Every year during fall, Boca Raton’s waters experience the mullet run. This is where mullet migrate from north waters down to warmer waters in the south to spawn. Right now, mullet are traveling in pods on coastlines and even found inshore. Some areas that contain mullet are the boca inlet, coastlines of boca beaches, and if you are willing to travel, jupiter inlet has the most mullet. Many sportfish can be caught during this time as they love to feed on the mullet.
When millions of mullet migrate south, they bring the predators with them. Some of the fish that you can catch inshore are snook, tarpon, jacks, bluefish, sharks, and goliath grouper. If you fish on the surf, you are more likely to catch snook and sharks, and if you can find a pod of mullet with predators causing them to literally jump out of the water, you can find huge tarpon feeding, and they will eat live mullet if you can cast right on their heads. This is one of the best times during the year to fish for these game fish. If you want, you can use artificial lures, and the lure with the best presentation and action that resembles a mullet would be an NLBN k-tail or a zman mulletron, but nothing beats using live bait. You should be using live mullet as bait during the run. You can easily cast net pods of mullet since they travel in pods that are very easy to spot very close to the shore. If you have no cast net, some people snag them with treble hooks, but that is very painful for the fish and can only get one mullet at a time. To rig the mullet onto your rod, you should put an egg sinker on your line, and use a decent sized circle hook and stick it through the fish’s mouth so it won’t feel pain while also making sure the fish will still be able to swim around in the water. The egg sinker makes sure the fish sinks to the bottom where snook and grouper will eat it. You should be using a fully sealed reel around 5k or bigger paired with a medium heavy or heavy rod when fishing for inshore fish. You should go out at sunrise and sunset as inshore fish feed at these times. If you have the time, they also feed all night long, but it’s very hard to see anything in most fishing spots during these hours. If you ever see a pod moving around, you should follow them and try to cast on them when game fish are feeding on the pod.
For fishermen in Boca Raton, the mullet run is the best time to fish all year. It is the perfect time to catch a slot snook or a huge tarpon. All anglers should take advantage of this time of year and go fish as much as possible.
