Snook Becoming More Common in Alabama Coastal Waters

By DAVID RAINER, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

In the past, a fish with common in its name has been practically non-existent in Alabama’s coastal waters. However, anglers are increasingly encountering the common snook along Alabama’s beautiful coast, quite a distance from its traditional range in south Florida.

As Alabama anglers started hooking these fish with a large mouth and long lateral line, Dr. Charlie Martin of the University of South Alabama (USA) and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL) took interest and wanted to document the fish’s relative abundance in Alabama waters.

“The historic range was just north of Tampa to the south on the Gulf side,” said Martin, a north Alabama native. “I started on the staff at the University of Florida in 2016 working around Cedar Key. We started catching snook there, big ones, and I wrote a paper on that. I got my Ph.D. at the University of South Alabama and Dr. (Sean) Powers recruited me to come back to Alabama.

“Then all of a sudden, there’s all these reports of snook showing up in coastal Alabama. I followed the snook all the way to the northern Gulf. We’ve had reports in the Florida Panhandle, and we’ve had some reports from Mississippi. Of course, if you catch them at Dauphin Island, it’s not that far to Mississippi.”

Martin said anglers have reported more than 150 snook hooked in Alabama waters, which he thinks is a low estimate.

“That’s quite a bit, but that’s just what gets reported,” he said. “There’s likely way more that don’t get reported.

“There’s a lot of excitement around it, and a lot of the fishing guides are really excited.”

Kevin Anson, Director of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ (ADCNR) Marine Resources Division (MRD), said it’s not that unusual for species that inhabit more tropical waters to find their way to Alabama.

“From time to time we have captured bonefish, considered more of a fish from tropical waters, and its occurrence usually coincided with periods of time when we’ve had warm winters for two or three winters in a row,” Anson said. “African pompano have been caught more frequently than in the past. We have some increase in species not routinely caught off Alabama in the most recent time period of 50 or so years. 

“We will certainly be interested in any information on snook that Charlie and his staff and students are gathering. We just don’t have a lot of data. The state of Florida has done a lot of research, and that’s where we’ve gone to try to understand its biology and life cycle. That is what we’ve been using so far, but our habitat is significantly different than the habitat where most of the research has been conducted. There may be differences in age and growth and reproduction in the northern Gulf. It will take a while to build up a good body of that research, but we’re appreciative of any research they (USA) can do for that species."

Adam Rhodes of Elberta currently holds the state record for snook at 13.7 pounds, caught in February this year. A 72.6-pound snook was caught earlier this year off the coast of Costa Rica.

Martin said snook are particularly sensitive to water temperatures, which is why they are just now showing up off Alabama.

“At 10C (centigrade, 50 degrees Fahrenheit), they are not going to hang around,” Martin said. “Or if they are around, they’re going to find some warm water, some thermal refuges. What we’re finding, we think, is that some of these coastal rivers have deep spots where the water is stratified. The cold water will be on top and the more insulated water down deep, where they can survive one or two weeks of cold.

“Snook are a real interesting fish. Globally, that family of fish is more of a river species than a marine fish. The common snook we have here is kind of an outlier. We think of them as saltwater fish, but they can survive in full freshwater. When I was in Florida, we had snook reports coming from all the way up to the Okefenokee Swamp. In salinity tolerance, snook are more tolerant of freshwater than even redfish.”

Another surprise for Martin came after the epic winter storm that dumped 8 to 10 inches of snow on coastal Alabama in January 2025.

“We found that snook were still around after that cold weather we had in January last year,” he said. “That was a lot of snow. I never expected to see that in my lifetime. But, the next month, we took the electrofishing boat out and shocked snook in Weeks Bay and its tributaries. We get reports from all over our coastal waters, like Fowl River and Fish River. The highest concentration seems to be in Baldwin County around the Perdido Bay area.

“We don’t know if the range will continue expanding. We’ll see. Only time will tell, but with the all the snow we had last year, if that doesn’t kill snook, what will?”

Martin said the snook’s range is also increasing to other areas, like South Carolina, the Texas Gulf Coast and the east coast of Florida.

Martin and his team are doing extensive research, including tagging some snook with acoustic tags.

“Of course, we’re documenting their presence,” he said. “We also want to know where they go in the wintertime, those thermal refuges. They are probably like a manatee. Manatees have to find that warm water, so they could be in the same places. We’re tagging some fish to get movement patterns.

“Eventually, we want to start looking at what kind of impact they have because these are voracious predators. They’re a lot of fun to catch, and they eat just about everything. They have a big mouth, like a largemouth bass, and some people fish for them the same way. They like getting in structure with their head poking out, ready to ambush any kind of prey.”

Martin is asking all Alabama anglers who encounter snook to report those catches to hookedasnook@gmail.com or cmartin@disl.org or zhendrickson@disl.org. Martin is asking anglers to report approximate date of catch, general location, a size estimate and/or a photo.

Although not yet a regular catch, MRD established a size and bag limit for snook of a one-fish daily bag and 28-inch minimum total length.

“This was a preemptive way to regulate a fish, albeit a limited number of fish, compared to other traditional species here,” Anson said. “It was to make sure there wasn’t too much harvest as it appears to be establishing itself in this part of the Gulf.”

###