The mullet run reached the Volusia and Brevard beaches this week, and the surf from Ormond down to Sebastian is doing what it does every September — tarpon, snook, jacks, sharks, and bluefish all working the bait in the first trough. This is the most exciting two weeks of the year for a beach angler on the Space Coast.
What’s Hitting
This week on the water it is the mullet run and everything eating it. Tarpon are rolling in the surf at Ponce Inlet, New Smyrna, and Playalinda, and snook are in the wash from Daytona Beach Shores south. Jack crevalle are crashing bait so close to the sand that swimmers are getting splashed. In the Mosquito Lagoon and the northern Indian River, redfish schools are working the flats on the higher water, and there are trout on the deeper edges early. Pompano and whiting are picking up in the surf in between bait pods. Offshore, the party boats are on snapper and kingfish.
Where to Find Them
Ponce Inlet jetties and the beach immediately south are the tarpon and snook zone. Playalinda Beach in Canaveral National Seashore is a long, uncrowded stretch of good surf. Sebastian Inlet is loaded on the outgoing tide. In the lagoon, the flats around Tiger Shoal, the Whale Tail, and the spoil islands near Haulover Canal are holding redfish.
Tides & Conditions
Surf temps are in the low 80s and the mullet are moving on the cooler mornings and the north swells. Outgoing tides at the inlets flush bait to the fish and are the best bet. Watch the tropical outlook closely — a distant system can build the swell and shut down the surf bite for days, or concentrate the bait tight to the beach and turn it on. Afternoon storms continue.
Tackle & Tactics
A live finger mullet on a 5/0 circle hook and 50-pound fluorocarbon covers snook and tarpon in the surf; go to 80-pound leader and an 8/0 for tarpon if you are targeting them. Swimming plugs, big paddle-tails, and topwaters in mullet patterns draw strikes when live bait is hard to snag. In the lagoon, a gold spoon or a weedless soft plastic worked ahead of the school is the redfish play, and a popping cork with a shrimp handles the trout.
Local Intel This Week
Public ramps: the Lighthouse Point Park ramp at Ponce Inlet, the North Causeway ramp in New Smyrna Beach, the Haulover Canal ramp in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and the Sebastian Inlet State Park ramp. Fish are concentrating on the bait pods in the surf and at the inlets. Snook season opened September 1 on the Atlantic coast; slot, bag, and snook permit rules apply — check current FWC regulations before keeping fish, and note Canaveral National Seashore has its own access rules and hours.
This Week’s Tip
Sharks are on the mullet too, and they will eat a hooked snook or tarpon off your line. When you see fins working the bait, move down the beach a few hundred yards rather than feeding the sharks your fish.
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