Snook in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta?
1h 7m | Sep 11, 2026This special episode of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta Fishing Report turns the show over to Butch Thierry of the Alabama Saltwater Fishing Report and Joe Baya of the Northwest Florida Fishing Report for a conversation about snook showing up along the northern Gulf Coast. Once thought of mainly as a South Florida fish, snook are now being reported more often around Mobile Bay, Fowl River, Fish River, Perdido Pass, the Emerald Coast, and other waters that many local anglers never associated with the species.
Butch and Joe are joined by Zoe Hendrickson, a PhD student at the University of South Alabama working with Dr. Charlie Martin in the Estuarine Ecology Lab. Zoe explains how snook have expanded northward in Florida, how similar patterns may now be developing in Alabama and Northwest Florida, and why warmer winters, shorter cold snaps, river systems, deep holes, and other thermal refuge areas may be helping these fish survive. She also discusses what researchers still need to learn, including where local snook go during cold weather, whether they are becoming true residents, and how anglers can help by reporting sightings and tagged fish.
The conversation also covers snook biology, including their tolerance for fresh and salt water, their use of rivers as juveniles, their movement toward jetties, flats, and estuaries as adults, and the fact that they can change sex as they grow. Zoe, Butch, and Joe also talk through current harvest regulations, why many anglers may want to release northern Gulf snook while the population is still developing, and what this new fishery could mean for the future of fishing in Mobile Bay, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, and nearby Gulf Coast waters.
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