Gardner Love shows his pending record snook for Alabama waters. The 7.02 pounder is a rarity anywhere north of Florida, but warmer water is allowing increased migration. (Photo credit Len Love)

By Frank Sargeant
Frankmako1@gmail.com

Snook, generally recognized as a tropic species, are continuing their northward march as mild winters allow their expansion along the Gulf Coast.

Latest proof is a pending new Alabama state record linesider caught by 17-year-old Gardner Love of Elberta, who caught a 7.04-pound snook from Soldier Creek, a brackish water bayou off Perdido Bay, just west of Pensacola but beyond the Fla/Ala line.

Snook monsters like this one are mostly found on Florida's east coast and in the tropics, but in future it's possible much larger ones could be caught well north of their traditional habitat. (Frank Sargeant)

Snook traditionally lived only south of what some called the “Snook Line”, stretching roughly from Daytona Beach to Tarpon Springs, Florida, with a few outliers in the springs around Homosassa and Crystal River. But over the last 20 years, the fish have been steadily expanding north along the Gulf Coast. Love’s record replaces a 5-pound 2 ounce snook caught just last year—and those are the only two snook that have ever been entered for Alabama records because previously the fish just weren’t there in more or less adult sizes.

In general, the migrations appear to have been by mature fish that spread northward until they find suitable overwinter habitat, then spawn there in spring and establish new populations. This has been the process around the Suwannee/Cedar Key/Steinhatchee area, where biologists with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission and the University of Florida report there is now a breeding population almost 100 miles north of where they were found previously. 

Snook are a favorite gamefish in Florida, and with warmer winters, they might become established in Alabama and other Gulf Coast states. (Frank Sargeant)

Guides in the area now regularly target snook, and anglers fishing the Suwannee River report the fish sometimes travel more than 50 miles up that legendary river in winter to settle into warm springs and wait out the chilly weather. It’s not to the point where, if you specifically wanted to catch a snook you’d go to this area rather than further south, but it’s a distinct possibility that you might catch a snook along with the abundant reds and sea trout of the area on any given trip.

Scott Bannon, head of Alabama’s Marine Fisheries Division, said that the state may soon consider establishing minimum size and bag limits as well as harvest seasons for snook if they become more common in Alabama waters. The species is tightly regulated in Florida due to its popularity as a food fish as well as a game fish, with many months of closed seasons and very tight slot and bag limits.

Texas anglers are also catching more snook in the southern portions of the Laguna Madre, the vast coastal bay famed for knee-deep water and abundant redfish and trout populations. 

Winter cold snaps have historically been the limiting factor on the northern limit of snook country. Water temperatures below 60 degrees for an extended period are lethal to snook, and the occasional cold snap even in areas like Tampa Bay often results in lots of dead fish. But the abundant springs in the “Big Bend” section of Florida’s Gulf Coast is no doubt a moderating factor—water in the 70’s is available year around in these refuges, and the fish swarm to them as temperatures drop in late November, remaining in brackish or even fresh water until the end of February.

While it’s likely to be a few decades before anglers along the north Gulf Coast, including Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and east Texas, have a real shot at targeting snook, Gardner Love’s catch is a sign that the fish are on their way north.