Snook are loaded around John’s Pass lately nearly every morning from around 2-3am until the sunrise the lights of Johns pass can be found loaded down with schoolie sized snook. Also, around the jetties and bridge many anglers are nailing some good sized fish into the upper 30’s using the flairhawk style jigs. Our friend John Sasser and his friends prefer the Rattlehawk jig which is like any flairhawk-style jig but it added a little rattler to the lure too for added sound while working the lure slowly just above the bottom on the retrieve with the current. John swears this helps get their attention and entice a solid strike. The start and end of the incoming tide produced the best this past week at night for John and his buddies around the pass on the snook. They even jumped some big tarpon from the jetties as well while working their flairhawks in the current. During the day the snook are still being caught, but mostly from the beaches and mostly smaller sized fish in the 20’s and low 30’s around the troughs of the beaches as they hunt for any prey along the bottom like the free lined live shrimp on a 2-3ot hook and 15-20 floro leader.

Occasionally, you can find some big girls during the day but they are much more common in the passes at night. The Mangrove snapper are definitely getting more prolific in the pass as well, especially on the start of the outgoing tide you can find clouds of hungry piranha like mangrove snapper ready to devour some whitebait or small shrimp using a free lined 1ot hook and 15lb floro. The pompano bite slowed down dramatically as the water got super warm, they are more of a cooler water fish. However, the speckled trout have been biting well around the pass especially at night around the south side of the pass in the lights of the gator’s docks you can work the docks by boat and do very well on some rather large gator sized trout while free lining live shrimp or greenbacks. Also the DOA shrimp has always been one of my favorite go-to lures for working the dock lights of Johns pass.