Inlets such as Miami's Government Cut become gorged with incoming mullet.
After gathering in the Intracoastal Waterway, some schools exit through the nearest inlet and enter the ocean. Evidently, this also happens in the Gulf but the Atlantic migration appears to be much more significant. Once the schools clear the inlet they begin migrating in a southerly direction. Though the majority hug the beach, it’s not unheard of to find schools in deep offshore waters. Along the Atlantic coast, this southward movement is more pronounced whenever the wind’s in the northeast.
By the time the run reaches South Florida’s Broward and Miami-Dade counties, a sizeable portion is also moving through the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). Ft. Lauderdale physician and angler Kal Blumberg told me how he recently stumbled on this “inside passage.” In his own words: “It was about 5 a.m. and I’d just started my morning jog. When I reached the top of the Sunrise Boulevard Bridge, (which crosses the ICW), I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
According to KaI, who’s an experienced light-tackle angler, the sight literally stopped him in his tracks. “There were mullet as far as I could see. Tarpon were cartwheeling everywhere. Some were 70 or 80 pounds.”
The greatest venue for this type of fishing has always been Florida’s Gold Coast, where tarpon are accessible from boats and ocean piers, as well as the local surf.
I still have fond memories of holding my reel over my head while splashing through the breaking waves. What’s more, in those days we didn’t have the tackle that’s available today. The fish weren’t sophisticated. If I couldn’t find a forged ring-eye hook, I used a needle-eye with No. 9 wire. Forty-pound line was standard back then. Anyway, I remember my first Calcutta rod, which was a 6-footer that I affectionately called the Ton Stick, after stealing the name from a commercial fisherman.
I guess that kind of fishing spoiled me. After all, all I’d have to do was pitch a mullet past the edge of the school and wait. What made it really exciting was knowing that my tackle was strong enough to actually land those monsters. And land them we did. From early September until Thanksgiving, my friends and I became tarpon junkies. In a way we still are, but we recognize that today’s fishermen have to arrive early or wait until the lifeguards leave the beach to enjoy the surf fishing we once took for granted. Nonetheless, we manage to release our share.
Shadow silvermullet in the surf where anglers can soak the real thing.
A Fort Lauderdale tackle shop owner, George Copeland, has fished the mullet run practically all his life. George calls fishing as he sees it, and understands full-contact tarpon surf fishing. “This isn’t the place for light stuff. First of all, you need something heavy enough to cast a big mullet. Then you have to rip the hook out of the bait and into the tarpon’s concrete mouth. I like a fairly heavy rod that’s at least nine feet long. You’ll need 250 yards of 30- to 50-pound line, which means you’ll also want a medium-sized conventional reel with a good drag. You should use mono leader, so look for something testing better than 100 pounds.”
Bait-wise, George prefers mullet heads to live mullet because they’re much easier to cast. “Besides, he says, you get more hits that way.” When I asked him to explain why, he offered a simple analogy. “Think about it. Here’s three million scared mullet, only one of which has a hook attached. Your chances are a lot greater if you anchor a stationary bait beyond and below the school where there isn’t as much urgency.”
As far as presenting the head bait, George uses a 4- to 6-ounce lead, hooks the bait to a heavy gauge 6/0 to 9/0 J-hook and throws it ahead of or past the moving school. Mullet heads only work when it’s not too rough (a rolling surf makes the bait too hard to locate). As soon as a tarpon picks up the bait you set up immediately.
