Mullet

[Alan Stubbs]

I was walking from the car park to the office this afternoon and saw 4 huge mullet cruising on the surface in the inner dock here in Liverpool.

 

I feel a little surrepticious line wetting coming on - especially as the car park atendant and security officer are keen fishermen!

[***Simon***]

yer they're always in the harbour down here. i tried for em but they only went up to the bread and turned away. i was shocked i didnt catch any.

[Alan Stubbs]

The guys here reckon bread doused with a little liquidised belachan will work.

 

As for looking at the bread and truning away, Leon and Steve Burke will testify that it isn't just Albert Dock mullet that do that

[Phil the Fish]

Alan Stubbs:

 

As for looking at the bread and truning away, Leon and Steve Burke will testify that it isn't just Albert Dock mullet that do that

Having sat in St Helier for many hours watching mullet come zooming in towards the baited hook, and then turn away at the last moment, I'd have to agree.. makes you wonder what is going on below, in less than gin clear waters, as one sits for hour upon hour without a bite!!!!

 

Phil

[darnsarf]

As a new convert to mullet fishing can i ask probably a stupid question. When do you strike?

 

Had a couple of pulls but probably didnt hit it soon enough me thinks. This was on a float.

[DJMCJERICO]

I was having this problem with carp on the surface, maybe try risking the double strengh line for course fishing.

[Fastd]

Line thickness is more than likely the problem.

Double strenght line is by no means the thinest you can get. Personally when coarse fishing i use Stroft line as hook lenghts as I can fish a 3.2lb hook lenght for the same diameter as a 1 1/2 lb hook lenght. For mullet i would think the .16mm dia with a breaking strain of over 5lbs would be adequate and certainly help to increase the number of takes you get.

 

High tech mono's cost a fortune..£2.99 for 25 mtrs is typical but u only use a foot or so for each hook length so it lasts well and makes an incredible difference to the number of bites.

 

Missed bites are not rare on bread, dont squeeze it on too hard and use fine wire hooks that pull easily through the bread.Extra strong wire hooks have too much resitance to pull through the stodgy doughy bit you squeezed round the shank and therefore this bits acts as a deflector to guide the hook back out of the fishes mouth without actually making contact.

 

Although I have very rarely fished for mullet these comments are based on 1000's of hours i have spent fishing bread for chub and barbel. The hooks i tend to use are kamasan b611's which are fine but more than capable of landing dbl figure carp and large barbel. I have tried drennan specialist and super specialist hooks...but found the number of missed bites was trebled ..I can only assume this s because the finer hooks pulls through the bread far easier.

 

Hope this helps. The high tech mono's can be hard to find ...but a visit to a coarse fishing shop should sort it...and look at the diameter of the line not the breaking strain...find a line in the .16mm diameter that has a breaking strain you are comfortable with using for mullet. A good point to note here...asssuming you are using a coarse float rod for mullet..tie a length of line to the end of the rod and the other end round a bag of sugar.You will probably find you can not/dare not lift the sugar off the ground. This is an indication of how much force the rod can apply and in theory a guideline to the maximun strength line u need to use without risking a break whilst actually playing a fish.

 

Cheers

Dave

[darnsarf]

Thanks Dave and Dan. Down to the course shop it is then. Will let you know if my luck changes.

 

As an hardent sea angler all this light tackle is a bit new but I do mostly fish with a float anyway and this Mullet lark seems a natural progression. Bruddy difficult but a great challenge.

 

Thanks again

Paul

[Phil the Fish]

Fastd:

Line thickness is more than likely the problem.

For mullet i would think the .16mm dia with a breaking strain of over 5lbs would be adequate and certainly help to increase the number of takes you get.

Dave, you may well be right, but I use 0.16 and 0.14 fluro -- and I've watched them still turn away --- there is some thought about them being put off by the local conductivity or magnetic field around the hook, or maybe their just being mullet and being finicky, esp if their in shallow water when they seem that much more easier to spook!!!!! So line thickness, the hook outline in the bread, the way the bread is presented and sinking (or not) all probably contribute...

 

Phil

[Leon Roskilly]

darnsarf:

As a new convert to mullet fishing can i ask probably a stupid question. When do you strike?

 

Had a couple of pulls but probably didnt hit it soon enough me thinks. This was on a float.

I wish I knew!

 

When conditions have been clear enough, I've had mullet gently take just the edge of the bait and tow it, without the hook in their mouth.

 

I've also seen them 'bumping the bait' without taking the bait into their mouth at all.

 

In either case, in murky water, the float just dives straight down and it's impossible not to strike (and miss!).

 

In other instances the mullet will confidently take the bait and spit out the hook, all in an instant, and barely bob the float.

 

(Did anyone ever mention that mullet are a frustrating fish!)

 

To get good confident bites, where the fish actually takes the bait and hook into it's mouth, sometimes demands immaculate presentation.

 

If there is any reason for suspicion, they will happily eat loose offerings but ignore or 'test' the hook bait (other times they just steam straight in, regardless of presentation - that's when the kid with 18lb line and a piece of bread on a 2/0 hooks a mullet next to you!)

 

Judging the feeding mood is all part of the frustration of mullet fishing!

 

There is no 'right time to strike', sometimes they will barely move the float, but you will hook a fish, other times 'unmissable' sail-away bites are impossible to hit.

 

What does help is to realise that mullet usually take bait more confidently in deeper murky water than they do in shallow clear water.

 

If you do find that you are missing bites, It may pay to fish a little deeper.

 

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

[ 14. July 2005, 07:34 AM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]