A Few Questions. . .

[moogster]

Hi All,
It's Moog from across the pond.
I've been reading this Mullet forum, and I have some questions. . .

So, I'm looking at your pictures of these huge Mullet you folks are catching. I had no idea you could catch them with a rod and reel.

Do you use them for bait for larger predatory fish?
Do you fish for Mullet strictly for sport, or can you eat them?
Are you catching them in fresh or salt water?
Do they travel in schools?
Are their heads as hard as a rock?
Do they have a sharp spine on their back?

We don't have Mullet in our New England waters. The only experience I've had with them was in Mexico. We bought live Mullet for $3 dollars a piece, to use as bait for Roosterfish and Cubera Snappers.
These Mullet weighed about a pound each.

They were very hardy baits to troll with. They worked their magic well.
We caught some very nice fish with them.
Moog

[the pyromaniac]

@Moog, even down here in Virginia mullet are common and are sent on a one-way trip to the skillet.

[moogster]

Originally Posted by the pyromaniac

@Moog, even down here in Virginia mullet are common and are sent on a one-way trip to the skillet.

Do they have hard heads?
How do you cook them?

[Sunny]

Mullet eat poo and the weed (and at the same time particles of anti-foul paint) off the bottom of boats.....eating a fish full of carcinogenic and mutagenic compounds is not wise )

Most UK Mullet Anglers are strictly Catch & Return.... there are much better eating fish in the sea; and easier to catch.

The heads are as soft as any fish...very much like Bass. They are not like some Catfish species which have hard boney skutes over their heads....if that answers your question.

Not sure you are wise eating Mullet in your own country....plenty of research in to Mullet (in the States) as a bioaccumulation model for PCBs. The best bit is how - in higher organisms - the toxins are concentrated at each level. So Pelecans and Cormorants contained levels 27% higher than local contamination.....and the reason was traced to their consumption of (poisoned) Mullet. The trouble with Mullet is they feed by ingesting mud - to get at the micro-organisms - but in doing so they concentrate the toxins of the mud in their fatty tissues...the birds eat the fish and so on.....

No other fish eats mud like Mullet !

[moogster]

Thanks Sunny,
Based on what you're saying, it seems to me that there are some sub species.
I've never eaten Mullet, and I don't plan on it either!

I'll just stick to using them as bait.
Thanks,
Moog

[the pyromaniac]

I'm not really sure how they're prepared, though I'd imagine they're probably pan-fried... As for me, I'm with Moog that they're bait for grouper, seatrout, drum, cobia, and shark...