Edited by: Kenneth Reaves
Reviewed by: Michael DarmontLast Update:
The Rundown
Best Overall: MirrOlure MirrOdine Twitchbait (click to view)
“The MirrOdine is made to mimic a baitfish – from the big lifelike eyes and flashy inserts to the color pattern and twitchy movement. It behaves and looks like a prey fish. Ideal for all snook fishers.”
Best Premium Option: LIVETARGET Mullet Wakebait (click to view)
“The LIVETARGET Mullet features a segmented body that moves in the water like an actual swimming fish. Ideal option for snook fishing since they love to feed on small mullet.”
Best Budget Option: SPRO Bucktail Jig (click to view)
“The SPRO Bucktail Jig is long-lasting and consistently effective. It features a feather skirt to mimic the movement of fishtails and has versatile retrieval options. A solid choice for targeting snook.”
There’s something special about getting a big snook to take an artificial lure. They can be incredibly picky eaters, feeding in cycles that can frustrate you into giving up. The fight and feeling of accomplishment that comes with finally getting that big one to bite pays off all the frustration, though, and choosing your lures is essential to catch snook.
You’ll want a good variety of lures to cover all your bases going for snook. Topwaters, jerk baits, and soft plastics can all be great options. But, in the end, it is essential that your lure mimics the food that the snook is currently feeding on, and the way to find that out is through experimentation.
Every lure on the market promises to catch snook. Some lures are proven when it comes to getting snooks to bite, though, and we’ve put this list together so you are assured you’re using the right ones to give you the best odds of success.
Featured Recommendations
Table of Contents
Best Lures For Snook: 2021 Review
Here are the best lures to grab on your next snook fishing trip:
- Best Overall: MirrOlure MirrOdine Twitchbait
- Best Premium Option: LIVETARGET Mullet Wakebait
- Best Budget Option: SPRO Bucktail Jig
- Best During Any Season: D.O.A. Shrimp Lures
- Best Beginner Topwater: Rapala Skitter Walk Bait
- The Classic: Johnson Silver Minnow Spoon
- Flashiest Lure: Yo-Zuri Crystal Floating Minnow
- Most Durable Topwater: Heddon Super Spook
MirrOlure MirrOdine Suspending Twitchbait
Best Overall Snook Lure: Hugely versatile twitchbait that snook tends to love.
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KEY FEATURES
- Fish anywhere in the water column at any speed
- Rattles and flashy inserts help attract fish
- Darting movement pattern in the water tempts strikes
The MirrOlure MirrOdine Suspending Twitchbait is honestly just a great lure. It catches all kinds of fish, comes in various patterns, and can be fished in nearly any way you want it to. It’s a great choice for most anglers, and as a bonus is a proven snook lure.
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Lure Details
The MirrOdine is made to mimic a baitfish. From the big lifelike eyes and flashy inserts to the color pattern and twitchy movement, it behaves and looks like a prey fish. Add in a rattle to help attract fish from further off, and you’ve got an excellent snook lure.
How to Fish It
This lure takes the spot as best overall because you can fish it any way you want. One of the best styles is a slow retrieve that only twitches your rod tip, giving it time to sit still between darting movements. The lure will also sit anywhere in the water column so that you can fish it near the surface, mid-water column, or near the bottom. The weight of the lure allows you a ton of freedom to make longer casts, and it performs well at any speed of retrieval, so you get to mix up your approaches to find what will work best when you’re fishing for snook.
LIVETARGET Mullet Wakebait
Best Premium Snook Lure: Realistic look and movement put fish on the boat.
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KEY FEATURES
- The segmented body looks like a swimming fish
- Looks like a live mullet thanks to paint and movement
- Small mullets are a favorite prey of snook
LIVETARGET Lures is one of the best options you can find for perfectly mimicking real prey fish. The bodies of the lures are segmented and move in the water like an actual swimming fish. It’s a great option for snook fishermen since snook loves to feed on small mullet like the LIVETARGET Mullet.
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Lure Details
Live Mullet are painted and shaped to look exactly like small mullets. Its segmented body flexes as you pull it through the water to mimic how a fish swims, giving it plenty of tail movement. The realistic look is the most critical detail of the lure, but it also comes with well-placed hooks to snag anything you get to bite.
How to Fish it
One of the best ways to fish this lure is to pull it incredibly slowly through the water. The small movements of the tail are hard for snook to resist. Let it float in open water or pull it along shorelines to mimic mullets’ natural travel routes.
SPRO Bucktail Jig
Best Budget Snook Lure: The long-lasting and consistently effective lure.
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KEY FEATURES
- Versatile retrieval options
- Simple but tried and true lure
- Feather skirt to mimic the movement of fishtails
Bucktail jigs are great lures that let you fish them in almost any way you want. They’re easy to find, easily replaceable, and very simple in design. Overall, they’re a solid choice for anglers targeting snook in any water depth. SPRO Bucktail Jigs are one of the more popular and effective options on the market.
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Lure Details
Bucktail jigs are simple designs. It’s just a jig head with a feathered skirt attached. These from SPRO come with lifelike eyes, glossy paint and can come in various sizes and weights to meet your needs.
How to Fish it
You can use any retrieve you want with these. Try a jerking, medium-speed retrieve when fishing for snook. If you tend to fish bridges or passes where the water gets deep, you can drop it down near the bottom and play it up and down to tempt a bite.
D.O.A. Shrimp Lures
Best Snook Lure During Any Season: Perfect lure for year-round fishing since shrimp are always on the menu.
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KEY FEATURES
- Remarkable mimicry of shrimp in the water
- Impossible to retrieve improperly
- Works in any environment
D.O.A. Shrimp Lures is the dream lure of every angler who’s into inshore fishing. They produce fish any time of year and work for all kinds of species, including snook. It is a great choice around docks, on grass flats, and along the beaches.
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Lure Details
D.O.A. Shrimp Lures are the best you can find to mimic real shrimp. They’re semi-translucent with reflective flakes to help catch fish’s attention. The legs vibrate in the water, and it falls evenly, just like a real shrimp in the water.
How to Fish it
How to catch snook? The best way to work the lure is to crawl it across the bottom slowly. Throw in a twitch now and then, and you’ll usually catch fish. You can also throw it underneath a popping cork near the surface to help attract fish if the usual action isn’t working.
Rapala Saltwater Skitter Walk Hard Bait
Best Beginner Topwater Snook Lure: Breathtaking topwater strikes by snook drawn in by its great action and sound.
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KEY FEATURES
- Internal rattle gives feedback for how well you’re working it
- Walk-the-dog action is easy to do and effective
- No leader necessary
Rapala Saltwater Skitter Walk Hard Bait are one of the easiest topwater lures to use, you just need a little practice. With the internal rattle and some practice, you can get into a great rhythm of perfect action to snag some huge snook. It’s a great choice for anglers at the end of the day to get some splashy strikes.
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Lure Details
The Skitter Walk features dual treble hooks with one at the tail section of the lure. Most of the weight is shifted to the back to get the best action out of it. You can get them in various paints to try to match local prey fish, and the internal rattle helps attract fish and tell you when you’ve got the proper action.
How to Fish it
Don’t bother with a leader and tie on directly with braid for the best control. You’ll want to have just enough slack in the line that each slight jerk makes the lure bounce back and forth while setting you up for the next jerk. Slow retrieves work the best, but you can speed it up a little when you notice you’ve gotten a fish’s attention.
Johnson Silver Minnow Spoon
The Classic Snook Lure: A common lure for decades, spoons work just as well on snook as they do on other species.
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KEY FEATURES
- The weedless hook makes it great for fishing grass flats
- Wobble in water but won’t twist your line
- Works in any environment on almost any fish
Johnson Silver Minnow Spoon spoons have been one of the most consistent lures you can find for a very long time. Something about how easily you can get a fish to bite them always brings anglers back. The gold color tends to work best for snook, and they’re a great inexpensive and easy-to-use option that gives you many ways to fish them.
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Lure Details
The golden spoon has a weedless metal hook, making it perfect for snook fishing thick grass flats and mangroves where they like to hang around. They’ll flash in the water and mimic the baitfish that snook are feeding on, making it harder for them to ignore because it doesn’t mimic any prey species in particular.
How to Fish it
You can fish a spoon any number of ways. In deeper water, you can use it like a jig, but the possibilities are endless. Slow or fast retrieves, jerking or straight retrieves, everything works with a spoon, and you need a little experimentation to see which one is most effective in catching snook that day.
Yo-Zuri Crystal 3D Floating Minnow
Flashiest Snook Lure: The 3D prism design reflects unlike any other lure on the list.
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KEY FEATURES
- Erratic movement on all retrieves
- Floating lure that dives on jerks
- Extra flashy inserts and rattle to attract bites
Yo-Zuri Crystal 3D Floating Minnow come in a huge variety of styles. They look great in the water and have all the features you can ask for in a saltwater lure. They’re a great choice for more experienced anglers who are looking for a ton of action out of their lures.
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Lure Details
Crystal minnows come with a wide variety of colored inserts. Each of them has an internal rattle and a lip which causes them to dive when pulled through the water. The prism style of Yo-Zuri lures reflects light incredibly well, and the lifelike eyes add to the realism of the lure.
How to Fish it
How to catch snook? It takes a little practice to get the most out of these lures. They work on multiple retrieve speeds and are one of the best floating lures you can use for snook. They’ll dive a little bit into the water on each jerk, giving it an erratic movement that is hard to resist especially by big snook.
Heddon Super Spook Hard Baits
Most Durable Topwater Snook Lure: Designed to stand up to massive strikes by the biggest snook.
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KEY FEATURES
- Super stout design for durability
- A vast number of patterns
- Simulates a wounded baitfish
As another topwater that’s perfect for a walk-the-dog retrieve, the Heddon Super Spook stands out for its durable construction. Made to withstand strikes from big snook, it’s a great topwater for anglers looking for a long-lasting and durable snook topwater.
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Lure Details
The lure has extra-durable connections and body construction that can hold up to large fish repeatedly striking it. It’s got dual treble hooks and an excellent action for bringing big fish up to attack it.
How to Fish it
Like the Skitter Walk, you want a slow jerking retrieval. It’s meant to mimic a wounded baitfish and does best on grass flats and near mangroves. Walk the dog will get the best action you can out of the lure.
What To Look For When Choosing The Best Snook Lure
Proven Track Record
Do a little research when shopping for snook lures. For example, reading this article is a great option. Snook can be picky eaters and refuse to bite a lot of baits for seemingly no reason, but they do feed in habitual cycles, and if a lure has worked before, it’s more likely to work again at some point.
Action
Try to find lures that are either incredibly realistic, hard to resist or flounder like an easy meal. For example, a spoon can be worked in many different ways, and its shine does well to attract fish. The top waters on the list mimic the movement of a wounded baitfish, while the others have realistic movements and features that are sure to attract a bite.
Versatility
Perhaps the most critical criteria in an effective snook lure are versatility. Yes, changing lures can help you figure out what snooks are feeding on, but the presentation is just as if not more important. Lures that can be worked in various ways and depths usually catch more snook than lures that are one-dimensional. Try all kinds of retrievals. From fast and straight pulls to jerks and slow retrieves.
Questions & Answers
What other baits work well for snook?
One of the most popular ways to fish for snook is using live bait. Tossing pilchards and other small live bait is one of the best ways to get a snook to bite. It’s common to sight fish for them in clearer waters as well, making it incredibly fun to try and find them.
Where does snook tend to spend their time?
Snooks prefer shallow water, and you can find them in a variety of environments. The best places to look are mangroves, grass flats, calmer beaches, and near river mouths.