Lures for Fishing the Mullet Run – On The Water
Last October, following a slow night in the Outer Cape surf, my friend Ryan Henry called me with some interesting news. What appeared to be scattered schools of striped mullet were moving between inlets on the south side of Cape Cod.
While mullet aren’t unheard of in Massachusetts, anglers from Rhode Island to New Jersey encounter them more frequently in the fall. So, to get a better idea of what I should keep in my plug bag should the mullet run the Cape this fall, I asked surfcasters for their baits of choice when mullet schools run thick.
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For Jake Hardy, on the west end of Long Island, the mullet run is the perfect opportunity for a big bass on the fly. “You really can’t beat wading out on a bar and casting down a trough for big, aggressive fish blowing up a Bulkhead deceiver on your fastest double-handed strip,” he said. There are times, though, when those stormy conditions hinder his ability to properly cast or present a fly. In such cases, Hardy relies on plugs he can “burn in”, or retrieve rapidly, and that hang higher in the water column, like the RM Smith Surf Strider or a Yo-Zuri Mag Dive. At night, Hardy says, when mullet are tight to the rocks like silversides, he throws 6- to 10-inch paddletails on light jigheads or wide-gap swimbait hooks.
In northern New Jersey, TAK Waterman Co-Founder Mike Gleason’s favorite mullet-run lure is a discontinued minnow-style plug: the Mega Bait 110. Of course, with that arsenal limited, but Gleason says a slim-profile surface metal lip is the next plug he reaches for.
Since minnow plugs come in such a variety of styles, you can’t leave home without a few variations, and that holds true for Nick Honachefsky. “My go-to lures are Bomber plugs, Yo-Zuri Mag Darters, and Daiwa SP Minnows because they mimic the mullet profile well,” he said. “The Island X Sidewinder, or any walk-the-dog-style spook or topwater stickbait, is also a solid profile to toss out there,” he continued.
Sometimes, the best thing a surfcaster can do is keep things simple and stick to confidence lures, like John Papciak does in the Montauk. “A swimming plug like a 7-inch Cotton Cordell Red Fin or an Atom Junior can draw very exciting surface strikes. I slowly retrieve the lure across the surface to create that V-wake.”
Brandon Sausele, another Montauk surfcaster, agreed, stating that his go-to mullet lure is a blue metal lip like an Atom Junior or a blue Super Strike Zig Zag. Of course, there are times when a Red Fin or Atom Junior can’t reach the action, and a plug capable of casting long distances is necessary.
“When trying to reach a bar, a 2- to 3-ounce pencil popper or a Super Strike Little Neck Popper will do fine,” Papciak said. And, when that first nor’easter rolls in, bringing big waves and white water, Papciak resorts to throwing 2- or 3-ounce white bucktails for their ability to punch through the wind and resist tumbling in rough surf.
In Rhode Island, lifetime surfcaster and author Dennis Zambrotta takes a different approach. “In daytime with flat water conditions, if any bass are on the mullet, they are tough to fool,” he said. “Poppers work occasionally, but light jigheads with soft-plastic paddletails, like the ones from Gravity Tackle, are dead ringers for mullet.” Zambrotta said that he uses soft plastics day or night, but when it’s calm enough, he also throws C10 Redfins and small, metal-lipped swimmers to generate a V-wake.
Last October on the Cape, my surf bag contained two 1-ounce Mag Darters, two sizes and colors of Tsunami Talkin’ Poppers, a handful of pencil poppers, two floating Super Strike Little Neck Poppers, and two SP Minnows without rear hooks. I also filled my bucktail sleeves with an array of white bucktail jigs in ¼-ounce increments from ½ ounce to 2 ounces, and stuffed three 6-inch Big Bait paddletails into the side pouches with a couple of ¼-ounce jigheads and zip ties.
For five consecutive days, I ventured out to that same sand flat before sunrise, and picked off stripers on anything that produced a splashy commotion or had a kicking tail. It was some of the most exciting and lively surf fishing I’ve ever experienced. As Halloween approached, my case of bass thumb had a chance to heal as mullet schools thinned out, and the air temperature dropped along with the average size of the bass.
Topwaters for the Mullet Run
While mullet tend to run tight to the shoreline, the fish can occasionally seem out of reach, and this noisy, rear-weighted pencil popper goes the distance. The interior rattle and cupped face produce a splashy commotion that is irresistible to fired-up stripers and, with a rear siwash hook in place of a treble, the Talkin’ Popper XD is less likely to do additional damage to stripers destined for release.
Super Strike Little Neck Popper (Floating)
A 6-inch, 2 1/4-ounce, floating Super Strike Little Neck Popper casts well in the wind and closely matches the size of finger mullet. The cupped face throws a ton of water on a steady pop-and-pause retrieve and, when left hanging on the surface like a mortally-wounded mullet, it draws vicious strikes from stripers of all sizes.
The RM Smith Surf Strider is a discontinued 6-inch, 2-ounce, walk-the-dog style spook made in Jamestown, NY, but it doubles as a shallow-running darter with a side-to-side swimming pattern. If you can’t get your hands on one, the 24/7 Lures Mully or Yo-Zuri Mag Dive feature similar builds with the same enticing action.
This through-wired floating plug swims subsurface in an S-pattern with long sweeps of the rod and, when paused, floats to the surface, imitating a distressed or dying baitfish. As a result, strikes frequently come on the pause. Its slightly cylindrical profile closely resembles that of a mullet.
Swimming Plugs
Surface-swimming minnow plugs like the Cotton Cordell Red Fin create a V-wake that can generate violent topwater strikes from striped bass that are unwilling to hit a more active topwater lure. When mullet schools are present in calm surf conditions with a low swell, this classic minnow plug excels.
The 5-inch, 1-ounce Yo-Zuri Mag Darter, especially in the mullet pattern (shown), closely resembles the size, profile, and swimming action of finger mullet in the surf. A quick pop of the rod tip will send this shallow-diving plug lurching forward like a fleeing mullet.
The floating Salt Pro Minnow is designed to cast long distances and generate a tight, attention-grabbing wobble in moderate current. When mullet are not showing on the surface, the SP Minnow excels, diving between 3 and 4 feet to entice stripers that are waiting to ambush mullet schools in deeper troughs.
Soft Plastics
These soft-plastic swimbaits are highlighted by an XL tail that is designed to catch more water, amplifying its kicking action so it stands out among dense schools of mullet. They come in a variety of sizes and an array of natural and vibrant color patterns for fishing crystal-clear ocean water or churned-up, opaque inlet water. Rig them on a jighead, or a wide gap swimbait hook for a “weedless and weightless” presentation.
The Mulletron line-through swimbait is a true match-the-hatch lure for the mullet run. It’s made with Z-Man’s 10x Tough ElaZtech to withstand repeated abuse from stripers (and the occasional bluefish), and features a wedge-shaped tail that produces a lifelike kicking action. Its realistic profile is further enhanced by photo-printed baitfish patterns.
Z-Man’s HerculeZ Swimmer is a pre-rigged swimshad-style lure made with the same 10x Tough ElaZtech and a heavy duty 5/0 or 7/0 Mustad UltraPoint hook for swift penetration. The boot-shaped tail generates a pronounced kicking action on a steady retrieve, while 3D eyes and the detailed fins enhance its realistic profile. An additional hook hanger provides the option to add a belly treble hook or willow-style blade for extra flash and vibration in stained water.
Other Mullet Run Favorites
Atom Junior
The Atom Junior is a smaller version of Bob Pond’s Atom 40—the first saltwater-grade metal-lipped swimmer—and although discontinued, they continue to put big bass on the beach, especially during the mullet run. They’re tough to get a hold of, but it’s worth checking your local antique shop or a nearby garage sale.
Unlike the fast-paced and frothy action of a pencil popper, it is the long, slow, side-to-side swimming pattern of Super Strike’s darter that makes it a staple in the bags of Montauk and Jersey surfcasters especially. When mullet run the sand beaches, a Super Strike Zig Zag digs into the strong ocean current, and its wide profile resembles a slightly larger corncob mullet which, in turn, entices bigger bass.
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