Ocala and Jupiter, Florida

October 2026

Species: Largemouth Bass, Snook, Bowfin, Jack Crevalle

I had a work conference in Orlando, so I decided to fly out for the weekend ahead of time to fish for bass up in Ocala and then for Snook in Jupiter after the conference. I had tried to do the same the past year for the same conference, but a storm had blown out the Snook fishing. The bass, fishing, however, had been tremendous and I was hoping for a repeat. 

I drove an hour and change north to Ocala after landing in Orlando several hours delayed. Heavy rains had unfortunately flooded the area, so the place I had fished the prior year was muddy and the fishing was bad. My guide decided to fish a smaller lake with better water. I am sworn to secrecy on the name of the lake.

I arrived early and we boated over to the spot in the dark and waited until light. The stars were amazing out there thanks to the absence of nearby cities. The plan was to throw live shiners in the hopes of fooling a giant. The fish bit hard for the first two hours and I had almost 30 in the boat by 9:30am. Unfortunately, none of them were very big.

The bite really died off after that, and I just picked off a couple along with some Bowfin. Bowfin are an interesting prehistoric fish with sharp teeth that live in similar areas as the bass.

We ran out of shiners around 10:30am and called it a day. The weather was beautiful and there was a lot of action, but no big fish.

Reports from other areas were dismal, so we decided to hit the same lake again the next day. This time I started fishing in the dark and was able to pick up several bass before it got light. Once it got light, the bite really turned on and fish after fish hit the deck just like the prior day. This time, a couple of them had more size.

I didn't catch any giants like the prior year, but these were nice fish. I also caught a bunch more Bowfin.

I was again blessed with beautiful weather and great fishing, even if the giants didn't come out to play.

I then headed over to my work conference in Orlando for 3 days. After that, I drove down to Jupiter with my co-worker to try to catch some Snook. Jupiter is famous for huge Snook, which had eluded me on many prior trips. I had probably hooked at least 6 Snook over 20lbs over the years, but had not landed any of them for a variety of reasons.

The first trip I had scheduled was at night. Heavy rains, a big king tide, and a full moon the night before made for less than ideal conditions. Fishing was indeed slow in the dirty water of the river. I did eventually manage to hook something big near a bridge that raced around and made me think I had a big Snook, but once it settled on the bottom I knew it was a stingray. It took some effort on the light rod and leader, but I managed to slowly work it up to the boat for a release. I then had a Snook break me off in a piling, and that was pretty much it. Extremely slow night; the guide was beside himself.

The next morning I headed out with a different guide to the same area. Right off the bat we saw fish boiling on seawalls next to the expensive homes on the water, and on the first cast I landed a Snook. It was not a world record, but certainly a promising start.

I followed that up with 6 Jack Crevalle from about 1-6lbs, all on live mullet. Several times a Snook would boil on my bait, only to have a small Jack snatch it away. Still, I was grateful for the action. The bite died off in that spot and we tried some others, but I only managed to land one more Jack. It was a big improvement over the prior night though.

That evening I headed out with the other guide and we went farther north to try to find better water. We did find it, and the fish were plentiful under the dock lights once it got dark. At most spots I would get bit on the mullet on the first couple of casts. However, I was having a hard time landing fish. Many wily Snook managed to wrap the line up in the dock pilings and get off, and I had trouble hooking several others. We were using circle hooks, which are great for avoiding gut hooking, but can be difficult to use when the fish swim towards you. However, I did land a Snook or two at most of the lights before the fish would wise up. It was great fun seeing the fish chase the bait around under the lights. Ladyfish were crashing bait outside the lights and I managed to land some of those as well.

I didn't hook or land any big Snook, and I missed quite a few, but I did manage to land 7 for the evening along with a Jack and some Ladyfish. It was quite a fun evening due to all the activity.

The next morning would be my last, so I needed to make it count. My co-worker came along on this trip, and he started off by throwing a topwater walking lure while I stuck to mullet. Rain showers greeted us first thing in the morning, as did a little Jack.

We picked away and the smaller Snook and Jacks for a bit. They were hitting both bait and the topwater. My coworker hooked a Jack and had a big Bull Shark try to eat it under the boat, which provided some excitement.

We came to a new seawall with some fish hitting bait, so we stopped there and man, I was sure glad we did. I was throwing a small mullet on a light rod and had a big fish explode on it. I knew it was a Snook, because it made that distinct "BOOF" sound they make when they hit bait on top. After a couple of misses, it grabbed the bait, and I waited a bit and then set the hook. The fish was a lot bigger than I had initially thought, and it went on a screaming run followed by a jump that showed it was the giant I was looking for. The fish then headed for a dock with its treacherous pilings. The guide was screaming at me to the get some cranks on the fish to get it away from the pilings, but that was much easier said than done on the light rod with the drag screaming. I pulled as hard as I dared on the relatively light leader, and finally got some cranks on the reel which was enough to get it around the piling safely (barely!). I was relieved, but knew I was far from being out of the woods. I had a J hook on, which meant the fish was likely not hooked in the corner of its mouth and its teeth were probably fraying the light leader. The guide cautioned me not to put too much pressure on the fish, and said he could not grab the leader for fear it would part. I had the fish to the boat several times, but let it run whenever it wanted to in order to hopefully keep the leader intact. After what felt like an eternity, the fish was finally tired enough for the guide to grab it. Relief and joy flooded me as this giant hit the deck.

I felt extremely fortunate to have landed such a fish, especially on the light setup. It was one of the more stressful fish battles I had in quite some time. I had actually caught the tiny Jack pictured above on the same setup earlier; it's crazy you can catch both those fish using the exact same tackle and bait.

At that point, my day was made, but I was still on the hunt for more. I put on a big mullet with a heavier setup since we knew the big girls were around, and it got eaten by another big Snook that unfortunately spit it out without getting hooked. The same bait was then eaten by a big Jack, but it also avoided the circle hook. I switched to another big bait and it got smashed against the seawall with a huge "BOOF". The big Snook came halfway out of the water and landed against the wall with the bait in its mouth. For a second, it looked at us and we looked at it, and then it slowly sunk back into the water. I don't think I had ever seen that before in all my years of fishing. I did manage to hook this one well, and although it pulled hard it was not nearly as stressful on the heavier setup. Another big fish almost the same size as the other one made it onto the boat.

After that the bite quieted down and we slowly made our way down some dock areas with the topwaters. Other than a couple of swirls from Jacks, we got no action. A last try with bait at another spot did not produce any bites so we headed in and I went straight to the airport to fly home.

I want to thank all the guides who worked hard to put me on fish:

Bass:  Trophy Bass Expeditions (https://www.floridatrophybass.com/)

Day Snook: Jupiter Snooker (https://jupitersnooker.com/)

Night Snook: MB Snookin (https://mbsnookin.com/)