Best Snook Fly for the Florida Keys

In this article I want to discuss the best snook flies that I use in the Florida Keys and Backcountry. These flies are simple to tie and work very well for the water that I fish.

Using other methods of fishing to dial in your pattern

Lets talk about spin fishing for snook. Most of us started here. Using Soft Plastics and lures. I tie my flies based on these actions and sizes. One of my favorite artificial for snook is a Gulp! White Shad. This plastic, put on a Jig Hook, has outstanding action and the fish, if they’re there almost have to check it out. My Second favorite lure is a MirroLure Catch 2000 in Olive, Black, and Bone. These ride just below the water surface and create a lot of noise and disturbance, making for exciting strikes!

Tie your Flies to match lures and baits that you know work

Now that I have a base idea of what I want my snook flies to look and how I want them to fish in the water column I can tie my flies accordingly. Depending on water depth, current and structure, I’ll use a floating gurgler type pattern, a pattern with beadchain eyes so the fly is just underwater, and lastly a lead dumbbell eye to get the fly down. I don’t often use Epoxy or UV heads but they also work well and make for very durable heads and good action.

I forgot to mention that tarpon also love these flies!

Keep your fly simple and sturdy!

Snook can destroy flies quickly. So I find it beneficial to tie with the least amount of materials and use head cement. It’s a real bummer when you spend 25 minutes on a fly and the first 22” snook to eat it rips the tail off and unwinds your dub. Keep it simple and you’ll have less failures to worry about and you’ll be able to knock more flies out on the vise. I generally use only a few (3-5) materials, not including hook and thread.

I’ve caught 30+ inch fish on this fly. It’s heavy and gets down to the zone of bigger snook. The Flash in the dub wakes them uo!

Fly Color

After I decide where in the water I want my fly to fish, the next thing on my mind is color. I’ve heard dark colors in dark water, light colors in bright skies, and everything between. I generally stick with 2 colors, black and white, and every now and then chartreuse. I find most snook in the Everglades are willing to eat black or white depending on conditions. If the fish aren’t eating one in a spot that I know snook live I’ll just swap out the fly to the other color and start getting eats.