The Mullet Run has arrived

September 2, 2016 | by Steve Beare

September brings smiles to angler’s faces for many reasons. Whether its the opening of Snook Season, the fall bait run, Tarpon showing their shiny faces along the beaches, Pompano in the surf or the surreal displays of nature as the Mullet Run goes into full affect. Either way, it’s hard not to be excited about September.

This first week of September for the Treasure Coast had many of us dodging storms and focused on finding those leeward areas to escape the Northeast winds. Schools of bait continue to move along the beach from the Vero Pier south to the Cove. Get ahead of the baitfish schools and let them work their way to you; fishing the outside edges. Snook fishing off the beach has been solid over the last week and will only improve as the mullet run commences. Snook Season opened on the 1st and those who braved the storms were rewarded with a majority of slot fish being caught at the Ft Pierce Inlet or off the Beach. For those fishing from the Jetty, with the imposed closure of the Sebastian Inlet North Jetty expect the South Jetty and the Ft Pierce Jetties to become more crowded.

The water clarity in portions of the lagoon have begun to clear up and displayed some healthy Shoal and Widgeon Grass which was sight for these sore eyes. With the cleaner water, being closer to the inlet, site fishing has produced most of the Redfish bites for us along the southern portion of the lagoon. Most hook ups have come while using a Down South Lure Super Model Grub in Magic Grass on a 1/8oz Chartreuse Jig Head or a Gold Spoon.

Even with water temperatures in the mid 80’s, the early morning and dusk Sea Trout bite on topwater is still our best bite. Fishing the deeper edges of grass flats, our largest Sea Trout have been caught using the Rapala Skitterwalk in Shad Translucent or Gold Chrome; both of which produced several double-digit release days.

The Mangrove Snapper bite has also started to heat up with some larger fish being caught. Live shrimp fished along the deeper channel edges.