The fall mullet run should start around the first week of the month in conjunction with the new moon that is due on the 5th. This should get the mullet moving along the beaches and holding near troughs by the tip of Cape Canaveral and also near the jetties at the entrance of the Port.
A variety of predatory species will begin showing up in the surf break to take advantage of these little silver morsels, and by the time we get close to the full moon on the 19th the run should be in full swing with thousands of fingerling and full sized mullet working their way southward along our area beaches. Flounder, mangrove snapper, Spanish mackerel, jack, bluefish, tarpon, shark, snook, and others that like to eat mullet will be readily available wherever the mullet are congregating. Anglers should try to use live or dead finger mullet rigged on a sliding sinker rig or HookUp style jig head. Lures are also a great option for anglers that like to cast artificial plugs into the mullet pods, through the surf zones and near the inlet jetties. I prefer the Rapala X-Rap in the size 10 or 12 for daytime duties and the size 14 for nighttime action. Another lure that has recently been introduced into my arsenal are a few of the options in the new Rapala BX minnow series. These include both standard and jointed offerings from this company. The BX lures are made with a balsa core that is then covered with a plastic outer skin to make them very durable, but they still have a great balsa type of action. The jointed models seem to be a favorite with the tarpon. I have been surprised on quite a few occasions this summer from strikes by 40 to 80 pound class specimens. Unfortunately these lures are not designed for this type of abuse and you lose most of the tarpon that actually strike it. It’s a different story with redfish, snook, bluefish, and Spanish mackerel though, this lure is very effective on those types of fish.
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