8Lb 3oz Mullet & new Mullet partner

[cuckoo]

Ha ha nick , ill be up for that mate , lets hope the flounder fishing is better come this winter

[devondave]

awesome well done nick!

i have done my fair share of mulleting over the years they have started clamping down on the harbour fishing around here now and its just not the same so i have switched alot more over to carp fishing but still have the itch to get out and catch a few mullet!

do i recall you saying your in the national mullet club? if so i will drop you a pm only enquiring about a member i know

cheers

dave

[Sunny]

Originally Posted by devondave

awesome well done nick!

i have done my fair share of mulleting over the years they have started clamping down on the harbour fishing around here now and its just not the same so i have switched alot more over to carp fishing but still have the itch to get out and catch a few mullet!

do i recall you saying your in the national mullet club? if so i will drop you a pm only enquiring about a member i know

cheers

dave

I've just re-joined Dave...after being a member 1st in 1984 !!!!

I've been on the Multiply Site for a year or so ...as Sunnynick

[captain chaos]

Envy Envy Envy...thats it really! Nick out of interest have you ever eaten one? I thought they were very boney and tasted disgusting?
Re; Grey Mullet on a mepp's, had one up the Ouse A few years ago, when mentioned to the local tackle dealer he said it was common place and i thought i had stumbled upon it, (blast!) I reckon they only take the mepps if loaded with Rag and it has to be September/November time ie later in the year, one morning i had dug an absolute shed load of lug, couldn't get out in the boat....blowing a hooli, so we set up and fished the mooring, to start off with, we were getting knocks but couldn't connect, scaled down things and caught probably twenty or so thick lips on lug worm, brilliant Sport.
Do you reckon its the same with Thins or do they vanish out of the river system later on on the year?
I don't know much about thins as you have probably gathered. Cheers Jason.

[Sunny]

Originally Posted by captain chaos

Envy Envy Envy...thats it really! Nick out of interest have you ever eaten one? I thought they were very boney and tasted disgusting?
Re; Grey Mullet on a mepp's, had one up the Ouse A few years ago, when mentioned to the local tackle dealer he said it was common place and i thought i had stumbled upon it, (blast!) I reckon they only take the mepps if loaded with Rag and it has to be September/November time ie later in the year, one morning i had dug an absolute shed load of lug, couldn't get out in the boat....blowing a hooli, so we set up and fished the mooring, to start off with, we were getting knocks but couldn't connect, scaled down things and caught probably twenty or so thick lips on lug worm, brilliant Sport.
Do you reckon its the same with Thins or do they vanish out of the river system later on on the year?
I don't know much about thins as you have probably gathered. Cheers Jason.

Hi Jason,

Sorry for the late reply...been fishing

Thins are easier to catch...by a mile. Baited spoons has always been the tactic along the Solent and nearby harbours. They start here in May and leave the estuaries - usually first rain of September. Personally I don't rate the fight; compared to the Thick Lipped Greys. But the Thins grossly out-number the Thicks. I spend countless hours going over shallows and around structures searching for new marks that hold big Thicks and by far the most fish I see are Thins...sometimes huge shoals. In fact if there are a shoal of Mullet it is fairly certain they are Thins....I have never seen a shoal of Thicks; they tend to group in say 3s or 4s, but the real big fish are generally solitary. The big ones - 6+Lbs - are, I believe, all females. On many occasions I have seen smaller fish of around 4Lb 'annoying' them by butting into the larger fish's sides and then chasing after them....looks like mating type behaviour. Obviously they are not mating - as spawning takes place in the spring far offshore.


Interesting - if not controversial subject - eating Mullet ....I personally don't; for a number of reasons:

1. Sustainability
2. Poisonous
3. I'm not that hungry

1. SUSTAINABILITY

I always say that you can't criticize a fella who wants to eat the fish he catches. What right have we – as individuals - to dictate what someone else wants to eat. Good call, easy to see that fairness and logic when it comes to Cod & Mackerel, or even Bass – so does that extend to Smooth Hound, Common Skate, shark fins from Tope, Porbeagle, Thresher and Blue. I’m sure we all know how emotive a subject this is. I was interested to learn…from an old book I bought on Angling in the UK around the 1920s…. that the Solent used to be the premier location in the UK for giant Common Skate. Fish in the 100-200Lb range – wow !
They no longer exist here – not because of commercial hunting – they were worthless as a food source and so they didn’t bother. Our Commercial Fleet were too busy exterminating the Herring Shoal; and Bass were so numerous they were used to fertilise our south-coast fields !!!!

So it seems that we have the power to ‘angle’ fish to the point of extermination…or in some cases do the ‘dirty deed’ alongside the Commercial crowd – or Water Pikeys, as I like to refer to them. So if guys want to eat their fish its fine…but we also need to think about tomorrow; I don’t want to live in Spain or Portugal…or worse ….be a Carp angler *Smiling*, because there are no sea fish left !!!!

Can you imagine what it must have been like catching 2-3 massive 150Lb Skate in a day in the Solent …….. a place so infested with Bass that they were only good for fertiliser……..

So whenever the subject of eating fish comes up the obvious statement, ‘that Anglers can never match Commercials for impact on a species’ doesn’t always hold true. On the whole though we have a negligible impact - I have even, in the past written to my MP and Prof Callum Roberts (fish stock expert and advisor to the government), about how we - Anglers - take a fraction of 1% of the UK Cod stock. The Professor agrees that we have no impact whatsoever on Cod stock. But Thick Lipped Greys are not Cod, they are not common, they do not exist in the tens of Millions or tens of thousands like Cod and Bass - just because we can see them in Marinas etc do not be fooled into thinking they are common. You rarely see the Bass that lay beneath them in the estuaries ... let alone the thousands Bass that are offshore. I too own an offshore boat…and my Bass catches are not as good as they used to be…but they are still there; despite fewer numbers. Remembering the huge area of seabed that exists around our coast compared with the thin veneer of marina and creek where the Mullet exclusively reside. Bass must outnumber Thick Lipped Greys by 1000/1 if not more. Yet there is protection for Bass in their nursery grounds and we talk of their sustainability...the government (gits) have set no quota or rationale for Thick Lips…. crazy stuff eh !

Last year I caught 187 Thicks...I put them all back and made sure they all swam back good and strong. I also appreciated at that time that I could so easily have wiped out some of those marks if I had taken them...which wouldn't have been difficult.

I think if you are going to eat Mullet then I would suggest that Thins are more sustainable than Thick Lipped populations. From my own observations I reckon the Thins outnumber the Thicks anything up to 100/1. Thins also feed differently to the Thicks...which I believe are toxic (Thicks); see below.

Yesterday I fished Poole Harbour...which I am told is the most heavily netted stretch of water in the UK !!!
I launched the dinghy from Lake Lane slip, Hamworthy and the first thing I saw was a fleet of small boats, all loaded with nets and empty boxes for nets; at least 20 of them ...how the hell are there any fish left in Poole ?!!!!
The answer is simple - there aren't. I searched for the whole day to find only 3 spots that held Thicks. This would be unthinkable in any other harbour I have visited along the Hampshire coast. Poole Harbour commissioners should be truly ashamed of themselves; they have presided over the practical extermination of a species in their water. I managed one fish of 5Lb; yet I had explored areas that should have been packed with 5Lb fish and the occasional 7-8. They were all barren .....except for the ever present Thins. I would loved to have been able to fish Poole before the invention of the Gillnet...it must have been an awesome location with the warm shallow mudflats. I can only dream of what it must have been like….akin to Skate fishing in the Solent…a dream of times gone.
I also saw an amazing number of tangled abandoned gillnets, caught around piers and jetties...testimony to the extent the netters have gone to in pursuit of Bass/Mullet.
I doubt I will ever return to Poole Harbour. As a Thick Lipped Grey location it may as well be in Spain !!!!!

It is truly unfortunate that Thicks take too long to mature. If only they could get to 6Lb in say 2 years then it would be so easy…they would easily be sustainable; despite the Water Pikeys. One fella who being mates with the security guys, was able to fish a marina, in Gosport. Last year he caught 40+ Thicks...which he sold (illegally) to a Chinese restaurant in Portsmouth. This year that marina is practically empty of Mullet and the guy can't understand where they have gone !!!
Mullet take up to 20 years to reach 6Lb.... which means that if we (anglers) take them then there just won't be another one to replace it (size for size) for another 20 years; and then only if they are allowed to grow without being netted or caught by anglers. Makes you think.

2. POISONOUS

I watch Mullet grazing weed and algae off the bottom of boats and scooping mouth-fulls of mud off the bottom, filtering out the little invertebrates. With the weed, off the boat, come traces of anti-foul paint (naturally; as the pint is designed to flake away). The Mullet eat the ant-foul and the toxins undoubtedly lodge within its organs and tissue; especially the fatty tissues of the body. They are cumulative (collect throughout its life) and may even kill some from cancers etc. But before they die, they are carrying that crap around with them. Thank goodness the anti-foul is now safer than it used to be….remembering that the older Mullet will have been around long enough to have consumed the older more lethal anti-foul paints

Then there are their mud eating sessions…where the toxins of a hundred years have collected. They are eating the little creatures, who themselves have been inadvertently eating the toxins and collecting them up. What a wonderful system !!!


I wrote to MAFF on this subject and they didn’t respond…I will keep asking them. So would I eat a fish that eats toxins ?

3. HUNGRY

Well I personally would rather eat Chicken Curry, Beef Wellington (going posh), Pizza, Chips, Ice Cream and Strawberry Cheese Cake……… they taste better and it will mean that when I go fishing tomorrow there will be fish to catch.

Hate to hear guys complaining about ‘Blanking’ when they want to eat the fish they do catch

Last year I started to put back my large Bass (anything over 4Lb)…as they are the breeding fish…the ones that lay thousands of eggs each year. I don’t kill Smuts; although we ate one once and it tasted great…I mean great; and I don’t much like fish. But they all go back these days. I’ve been catching Smuts on carp rods and 8Lb line (from the boat) this year….what an absolute reel-screaming laugh that is. More fun than you can imagine…goodness knows why it isn’t licensed

Should we be discussing recipes for Smuts …or dreaming of angling adventures that blow your mind away !!!!

I’ll have a Chinese Chicken Curry and chips please

[captain chaos]

well, that clarifys that then!

[peterthefisherman]

Hya smashing fish again !!!

Do you find night fishing as productive as day fishing ? - do you ledger at night or use a float light ?

What would you recommend as a ledger rig - ? I am using a method feeder with a big bit bread on a 3 inch hooklength and waiting on the run !!!! This seems to work reasonably well if not totally prolific !!!

Thanks

Peter

[Sunny]

Originally Posted by peterthefisherman

Hya smashing fish again !!!

Do you find night fishing as productive as day fishing ? - do you ledger at night or use a float light ?

What would you recommend as a ledger rig - ? I am using a method feeder with a big bit bread on a 3 inch hooklength and waiting on the run !!!! This seems to work reasonably well if not totally prolific !!!

Thanks

Peter

Hi Pete,
sounds like you already have the tactics; I can't add more than that. The rest is small things that make the difference between success and great success )

I don't go in to details...sorry mate...nothing personal.

[Fishing Forum Admin]

cracking mullet mate

[cornishman]

welldone sunny fish of a lifetime