Each autumn, dense schools of mullet swim south along the east coast of Florida. Every predator present, including snook, tarpon, sharks, and bluefish, takes advantage of this plentiful feast.
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Individuals who claim that South Florida lacks seasonal changes have clearly never experienced the yearly fall mullet run.
For anglers from Stuart to Key Largo, nothing indicates fall has come like seeing these baitfish migrate. Silver and black mullet travel in massive schools down the Atlantic coast while evading a range of predators, including snook, tarpon, jacks, sharks, Spanish mackerel, and bluefish. October is the ideal month for fishing during the mullet run, both offshore and inshore.
The Live-Bait Strategy
Anglers can never predict what they might catch with each cast. Interestingly, they don’t always require live mullet to land gamefish species. Half a mullet, topwater plugs, spoons, and soft-plastic bait imitations can be just as effective, if not more so.
Capt. Chris Murray, based in Stuart, typically nets several dozen mullet whenever he sees the baitfish disturbing the water surface. After capturing the bait, he navigates until he spots another school of mullet. He then closely monitors the baitfish’s behavior and the predators that are preying on them.
Tarpon often leap completely out of the water before crashing back into the middle of the school. Snook lurk beneath the school, sucking in mullet with a distinct pop. Jacks forcefully charge into the school, scattering mullet in every direction.
The Excitement of Tarpon
When using live mullet as bait, captains frequently trim the fish’s tail fins to slow them down or skip them off the deck to stun them—anything to mimic an injured appearance in the water.
Chris Woodward
Murray prefers fishing live mullet utilizing a 7-foot, light- to medium-action spinning rod paired with a 4000-size reel spooled with 20-pound braided line. He generally ties on a 40-pound fluorocarbon leader with a 3/0 circle hook and attaches a float to the leader, allowing him and his anglers to monitor the bait.
“I often vary my leaders, starting with lighter ones,” Murray explains. “Typically, I rig two at 25 pounds, two at 30 pounds, and two at 40 pounds. Depending on the type of fish present and the necessary pressure, normally, I go for 40. If they are smaller snook, 25 or 30 should be sufficient.”
While drifting or slow-trolling, he hooks a mullet through the upper lip and casts it near the underwater oyster bars, which snook, tarpon, and other species use as ambush locations. Murray then opens the bail of the reel, allowing line to unwind slowly.
The phenomenon of the mullet run can be truly breathtaking.
jasonarnoldphoto.com
Excitement with Jacks
On a trip I enjoyed in the St. Lucie River with Murray and Anthony Javarone, we made our casts, and almost immediately, I felt my mullet growing anxious. Suddenly, there were violent splashes, and whatever had disturbed my mullet grabbed Javarone’s bait.
Following Murray’s advice to let the fish run for a few seconds before closing the bail and reeling in tight, Javarone successfully hooked into a 15-pound jack. The fish took him from one side of Murray’s bay boat to the other before finally tiring out.
“Those large jacks are excellent practice for anyone targeting snook and tarpon,” Murray comments. “They’re a guide’s best ally, offering a fantastic opportunity to refine your rhythm.”
When jacks, tarpon, and Spanish mackerel breach the schools for a meal, they often stun and injure several of the baits, which then sink to the ocean floor. That’s when fishing with a mullet head on the bottom can prove particularly effective.
Snook with Artificial Baits
Fishing around the rocks at the opening of Stuart’s St. Lucie Inlet, Capt. Greg Snyder employs a D.O.A. plastic shrimp to catch snook of various sizes. He uses a spinning outfit loaded with 30-pound braided line and a 40-pound fluorocarbon leader for this purpose.
“The rocks act as a trap for the snook,” Snyder explains. “When bait hits the rocks, they become disoriented, providing snook with a chance to strike.”
He lets the shrimp follow the current and advises being alert to any taps or hesitations in the drift since that indicates a snook has taken the lure. “Allow the tide to work the bait, and maintain contact with the shrimp,” he instructs, “as you’ll need to set the hook when they bite.”
Why, one may wonder, would a snook choose a shrimp when mullet are so prevalent? I posed that question to D.O.A. lure creator Mark Nichols. “Initially, during the start of the mullet run, the fish primarily focus on mullet,” he states. “However, after three weeks of feasting on mullet, they become eager for a change.”
I observed this while fishing with Nichols in the north fork of the St. Lucie River as the tide was falling. Our flats skiff was surrounded by mullet and rolling tarpon, but after tossing a few D.O.A. soft-plastic mullet imitations like the Bait Buster and the TerrorEyz without success, Nichols switched us to D.O.A. glow shrimp.
Standing at the front of the boat, we awaited a tarpon to roll within casting range. We then cast the shrimp just ahead of the tarpon. Instead of steadily twitching the shrimp back, Nichols recommended working it slowly.
“You want the shrimp to sink,” he advised. “Then snap the rod and jerk the shrimp sharply, but avoid cranking the reel to move the shrimp away. You want it to stay precisely at the location where the fish was.”
Visualize it like this: Here lies a shrimp, sinking gradually in the water. Suddenly, it jumps up before sinking back down. The next time it leaps, feeling it might escape, the tarpon seizes it. Using that technique, Nichols and I experienced approximately two dozen tarpon bites.
“I believe it’s simply easier for them to catch a shrimp,” Nichols asserts. “Catching mullet requires effort on their part, but snatching a shrimp takes minimal energy.”
Two additional benefits of using an artificial shrimp in the vicinity of a mullet school are that bait thieves tend not to poke at a plastic shrimp as they do with a live one, and Nichols can fish his shrimp precisely to his liking.
To enhance the appeal of a D.O.A. shrimp to fish focused on a mullet school, Nichols submerges it below the school or positions it at the school’s edge. This tactic creates the impression of vulnerability, making it an easy target.
“If you aren’t catching fish with a shrimp, you’re retrieving it too quickly,” Nichols advises. “No matter how slow you believe you’re going, slow it down further.”