The Amazing Bite of the Fall Mullet Run
Mullet are a favorite meal for many saltwater species, and the annual mullet run is an amazing feast for a wide variety of predators and a fantastic opportunity for anglers on the Atlantic and in parts of the Gulf. Mullet spend much of their time in relative safety, moving into rivers until it’s time to spawn. Then a rush of these migrating fish creates a feeding frenzy unlike any other, leading to some of the year’s best fishing.
In Florida, anglers capitalize on excellent tarpon, snook, and other prized gamefish. In the Gulf, especially in Louisiana, it’s many of the same species, plus yellowfin tuna. No matter the target species, the fall months offer excellent fishing as mullet head to the ocean in massive numbers.
The Race to Spawn
Fall months offer excellent fishing out of Venice, Louisiana, drawing many anglers for bull redfish, but the tuna fishing can be just as spectacular. Capt. Kevin Beach of Mexican Gulf Fishing Co. Charters says it’s prime time to catch big tuna, if you can get them in before the sharks do. Migrating mullet attract the sharks too, and it’s a time when just about everything is eating and eating well.
“The mullet come into the rivers and then they start to come out of the passes when they spawn,” he began. “They need that buoyancy from the salinity to keep their eggs up high and make sure they live. They travel in huge numbers for safety and will stop around the oil rigs, which are like feed stations for tuna and other predators, and there will be big rafts of mullet coming through, and they’ll get waxed.”
Using these offshore rigs as a starting point, Capt. Beach and his clients will slowly “bump troll,” using the outboards to shift in and out of gear to move around with a live mullet behind the boat. Some of the bait is as large as a solid largemouth bass, and five-pound mullet rigged on 10/0 4X circle hooks are common.
“We are just moving around and keeping the line tight, and it’s really cool when they come up and blow up on the mullet,” he said. “You’ll see a mullet come out of the water with five big tunas fighting for that one bait, and white water is going everywhere: it’s crazy. But once you hook up, you must get those fish in as fast as possible, or otherwise you are just feeding a 200-pound tuna to the sharks.”
Because of the sharks, everything must be beefed up to get the tuna in quickly, or it will all be for naught. “If you are not getting those fish in the boat in three to five minutes, the sharks will get them, so heavy tackle makes all of the difference in the world,” he said. “Every part of our setup is due to this, and it’s borderline obnoxious how fast we reel them in and the gear we use. Normally, you could be efficient with 100 lb leaders, but we go with 200 lb Seaguar Gold Label, just so we can catch them quicker, and because the line is so thin compared to other fluorocarbon lines, you don’t sacrifice getting bites.”
Beach and crew will crimp the 200 lb leader material to the circle hooks and then splice it into 200 lb Seaguar Threadlock hollow core braid. From there, they use custom reels and heavy-duty rods built for swordfish and massive bluefin tuna.
“There’s no stand-up fishing because by the time you get someone harnessed in, the sharks already have the tuna,” he said. “We have the rods set up and in the rod holder and start the reel’s drag at 45 pounds for the first run, and we’ll go up to 60 or more pounds of drag; 66 pounds has been the magic number. You could catch those same fish with lighter line and gear. I sound like a broken record here, but you need to get them in fast, and that’s why you need heavier line that can withstand that way of fighting a fish.”
Tarpon and Snook from the Beach
Along Florida’s Atlantic coast, the mullet run is also happening, but the methods for catching fish that feed on them couldn’t be more different from tuna fishing in Louisiana. Seaguar sales rep Jarrod Reynolds lives on Florida’s east coast, and he prefers targeting snook and tarpon from the beach, though he can do it just as easily from a boat.
“It happens along the whole East Coast as they are heading down south and every beach is a little different,” he said. “The bite starts way up around St. Augustine along the inlet and then wraps all the way down to Miami and around the backside of the Keys towards the Everglades. They are following water temperatures, and each year, the pushes are different, as is how long they stick around, but each part of the state has about a two-week period where it’s really happening.”
Some anglers think it’s bad for fishing because of the sheer number of mullet in an area, but Reynolds and others have seen things be exceptionally good under the right conditions.
“For fishing the beaches, you need the ocean to cooperate and not be completely blown out or have waves that are too big, and I’m also looking for an incoming tide,” he said. “That will push the bait closer to shore, and you can have some incredible fishing for snook and tarpon when they are thick and within casting distance. When all those things line up, it’s something like you’ve never seen before and the bite can be nonstop.”
While anglers in boats can simply run and chase the bite, Reynolds finds catching them from the beach very rewarding. “Instead of just running down the beach and looking for feeding fish, you need to work a little harder from the shore,” he said. “You’re calculating the wind, swells, and tides and then trying to figure out where the drop-offs are that are going to bring the fish close enough to cast to them.”
Once things line up and he’s in the midst of the feeding frenzy, a host of artificial baits will fool the fish, but a live mullet is often the best choice. “A paddle-tail swimbait with a 3-ounce weight is good because you can really cast it far out there, and topwater lures also work, but it’s hard to beat the real thing,” he said. “The bait is very plentiful, so you can catch them easily with a cast net, but you have to sift through it all to find the right size. The little finger mullet kind of get lost in the sauce with so much bait, so a healthy 12- or 13-inch mullet seems to be the best bait overall.”
Reynolds rigs his mullet on a 3/0 circle hook for snook and 6/0 for tarpon to prevent gut-hooking fish, and he adjusts the rig depending on how he wants it to swim. From there, he’ll fish with a 7-foot, 11-inch extra-heavy Okuma Silver Slayer spinning rod, a 6000- or 8000-sized sealed spinning reel, and 40 lb braid with a Seaguar Gold Label fluorocarbon leader. For the leader, he’ll go with either 60 or 80 lb test.
“For reels, there are a lot of good ones, but having it fully sealed is so important when fishing from the beach because the reels are constantly being dunked into the water and sand; it’s a really harsh environment,” he said. “For braid, 40 lb is great because you can still cast it so well, and 60 lb Gold Label is always my first choice for tarpon. Their scientific name is Megalops atlanticus, which means ‘big eye,’ because they have such big eyes and they can see extremely well, so I always try to use the thinnest leader pound for pound of any leader on the market.”
The exceptions to his leader material depend on ocean conditions and whether he’s fishing around cover. “This year, the sargassum was really bad, and if it’s really thick and you’re going to be pulling some fish through that nasty stuff, I’ll go up to 80 lb leader,” he said. “If I’m fishing around docks, bridges, or anything where the line will be rubbing, I’ll go with Seaguar Blue Label just to have more abrasion resistance. But if I’m directly oceanside, Gold Label is what I’m using.”
The annual mullet run means something different for everyone, depending on where you live and which species you prefer to target. While the tactics to catch fish gorging on mullet will vary greatly, everyone agrees that this time of year can be magical for anglers with the right approach and gear.
Seaguar Threadlock 16-strand hollow core braid is available from 50 to 200 lb tests in 600- and 2500-yard spools in blue and white.
Seaguar Gold Label fluorocarbon leader is available in 25- and 50-yard spools in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 lb tests for freshwater use, complementing the 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 80 lb test leaders available for saltwater. Seaguar Big Game Gold Label is available in 100 to 200 lb test in 25-yard coil bags.
Seaguar Blue Label fluorocarbon leader is available in 25-, 50-, and 100-yard spools in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 80 lb tests. Seaguar Big Game Blue Label leader is available from 90 to 400 lb tests in 30-meter coil bags.