Snook bite stays hot on the Treasure Coast as mullet run nears

What's biting

What's next

With the mullet run still building rather than in full swing, expect the next two to three weeks to bring a steady increase in bait density along the beaches and inshore around the Treasure Coast. Snook Nook notes finger mullet schools haven't arrived in force yet, running later this year after a cooler winter — so the snook, tarpon, and jack action that typically explodes once the run peaks should intensify progressively rather than all at once. Anglers timing trips around the leading edge of bigger mullet pods moving down the beach and into the inlets stand to catch the transition before it gets crowded.

Snook fishing should stay strong to excellent through the near term. The pattern that's been producing — live croakers and threadfins fished around the St. Lucie Inlet and detached jetty, with a dead threadfin on bottom as a fallback when the bite slows — has held for weeks per Snook Nook and there's no signal in the data suggesting that changes soon. As the mullet run builds, expect snook to push tighter to bait concentrations at the inlet mouth and along the surf line, particularly on outgoing tide stages when current concentrates forage against structure.

Offshore, the sailfish bite that produced Team Snook Nook's tournament win suggests fish are actively moving along the Atlantic side near Stuart; that kind of result typically reflects a wider push of fish working the edge, so trolling or kite-fishing charters out of the same inlet have a reasonable shot at continued action in the coming week.

On the regulatory side, red snapper anglers should watch for updates rather than plan around access — the South Atlantic EFP pilot program that would have opened a state-managed season is currently blocked by a federal injunction per CCA Florida, so any snapper season this fall is uncertain until that resolves. No tide or water-temperature telemetry was available for this report; check a local tide chart and marine forecast before heading out, and expect outgoing tide at the inlets to remain the higher-percentage window as it has been all season.

Context

September on Florida's Treasure Coast is squarely mullet-run season, and this year's pattern reads as slightly delayed rather than off-schedule — Snook Nook attributes the later start to a cooler winter, with schools of larger mullet just beginning to stage and finger mullet still a few weeks from showing in volume. That lines up with typical variability for the run's start date, which shifts by two to three weeks year to year depending on winter water temperatures. The snook fishing itself has reportedly been ahead of a typical late-summer pattern, with Snook Nook describing consistent numbers and quality fish to 40-plus inches through July and August — a strong lead-in to what the mullet run usually accelerates further.

On the offshore side, sailfish activity strong enough to decide a tournament in early-to-mid September is consistent with the historical pattern for the Treasure Coast, where sail numbers typically build as the calendar turns toward fall.

The bigger story shaping the season isn't biological but regulatory: red snapper management in the South Atlantic has been in flux for months, with a state-led exempted fishing permit program approved, opened for public comment, and then blocked by a court injunction just before this year's window, per CCA Florida. That's a meaningfully different backdrop than a typical September, when the federal snapper season structure is usually settled well in advance. No comparative water-temperature or flow data was available this cycle to benchmark against prior years directly.