Snook Season Reopens on the Treasure Coast as Mullet Run Builds

What's biting

What's next

With snook season freshly reopened, expect pressure to build quickly around the traditional Treasure Coast structure — the St. Lucie Inlet, the detached jetty, and Hole in the Wall — the same spots Snook Nook flagged as producing through August. Live bait (croakers, threadfins, pilchards) should keep working early, and anglers who struck out on the moving bite may want the dead-bait-on-bottom approach the shop described for when the inlet goes quiet.

The mullet run is the bigger swing factor over the next 1-3 weeks. Snook Nook is already seeing larger mullet schools stage inshore with a few pods sliding down the beaches, but it's running behind normal timing after a cooler winter — so the classic beach snook-on-mullet blitz likely isn't quite here yet. Anglers should watch the beaches for finger mullet schools to start showing in volume; once they do, expect snook, and likely other predators keying on bait, to follow the pods tight to the surf line. That's typically a short, intense window worth planning a weekend trip around once it starts.

Red snapper access remains the wildcard for anyone hoping to fish the reefs. CCA Florida's report of a preliminary injunction against the South Atlantic EFP pilot programs landed just before Florida's Atlantic season was due to open, so there's no clear harvest window right now. Anglers focused on snapper should hold off on trip planning until the legal picture clears and check FWC or NOAA Fisheries updates directly before heading offshore — this is a fast-moving situation, not a settled closure.

For those tagging fish as part of ongoing research, Florida Sea Grant's Atlantic red snapper tagging project is active and paying a $250 reward per tagged fish reported, which is worth knowing even if harvest itself is on hold — catch-and-release encounters with tagged snapper still have value to report.

Overall, the next few days favor working the inlet on live bait for snook while keeping an eye on the beaches for the mullet schools to thicken up.

Context

A June 1 - August 31 closure is standard for Treasure Coast snook, protecting fish through their summer spawn, so today's reopening is right on the normal calendar - not early or late. What is running behind schedule, per Snook Nook, is the mullet run itself, which the shop attributes to a cooler winter pushing bait timing later than a typical year. That's a meaningful detail for trip planning, since the beach blitz that often accompanies the run is one of the more reliable windows for larger snook and other predators feeding on migrating mullet.

The red snapper situation is more unusual than a typical season hiccup. CCA Florida and Saltwater Sportsman both frame 2026 as a disrupted year for South Atlantic red snapper - state-led Exempted Fishing Permit pilot programs were approved, then hit with a preliminary injunction just hours before Florida's season was to open, following earlier litigation from commercial fishing interests. States have been pushing an alternate fall window (reporting mentioned an October push) to salvage some season, but as of this report the legal status is unresolved. That makes this a genuinely atypical year for Atlantic red snapper access compared to a normal season calendar, rather than routine within-season variability.

No direct water-temperature or buoy data was available for this report, so seasonal comparisons are limited to what the angler-intel sources described directly.