Tampa Bay Mullet Run Guide

I watch the mullet run the way some people watch football. When the bait starts pouring out of the rivers and bays toward the Gulf, Tampa Bay fishing changes overnight. Snook, redfish, tarpon, and jack crevalle stack up wherever those schools get pinched. I don’t treat this as a cute seasonal sidebar. For me it’s the stretch of the year where one good tide can beat a whole summer of average days.

I’m not going to pretend I have a secret GPS pin that always works. I fish the patterns. I watch the beaches. I listen to the bait shops. And I keep moving when a school goes quiet.

When I start looking

FWC’s research institute says striped mullet start bunching up in early fall and push out of the rivers and bays toward spawning grounds offshore. On the west coast, that spawning stretch runs mid-October through late January and peaks in November and December. I don’t mark a calendar and trust it. I start looking when the nights cool off a little and the first dark patches show up tight to the sand.

I’m also not going to make up a run report. When I checked on October 8, 2026, I couldn’t find an FWC or NOAA report saying whether the 2026 Tampa Bay push is early, late, strong, or weak. So I watch the water and the shops instead.

Early in the run I see finger mullet. Smaller bait, faster schools. Later the bigger fish show up and the schools get massive. That’s what I notice on the water. It isn’t a date FWC puts on a calendar.

The mullet run isn’t the only thing on my fall list. I’ve got separate notes on Spanish mackerel and flounder, and a family spots list for when somebody asks where to park without making the day a mission. The rest of my guides cover the wider season.

One flounder warning while the mullet are moving. Flounder harvest is closed every year from October 15 through November 30. Nothing goes in the cooler in that window.

What I watch for

Nervous water. Dark patches. Birds working the beach. A bait shop that suddenly has live mullet again. Those signs matter more to me than a forecast graphic.

FWC’s researchers point to cold fronts, falling water temperature, and drops in barometric pressure as the cues that get schools bunching up and moving. That matches what I see. If diving birds are hammering a stretch of beach after a front, I point the boat that way. I don’t sit on a dead flat hoping the old school comes back.

When the mullet are thick, the bite can be violent for an hour and then go dead. That’s normal. I pick up and hunt the next school. Staying glued to an empty lane because it was good yesterday is how you waste a morning.

Where I look

Mullet hug the shoreline when they move. I don’t run a menu of spots. I run the same patterns until one of them lights up.

On calm days the early schools often run tight to the beach. I look from Pass-a-Grille north toward Anclote, sandbars included. If the wind is up and the beach is blown out, I don’t force it. I slide to the next pattern.

Passes and inlets pinch the bait. Egmont Channel, Bunces Pass, and the mouth of the Manatee River are choke points I keep on the short list. Schools get funneled. Predators wait. I fish the edges of that push, not the middle of a boat circus if one has already formed.

Seawalls and rocky shorelines do the same funnel job on a smaller scale. Mullet slide along bulkheads. Snook and jacks sit in the shade line and smash anything that looks lost. I cast parallel to the wall more than I cast straight at it.

Grass flat edges on a falling tide are the other pattern I trust. Mullet push into shallow grass to feed, then get stuck when the water drops. Predators know that script. I work the edge, not the middle of the grass, and I leave if I’m just grinding bare bottom.

What I throw

Cast net your own mullet when you can, or buy live ones when the shops have them. When the run is on, I throw artificials and fly too.

Topwater gets the call when fish are crashing. I work a plug fast across the surface, and snook and jacks eat that hard. I usually throw a big spook-style plug in bone or mullet color. I want a mullet profile, not a tiny trout twitchbait.

Soft plastics cover me when the fish want something under the surface. I fish a mullet imitation or a jerk shad on a light jig head when they’re on smaller bait. A plastic around five inches long in root beer or smoke is what I reach for most days.

Fly is simple for me. A big Deceiver or Clouser in chartreuse and white. Strip fast when you see the school. No fancy pause. If they’re moving, I move the fly with them.

Live mullet under a float or free-lined is still the most consistent answer when the fish get picky. I’d rather look boring and catch than look clever and blank.

When you’ve got a plan and need gear, the stuff I recommend is in my shop.

How I set the boat

I try to stay off the fish. I aim for roughly sixty to eighty feet off the beach or structure, then cast into the path of the schools, not on top of their heads. On calm mornings I can often see the dark patches and nervous water from a long way out. That’s the time to idle in, kill the big wake, and make the first cast count.

I don’t idle through a school to get a better angle. That ends the bite for you and everybody else.

Mullet rules I check before I throw a net

I checked FWC on October 8, 2026. There’s no minimum size on recreational mullet, and the season is open all year. The bag is 50 fish per person per day statewide, and that counts striped and silver mullet together. The boat limit is tighter during the run. It’s 50 fish per vessel from September 1 through January 31, and 100 per vessel from February 1 through August 31. Your cast net can’t be more than 14 feet in stretched length, and you can’t fish more than two of them from a boat at once.

Pinellas has a stricter rule for a handful of St. Pete bayous. From October 1 through January 31, you can harvest or possess only five striped mullet per day in Riviera Bay and Bayou Grande (Papy’s Bayou) and interconnecting waters; Placido Bayou (Smack’s Bayou), Snell Isle Harbour, and Coffee Pot Bayou, plus the portion of Tampa Bay between those bayous; and connecting waters west of a line from Second Avenue NE out into Tampa Bay, then north past Coffee Pot and Smacks daybeacons to near Weedon Island. In that window, more than five striped mullet aboard a boat in those areas is illegal, no matter how many people are on it. That Pinellas limit is for striped mullet only. Silver mullet fall under the statewide bag.

Here’s the full page: FWC recreational mullet. I check it again before I load a cast net, because these rules do change.

Predators that follow the run

This page is about finding the bait, not a full regs sheet. Still, the fish that eat mullet have their own rules. These are from the same October 8, 2026 FWC check, and I look them up again the morning I leave the ramp.

Snook harvest in the Tampa Bay region is open September 1 through November 30 and closes again December 1. The slot is 28 to 33 inches total length, one fish per person, hook and line only. You need the snook permit plus a saltwater license to take one.

Redfish are open all year in Tampa Bay. The slot is 18 to 27 inches. You get one per person, with a two-fish boat limit.

Tarpon are catch and release for almost everyone. The one exception is a single fish a year with a tarpon tag when you’re going after a state or world record. Any tarpon over 40 inches stays in the water unless you’re in that record chase with a tag.

Jack crevalle are on FWC’s unregulated list. The default bag is two fish or 100 pounds per person, whichever is more. I mostly let them go anyway.

Rules change. When I’m keeping fish, I check the FWC page for that species the same day.

How I leave it

Watch the beaches. Watch the birds. Watch the bait shops. When the mullet show, the predators are rarely far behind. I keep the day simple. Find the push, stay off it, throw something that looks like food, and move when it dies. That’s how I fish the Tampa Bay mullet run.