The Mullet Run Fishing Blog

The mullet still are very thin. Although the fishing has been good tonight landed five tarpon and a nice snook but the bait totally blows. Ya you can muster up enough fingers to go fishing but no " Happy Bait". At this point we just got to hang in there and hope October is epic. When you do see the real schools of bait look for the white holes. These holes are created by big eating fish. If you do not see these white hole an you are not getting any strikes move on until you find the white holes! Capt Jeff

The transition from Pre-Pod to the true mullet run or (Happy Bait) is extremely dramatic. Right now during this pre-pod period you will see some mullet and plenty of white bait. Each day is a new story sometimes the fish are there sometimes they are nowhere to be found. Although the fishing can be good during the pre-pod period, the big fish and multiple species will move in during a true "Happy Bait time". You will see big schools of bait as large as a football field or two. Everyone will have bait if they so choose and every one will be stoked and happy. Big fish will be in the surf for everyone to see not just someone with a trained eye. Tarpon, Sharks, Jack, Bluefish , mackeral, Lady fish will be showing themselves repeatedly. Most of all when you get home from fishing you will feel a high that only the mullet run can deliver. If you see it you will know! Capt Jeff

Fort Lauderdale - Rumors, exaggerations, and out right lies! The iPhone is buzzing, calls are coming in tweets are flying around and everybody is scrambling for parking down on the beach. But lo and behold, there is still no bait. Ok, thats a lie, there are some fragmented pods of pre-pod white bait dotting the shorelines, but that aint Happy Bait. Everybody just calm down and take a deep breath. The bait isn't here yet. Sure some guy heard from another guy, that a guy somebody knows saw pelicans diving on a pod around lunch time out infront of Beach Place, next thing you know, the beach is swarming with Happy Baiters nets cocked and buckets in tow. All I have to say is, what plug are you gonna throw? Why the long face? Seriously though, when the bait is here, you will know for sure because the tweets will go out WITHOUT the word "rumor" in the text, and there will be pictures , and it will be undeniable. Who you gonna trust?

Finger Mullet finally showed themselves today on Fort lauderdale beach this morning. We also received some report of finger mullet in the ICW today. This is the start but its not a sure thing. After hearing the reports we went down to the beach to see what we could find. no birds and no bait. I am sure it will fill in each day so here we go! Capt Jeff

Yeah tell me about it. We are all looking for bait , and there is still some pre-pod white bait out there for fun fishing, but its nowhere near as easy to net as it was last week. These birds are doing more looking and flying than diving, and it just confirms the reality that the real bait run is late, and we all know it. Come On!!!!

C Timothy O'Connor September 10 at 7:22am Jeff: I've heard reports of fairly large schools of fingers up around Ft. Pierce. Not sure if it's the front end or the tail end of the fingers up there. I fished the ICW Monday and so no sign of fingers yet. They're way overdue. Tim

Still no real sign of the mullet. Its gotta be any day now I can feel it! When the mullet are late like this it drive s me crazy. In 1999 and 2005 those bastards did not show till the third week in September but the snook and tarpon did. Looks like it might pan out that way this year. My trips this week have been great, we landed nine tarpon and I do not know how may snooks. This Steve from England with a certified Lunker . Happy Bait. Capt Jeff

Fort Lauderdale - The Pre-pod white came in strong on the heels of that front and it lasted for a couple days and thinned right back out again. Steve from Atlantic Bait and Tackle got his keeper Snook and we were all real proud of him. Now that the pre-pod has fallen off we are back to waiting for the real bait to start showing up. Reports are sketchy, rumors of bait up around the Juno - Jupiter area are coming in hourly, all we can do is wait and try to dig up some 5 gallon buckets. NOTE: If you are gonna go podding and plan on begging for bait which is fine, at least show up with your own bucket so you aren't fishing right next to the guy that is giving you bait. Its called civility.

We fished off the beach again in Fort Lauderdale today. Fishing was much tougher than the last few days. Bait was thin but we managed to get by with few small pilchards. My buddy Brad who is just recovering from a major operation got out for the first time in over 3 months. He nabbed a nice 31 inch keeper and was pretty excited just to get out there. Tomorrow we are traveling to our first destination to film " Happy Bait " Jupiter Florida. This is one of the hottest inlets for snook in the entire state. The other destinations will include PORT EVERGLADES, GOVERNMENT CUT , AND FLAMINGO. We are pretty fired up to be fishing Jupiter tomorrow and will post the outcome right here on the Mulletrun Blog. Capt jeff

Fort Lauderdale - The ocean today was totally different than it was yesterday, and so was the bait. There were mild strains of Happy Bait up and down the beach from Oakland Park Blvd. as far south as Las Olas. The birds were alot harder to find, and therefore so was the bait. It's still Happy Bait, but no mullet. Its pilchard, cigar minnow, and sardine. But you know if anybody got bait today, we got bait. We sent out the Tweet this afternoon, and one fellow tweeter actually showed up! Grimm got our tweet about the bait and drove all the way from Davie , and ended up getting 3 snook, and a tarpon. We couldn't find the slot today, which shows just how pathetic the limits are, when you can't even get a fish in the slot even when you are fishing with chump baits like pilchard and sardine. Forget getting keepers on mullet, which is pretty much what the whole game is about anyway, but lets save that rant for another post. Anyway, it was sight casting time today. If you had a dec...

Lamont and I went out podding today. We saw massive schools of sardines and pilchards pushing up on the beach as the tide rose. We called a few friends and by 5:30 Drew, Steve, Joe, and I where knee deep in "Happy Bait" . Steve and Drew went home with keepers and we released about 8 more snooks . We also caught jacks and lady fish. My friend Tim saw us and joined the action.It was fun and I have not fished with that many "Happy Baiters" in a long time. Here is a Sneak Peek Exclusive video clip from Happy Bait The Movie . Drew catches his keeper Snook . We are all proud of him, seriously, and Happy Bait Everybody

Fished Port Everglades tonight with "Web-Site Mike" . Pretty slow out there missed a couple of fish but that was it. Big moon but no mullet. Capt Jeff

The best thing about Happy Bait for most people is the ability to catch a really nice fish from shore. And thats why they call the mullet run, Happy Bait. Presentation is important and so is location. Spots that are legendary well known spots are usually pretty productive they don't get nicknames and reputations for nothing. If you cant get bait, don't go throwing the net 35 times, just ask somebody for a bait.

I received some good news the finger mullet have filled into Jupiter Inlet! No big mullet have shown up yet but they are never far behind. Capt Jeff

Mullet Run Quick Tip #1 The 5 Gallon Bucket. This short video series will help you gear up to be ready when the mullet show up on your beach. It all starts with the basics, and if you don't have a place to keep your mullet, well then you dont have any mullet noww do ya. Got a question about fishing the Mullet Run send them to Twitter: Lunkerdog

Went podding twice today. This morning was low tide dead calm and no bait in sight. Looked for bait agin and found some really good pre-pod action this afternoon. Pilchards were thick in the first trough north of Sunrise Blvd. Our friends the pelicans were there and there was one "Happy Baiter" casting off the beach with a box full of plugs. We did not see any lunkers or any fish feeding for that mater. The most positive sign was the bait was moving south. I can smell them, I can feel them they are almost starting to show!