78 JANUARY 2018lure starts to wobble the rod tip without
moving too fast past the structure and
fish. But at the same time, keeping
the lure too close to the boat can be
counterproductive. The boat can spook
the fish as it passes overhead. It’s a
fine balance.
We also crisscross back and forth
through canals, making passes near
structure that might hold snook.
When large volumes of water
run through the rivers during lunar
flood tides, or when the spillways are
opened due to high rainfall, it’s usually
a productive time to troll plugs. For
example, during a November evening
when a stronger-than-normal flood
tide roared through the double spans
of Davie Boulevard Bridge, by trolling
a bonito-colored Rapala X-Rap 30 with
the direction of the strong current, we
caught an estimated 30-plus-pound
snook. We also caught two snook,
34 and 36 inches, on the same exact
lure. The X-Rap 20 of the same color
pattern on the second rod was not
swimming deep enough. When the
flood gates along state road 84 were
opened in June due to high precipita-
tion, we did especially well, catching
fish all along the multiple narrower
spanned bridges of the New River.STRUCTURE IS EVERYTHING
While we have caught snook and
sometimes tarpon trolling blindly
through much of Fort Lauderdale’s
New River, Miami’s Miami River and
the Intracoastal Waterway, it is much
more productive concentrating time
and effort near structure. On occasion,
especially October through May, we
sometimes catch gag grouper on the
plugs, especially around the bridges.
The biggest snook we’ve caught have
come on plugs trolled around bridges
and docks where there is good current
flow. Concentrate efforts wherever you
find spots for these ambush feeders
— sharp points, pilings, bumpers, irreg-
ular bottom contours and, at night, theSTORAGE
It is notoriously difficult to keep diving plugs free and untangled from each other in my standard
Plano 3400 trays. I use the 3400s for long-term storage, but I fabricated a more efficient container
for storing multihook dive plugs that makes life easier when I’m on my skiff rummaging for plugs
in the dark. The box is a plastic square container (or you could use a milk crate) filled with 10-inch
sections of 2-inch PVC pipe. No more fumbling with tangled lures; they slide neatly in and out of
the PVC tubes.
shadow lines from lights on the bridge.
The snook will lie like trout resting in
eddies behind rocks, only the snook do
this behind bridge pilings. When there
is strong current, the structure acts as
a respite from fast-moving water. Troll
close to the pilings. I try to do this by
positioning the boat so the braided line
enters the water as close to the pilings
as possible along whichever side of the
bridge the closest rod passes by.
We catch large female snook
year-round trolling the rivers of
Fort Lauderdale and Miami. My
longtime friend and retired snook
biologist Ron Taylor, from Florida Fish
and Wildlife, learned from telemetry
tracking data that as many as one-third
of a breeding stock of snook skip their
annual spawn. “Not all of them head
out to the inlets to sow their oats from
June through September, which is
contrary to what we had believed for
many years,” he says. And if those fish
are not stacked during the spawn aggre-
gation at inlets such as Port Everglades,
Haulover or Government Cut, there is a
good chance they are in the rivers and
ICW year-round.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Adrian E. Gray is an artist and marine
photographer specializing in fishing,
underwater and marine-related
media. Born in South Africa, Adrian
lives in South Florida, where he works
as the full-time creative staff for the
International Game Fish Association.Trolling at night can be a particularly pleasant
way to fish, especially during the stifling heat
of summer days.