Mullet runs like this often produce a snook catch like this.

“During the summer, there are also lots of whitebait, pilchards, glass minnows and shiners around for the gamefish to eat,” he pointed out. “In late fall and winter, the fish will eat what is down in the mud. The mullet will churn up the morsels and the reds and snook come to feed.”

Page prefers fishing negative low tides in the winter. When the waters are from a minus 0.5 foot to a minus one foot below the mean low tide level specified on the charts, the time is perfect for locating mullet and sportfish. Most of the water is off the flats, making it easy to find mullet. With the low water, fish pull into troughs and potholes. Some of Page’s favorite backcountry spots on the southwest coast are Bull Bay, Turtle Bay, Whidden Creek and Catfish Creek in Charlotte Harbor and Palma Sola Bay and Long Bar in Sarasota Bay.

“If the wind is from the north, the low tides will be even lower and better,” he says. “On the west coast, the north wind normally pushes the water out of the shallow flats and a south wind pushes water in. With that cold air coming in, the mud holes that are the warmest spots on the flats are fish magnets. With those conditions on an average day, we can catch 20 redfish, 20 trout and, if the water is not too cold, a dozen nice snook from these spots. I have had days where three of us pulled 60 redfish from 10 of these mullet-laden holes.”

During summer on the higher tides, mullet will push on up into the mangroves, and they are more difficult to locate and fish. Falling water, however, will pull them out of the bushes into areas they can stay in and wait for the return of the high tide. In the winter, the tides seldom get high enough to pose such problems. The mullet and gamefish following them won’t be able to swim up under the mangrove bushes. The mullet are sentenced to stay out on the flats.

Locating Black Mullet

To locate black mullet on a flat, Page scans the surface near mangroves, sand potholes, troughs or other irregular topography. He’ll look for jumping fish, swirls or splashing during tidal movement in either direction. The mullet will be “walking down the line,” as Page likes to term their movement, as one jumps and then another does the same thing and then another takes to the skies.

Often, in the winter months, Page will keep rods in the holders until he spots the mullet schools. When the mullet are full of roe, he will not fish until he locates a 1,000-pound school visually. He might cruise the flats in his boat until he sees 10 to 20 fish in the air at one time. Then, he can almost be assured of catching reds, snook and/or big trout in that school.

In slack water, they may not jump as much, so they can be more difficult to spot. When the wind is howling and the water is white capping, mullet are very difficult to see. If the water is clean, the sun is up and there is only a slight ripple on the surface, it is easier to see their big bodies pushing water. You can also distinguish between silver and the black mullet once you see them.

“When I work a series of potholes, a shoreline with a trench or any other place with mucky, soft bottom, I’m looking for black mullet,” says Geoff. “The mullet like to get in those places to feed on the plankton, and if there are 30 or more present, they are always moving and tailing as they grub and turn up the bottom through the area. The snook, redfish, larger trout and flounder will get right in there with the mullet and feed on the oyster crabs, slugs, crustaceans and grass shrimp kicked up.”

Redfish often wait in mullet migration lanes to ambush their next meal.

“When you are on a grassflat bar with a distinct edge and the minnows are in the same area as the mullet, that is the very best condition,” he says. “If the bottom goes from one foot down to three foot, that would be perfect.”

How Fish Relate to Mullet

If mullet are pushing over an extremely shallow sand-and-grass bar as they often do in low light, you won’t find large redfish. They would be much more visible if they were present. Any redfish in the area will lay off that edge a little and wait for the mullet to move into slightly deeper water so that they can get under the school and feed on what is turned up, according to Page.