My first 2006 Mullet

[corydoras]

Sam

 

I tried maggots for mullet on the Itchen/solent a year or so ago and had no luck. The only thing I have ever caucht them on is bread. My mate, wha has caught loads more mullet than me only uses bread. I have heard that anglers in Christchurch harbour use popcorn. I tried this one time too. No joy.

 

FWIW some bits of the lower Itchin are really fun to fish, even if a bit manky. Not only can you catch bass and mullet on bread flake (my mate had a 7lb bass on a floater) but from the same water you might pull out a carp, or even some roach. On our last visit we saw a small jack pike swimming about in the margins.

Edited June 13, 2006 by corydoras

[WeymouthSean]

I missed that one SAM what a great fish! What breaking strain line were you using and how long did it take you to tame that beast!

[sam-cox]

Im afraid it was 8lb big game, I normally use 4lb or 6lb but have been beatern up so many times on 4lb. I didnt have any 6lb but I was using a very very light feeder rod with its lightest tip, it took five minutes to land.

[ThamesTurbot]

Im afraid it was 8lb big game, I normally use 4lb or 6lb but have been beatern up so many times on 4lb. I didnt have any 6lb but I was using a very very light feeder rod with its lightest tip, it took five minutes to land.

 

 

Hi Sam,

I've been using white maggot as feed for the last couple of years, not yet caught using them as bait but have had bites, but, as you know as we fish the same two rivers, these bites could be from anything from Smelt to Eels.All my Blackwater and Crouch fish have come to flake except one to chicken skin and one on maddies. Why bread fishes best, I don't know, some localised areas have certain "best baits" ie weed maggots are good in the Dorest (Swanage) area, prehaps some of our Mullet "experts" like Leon can come up with an answer!!.

Edited June 15, 2006 by ThamesTurbot

[AlderneyBassman]

While bass fishing using whole mackerel fillets I found they were getting stripped by mullet. So I added a short snood with a size 6 baited with a sliver of mackerel. The result was a hectic session with mullet to over 5lb, golden greys, bream and a 9lb bass!

 

So there you go Sam, sort of swimfeeder fishing!

[Leon Roskilly]

Hi Sam,

I've been using white maggot as feed for the last couple of years, not yet caught using them as bait but have had bites, but, as you know as we fish the same two rivers, these bites could be from anything from Smelt to Eels.All my Blackwater and Crouch fish have come to flake except one to chicken skin and one on maddies. Why bread fishes best, I don't know, some localised areas have certain "best baits" ie weed maggots are good in the Dorest (Swanage) area, prehaps some of our Mullet "experts" like Leon can come up with an answer!!.

 

 

The usual diet of mullet is algae and micorganisms found in mud, and in the surface film (that's why mullet are often seen sucking at the surface to the frustration of fly-anglers whose offerings are ignored).

 

But ever adaptable, if there is another source of food available that they have become accustomed to, they will adopt localised feeding, eg the will feed readily on fish scraps in harbours, on harbour rag where they are used to feeding on that, fish fry in places and times when that is available, and seaweed maggots.

 

So, baits other than bread can be successful, in the right time and place.

 

With maggots it is usually where seaweed is deposited by falling springs, a layer left on the beach by the previous high spring tide, but not retrieved by the sea until the next set of rising springs that go up the beach that far.

 

The seaweed is left to rot, and becomes infested by the maggots of the small flies you often see hopping about on the rotting weed.

 

As the rafts of weed get floated off by rising springs, you can see the white dots drifting from beneath the floating rafts of weed, and the mullet (and bass) seem to anticipate this occasional feast, and become vulnerable to being caught on maggot.

 

But it seems that they are only interested in maggot in places and at times that they expect to find them, other times they will simply ignore them.

 

It's very much similar to trout taking flies that 'match the hatch', so that last week's killer fly, fails completely when another food is what they expect to be on the day's menu.

 

One of our Medway mulleteers had the idea of drilling a small hole in the bottom of a tin, filling the tin with maggots and suspending it from the pontoon pier so that the maggots dropped into the tide one by one.

 

Soon he was getting a bite every chuck!.........

 

........as a shoal of small pouting waited in line for the next maggot to drop!

 

 

But bread is almost always the best bait, and although others may argue otherwise, needs no flavourings or enhancers, and is extrordinarly cheap and convenient when compared to other baits needed for other species (though mullet anglers are often surprised at the number of species that can be caught on bread, particularly bass and crabs!).

 

Why do mullet accept bread so readily?

 

I've observed that mullet like to suck on 'flocculent' material, not so much for itself, but for the microrganisms that is likely to contain.

 

Any such flocculent material floating past in a thumb nail sized portion is likely to be given a quick suck by a mullet, and again rapidly ejected in the blink of an eye.

 

A small piece of silkweed, a lump of brown scum, all likely to be playing host to hundreds of micro-organisms which is the principle diet of mullet.

 

And so a flake of bread, or a skinless piece of mackerel flesh is worth a suck, producing a lightning bite as it is routinely ejected.

 

Pretty soon, the mullet learn that the bread is good for what it is, rather than what it contains, and so actively search around places that they have come to expect to find it for drifting flakes, occasionally coming across a piece with an anglers hook embedded.

[sam-cox]

Well done, and welcome to the merry band of Mulleteers

 

LOLOLOL, Is this like chocolateeers, or the ferengy from star treks ears?

[Sharkbyte]

Its great to see that the winter / spring doldrums have passed and some quality fish are being caught.

 

Nice one Sam, another lovely fish for the album.

[sam-cox]

Dnt mate you will make me feel bad after your latest!

 

I went again this afternood bit some w8nker had put his boat in my spot, lots of schoolie bites to crab, things on the up this end!

[corydoras]

Well done, and welcome to the merry band of Mulleteers

 

LOLOLOL, Is this like chocolateeers, or the ferengy from star treks ears?

A quick search on AN would show that some anglers who fish only or mainly for mullet refer to them selves as 'mulleteers'.

Edited June 16, 2006 by corydoras