2007 Mullet Season

[Matt Baldwin]

With this warmer weather in the south-east at the moment, it is going to be a matter of time before the mullet are in.

 

so i think it's time you mulleters out there dusted down your rods and tackle and prepare for the forth-coming season.

 

All the best and tight lines

 

Matt

[corydoras]

It is funny you should post this today. My mate and I were just saying as much last night. It may even be worth having a scouting session or two in the next week or so.

[Matt Baldwin]

defo..

 

i'm down the medway this afternoon so shall have a look at the pier see if anything is showing as the tide will be half way up.

[Chippy]

I spent the afternoon yesterday cleaning my boat and there were lots of sizeable thick lipped (one was very large indeed).

 

I had taken half a loaf to feed them but they seemed to totally ignore it. I took a walk later on though and saw numerous mullet feeding off the algae on the boat hulls.

 

Sea temp here has just broken the magic 10 degree mark - 10.2 today.

 

I'd better dust down the rods, paint some hooks and put some new line on!

[Matt Baldwin]

in the estuary it is roughly around 10 degrees

[KjP]

Lots of small mullet seen in the Itchen at Northam last night, the water in Southampton is in the 9 to 10 degree range and rising. I'm going to put my bread bag in on the dock tomorrow and will report when I spot fish feeding on it, last year the first fish started feeding on the 12th May, but its already almost as warm as then.

[Norm B]

With this warmer weather in the south-east at the moment, it is going to be a matter of time before the mullet are in.

 

so i think it's time you mulleters out there dusted down your rods and tackle and prepare for the forth-coming season.

 

All the best and tight lines

 

Matt

Pumping out the club boat yesterday in Haslar Creek and there were a few big ones munching the mud, wish I'd taken a rod with me.

[Leon Roskilly]

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QUOTE(Norm B @ Mar 12 2007, 06:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Pumping out the club boat yesterday in Haslar Creek and there were a few big ones munching the mud, wish I'd taken a rod with me.

 

 

Early in the season the mud is coated with brown algae, and the mullet seem to be mostly pre-occupied feeding on that.

 

I've noticed that they sometimes switch onto feeding on bread, with several MMG members reporting bites and fished hooked on the same day, from different locations, then it can be another 2-3 weeks before anyone sees any further action.

 

Once the brown algae has largely disappeared from the mud, then the mullet seem to be more consistently obliging.

 

A bit like the reverse with tench, feeding on maggot bread etc willingly early in the season, until the weed grows and there's plenty of natural feed such as small snails etc about, then they become less easy to tempt on 'unnatural' hookbaits, whereas mullet have plenty of 'natural' food early on, but once they've mopped that up, start to turn to more opportunistic feeding on bread (and other things that can go onto a hook).

[Matt Baldwin]

how long tdo you think now then leon?

 

matt

[Leon Roskilly]

how long tdo you think now then leon?

 

matt

 

 

Matt,

 

If I was trying to beat Andrew to the honour of landing the first Medway mullet of 2007, I'd be out setting breadbags in several places and fishing now, expecting a few blanks but hopeful that my bait would be in the water on one of those early season feeding spells.

 

As with the end of the season, it is often the lone large fish that will start feeding first.

 

And if you take the water temperature, you will find that the closer to the mouth of the estuary, the higher the temp, so a good place to start would be Gillingham Pier, then once the fish start feeding follow them upriver to Chatham, then Rochester.

 

Days when low tide co-incides with a strong afternoon sun (as now http://easytide.ukho.gov.uk/easytide/EasyT...dictionLength=7 ) sees the estuary mud heating up quickly, transferring heat to the incoming tide and maybe triggering feeding.

 

Also a spell of several warm settled days (as we have just had) could also trigger an early season feeding spell.

 

Good Luck Matt

 

(But my money's on Andrew!)

Edited March 13, 2007 by Leon Roskilly