Mullet in the millions embark on a massive pilgrimage during the summer-to-fall transition, and numerous predatory species happily await to score easy meals. (Photo by © AllNaturalBeth/Dreamstime)
September 17, 2025
By David A. Brown
Hiding around a corner, taking advantage of unsuspecting targets, has produced some of Capt. Ed Zyak’s most memorable late-summer and early-fall days. No, the seasoned fishing guide from Jensen Beach, Fla., wasn’t moonlighting as a mugger. He was simply enjoying the year’s most astounding predatory barrage to happen in inshore waters.
Specifically, Zyak’s keen on leveraging the big mullet run that takes place down the East Coast, during which millions of striped mullet (aka black mullet) embark on a southbound pilgrimage, seeking warmer waters and drawing plenty of attention from hungry gamefish along the way.
“As the mullet migrate down, they get into literally every little nook and cranny of our [Indian River] estuary,” Zyak says. “All mangrove shorelines, seawalls and docks just get loaded with thousands of baitfish. Of course, predators are all over that, and you see them chasing and blowing up on the bait, often sending some flying through the air. It’s a chance for fish to stock up on a bunch of calories, and they take full advantage of it.”
Cast-netting mullet and fishing them live around the edges of the traveling schools is a sure-fire way to hook up during the run. Tarpon are quick to key on the mullet migration and willfollow the baitfish for miles, launching repeated attacks. (Photos by Alex Suescun, left; Capt. Fabian Guerrero, right) MULLET INTERCEPT POINTS While random encounters with both the forage aggregations and the predators hot on their trail are not uncommon, Zyak strategically puts himself and his charter clients in prime position to get in on the action.
Advertisement
“I focus on ambush spots, anything that sticks out and forces the mullet to slow down and make a turn around a point or pocket,” he explains. “I often target tarpon and snook during the mullet run and look for places where they have the best chance to engage the baitfish as they funnel into a pinch point,” says Zyak, adding that he typically starts the day on seawalls with really good ambush points.
“I’ll be there as the sun’s coming up, with my anglers ready to cast big topwater plugs as soon as the sun starts to light up the water,” says the guide. “The action is incredible. I’ve sat in the same zone for a complete half-day trip with wave after wave of mullet coming through and fish pounding them. We just throw big walking topwaters the entire time. Lures like Rapala’s Magnum Skitter Walk do a great job of imitating vulnerable mullet.”
And don’t worry if your walk-the-dog skills aren’t great. Zyak says a big popper (easier to work) will also fool plenty of fish.
Advertisement
FOLLOW THE FUN The mullet run may very well be the one occurrence that results in the most concentrated inshore action you’ll find all year. Just remember, nature’s a dynamic, ever-changing realm where movement means life. Don’t expect to find the action at the same spot every day.
Guiding out of Merritt Island, Fla., Capt. Peter Deeks finds the mullet-run madness happens in spurts. You get one hot week, then a break, followed by another peak in the action. On and on it goes until all the mullet have either migrated or become meals.
“Usually, the first tropical storm that comes through at the beginning or in the middle of September triggers the main push of mullet,” Deeks says. “Just ahead of the storm, it’s pretty wild. That’s why a lot of people miss out on it. They’re busy boarding up, evacuating or cancelling vacation plans.”
Once the run begins, Deeks finds the mullet come in waves. But with schools reaching massive sizes (often covering an acre), it’s not hard to follow the bait and the gamefish that stay with it. “You’ll find them here one day, and the next day they might be 10 miles down the beach. And then there’ll be another school 10 miles to the north,” Deeks says.
Big redfish, snook and other gamefish are quick to pounce on lures that mimic mullet. (Photo courtesy of LIVETARGET) QUICK SILVER MULLET While most of the attention goes to the black-mullet meat wagon, Deeks says October typically brings a push of smaller silver mullet and finger (juvenile) mullet piling into estuaries and sparking intense feeding periods. These lesser baitfish aggregations attract the same crowd as black mullet, plus bluefish, a seasonal bonus.
“You see acres of smaller [silver and finger] mullet getting blasted by everything in the inlets and passes, especially at sunset,” he says. “Then they flood the Indian River system, and that’s a good time to target small tarpon, snook, trout and redfish around the mangroves.”
According to Deeks, the silver and finger mullet run may not create the mayhem of a full-on black mullet beatdown, but it offers a greater degree of both efficiency and consistency. “Most fish just crash through the black mullet schools, open their mouths and hope they get one,” he explains. So their feeding is heavy on aggression and light on accuracy. But since silver and finger mullet are smaller, predators find them easier to kill or maim and then engulf, thus resulting in more hookups.
The clear waters along Florida’s coasts turn dark with the mullet invasion. Openings in the clouds of baitfish occur when they are under duress from predators. (Photo by Thomas Barrat/Dreamstime) TACTICAL INTEL During the river incursion by silver and finger mullet, Deeks suggests fishing topwaters or big paddletails around mangrove-shoreline and island points, culvert pipes, and creek and canal mouths. Of course, liveys remain a top option.
“If you throw a live finger mullet in there, they’re gonna pick out that weaker one,” he says.
For your best shot at the fish chasing the big, black mullet on the beach, Deeks recommends fishing inlets, piers and shoreline breaks like Vero Cove or Port Canaveral Bight, which back up the mullet train. As the procession stalls, the concentration of predators increases. “Jetties and the tides confuse the mullet, so they’ll sit on the north side of an inlet and bunch up in the tide line, and gamefish really take advantage. The outgoing tide is gonna keep the mullet out there and concentrate them most. The incoming tide will suck them into the inlet. They’ll eventually swim back out, but you’ll see them stuck there, waiting for the tide to turn.”
“The wind often dictates where you can be and what you can do, but fish are very accommodating during the mullet migration,” says Zyak, also explaining that you can catch fish on any tide during a mullet run, as long as you have moving water to position them. Lower tide stages tend to simplify the inshore search by shrinking the playing field.
UP THE COAST As the mullet run passes the Carolinas and Georgia, the numerous inlets create strong focal points. But don’t overlook nearby marshes, especially any drains that funnel forage. When incoming tides pull volumes of mullet through the inlets, redfish, speckled trout and doormat flounder take note. Lead-head jigs with paddletails, soft jerkbaits, topwaters and twitch baits will all serve you well.
GULFSIDE ACTION Florida’s Gulf Coast gets plenty of mullet, just not the huge concentrations that make their way down the Atlantic side in the fall. Nevertheless, Capt. Cody Chivas out of St. Petersburg points out the downsized bait parade they encounter still influences gamefish behavior and sets off more intense feeding.
“We do get a fall finger mullet run like the East Coast, only smaller,” he says. “In the evenings you see them bunched up and showering on flats and creeks, as snook and reds pop them.”
Capt. Geoff Page, who guides in the Sarasota-Charlotte Harbor area, says black mullet also make a big showing, but closer to year’s end. These fall aggregations are often escorted by snook, redfish and big trout that eagerly pick off crustaceans and smaller baitfish the mullet schools displace.
“When the black mullet get full of row and gather in big numbers, we definitely catch fish out of the schools on topwaters and jigs. But we don’t have the mullet runs that go down the beach,” he says.
Major estuaries like Mobile Bay and the Mississippi Delta see fall migrations of mature mullet heading for Gulf spawning. Like everywhere else, bull reds, tarpon, whopper jacks, sharks and king mackerel do their very best to thin their numbers.
Capt. Anthony Randazzo of Paradise Plus Lodge in Venice, La., says mullet in the Delta prefer the river system, as long as the water level doesn’t rise a lot and lower the salinity, which will push them out of the passes.
“As the river rises, the mullet follow the flow to the Gulf,” he says. “Then, jetties become key structures for the sportfish we target. Eventually, the river will rise to a point (historically) where all the mullet move out until early spring.”
ON THE ROCKS From giant snook and reds to hefty tarpon and hard-charging cubera snapper, inlet jetties offer amazing land-based fishing opportunities during mullet runs. Key tidal windows bring in the biggest of the bigs for a feed, but for those run-of-the-mill line-stretchers, the mullet run is a jetty and pier angler’s dream.
Big swimbaits and topwaters are the way to go here. And if you’re bold enough to walk the unpaved jetties, non-skid soles and careful footwork are absolutely vital.
This article was featured in the September issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
