything you throw at them, especially during the day.

I've come to believe there is no catching large flats line siders unless everything comes together perfectly. Capt. Chris Wiggins thinks this past week was that time.

"Big snook are finally moving out of their winter homes," Wiggins said. "I've looked and looked everyday and one day they all showed up. Next thing I know I saw about 50-60 snook bigger than 40 inches on a flat!"

With that many big fish you would hope catching them would be easier. That's not the case. Wiggins tends to ignore the bigger fish, not actively pursuing them.

"I usually start fishing for the smaller schools of fish, they are more willing to eat. When this happens I'll throw a big bait or two off the opposite side we're fishing and just leave it in the rod holder. Those are the ones that usually get bit by big fish."

He said patience is the key and by keeping those bigger baits out of the way of where he is actively fishing, his odds are better for big fish. This technique has produced three huge flats snook for Wiggins in the past week of 42, 44, and 44.5-inches. The most memorable came after catching about 70-smaller snook as he was getting ready to move spots.

"The small snook were on fire, but the big baits hadn't been touched after about an hour. As we were going to leave I grabbed the butt of the rod to take it out of the rod holder and next thing I know the line came tight and the rod went flying out of my hands. I grabbed the gaff and snagged the rod out of the water, handing it off to my client. He caught that fish, it was 44 inches!"

For bait, Wiggins said you can get a bit creative, as the bigger snook can be a bit lazy. Big whitebait, mojarras, half a pinfish and various other dead baits soaked in a sandy hole can produce better results than frisky pilchards.

"For the next month it'll be possible. I think they are between their winter and summer spots. These snook are so big I think they move to reefs off the beaches or in the bay. They will eat a big bait on the flats if you can find them and be patient."

This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Outdoors: Big snook test patience of anglers ."