Where are the mullet right now?

On the Atlantic side the mullet run moves north to south down the beaches through the fall; on the Gulf side schools leave bays and rivers through the passes, starting in the Panhandle and Big Bend and finishing around Charlotte Harbor, Naples, and Marco Island. The freshest answer is the live sightings map on this site. Anglers report schools as they spot them, station by station — from Mickler's Landing and Jacksonville Beach in Northeast Florida down through Ponce Inlet, Cocoa Beach, Sebastian Inlet, Fort Pierce, and Jupiter to Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach. On the Gulf, check the passes — Pensacola, Destin, Egmont Key, Boca Grande — and the Big Bend river mouths. Check the map plus each station's live score to see where bait and predators are stacking up today.

The run usually starts in late August to early September in Northeast and Central Florida, peaks from mid-September through October, and can linger into late November in South Florida. On the Gulf coast it runs later — October and November in the Panhandle and Big Bend, into December around Charlotte Harbor and Naples. The exact timing shifts every year with the weather — cooling nearshore water toward the upper 60s Fahrenheit and the first autumn cold fronts are the main triggers.

Inlets are the highest-percentage spots because moving water funnels the bait through a narrow gap and gamefish stack up to ambush it. Going roughly north to south: Mickler's Landing, the St. Johns River mouth at Mayport, St. Augustine Beach, Ponce Inlet, Cocoa Beach, Sebastian Inlet, Fort Pierce Inlet, Jupiter Inlet, and on to Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach late in the season.

Falling water temperature is the primary catalyst — mullet begin moving seaward as nearshore water drops toward about 68 Fahrenheit. The first autumn cold fronts amplify it: a sharp drop in barometric pressure and a shift to north or northeast wind tends to push the biggest pods tight against the beach on a falling tide.

Watch the water and the sky: nervous, showering bait at the surface and diving birds mean a pod is under attack. On this site, cross-check the live opportunity score for wind, tide, water temperature, and season, then read the crowdsourced sightings for your stretch of coast before you commit to a drive.

Yes, but it looks different. Gulf mullet spend the summer in bays, marsh, and spring-fed rivers, then leave through passes and river mouths to spawn offshore. The biggest exits come when a cold front drops the pressure, north wind flushes water out of the bays, the water cools, and a strong outgoing tide lines up near a new or full moon. This site scores every Gulf station on those triggers, from Pensacola Pass to Marco Island.