| #1  06-18-2010, 04:17 PM | ||||
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| You want a thick lip pal? - River Otter 16/06/10 Following some unexpectedly long work commitments on Wednesday night, which made joining Dave and Si at Branscombe a bit pointless, I made the decision to stay more local and spend an hour and a bit trying to tempt a mullet out of the river. I’ve only ever had one small thin lipped mullet whilst spinning last summer, so the past month has seen me on a mission for a thick lipped mullet. Since I moved, the rivers only 3 minutes from my front door so I’ve managed to get down there 4 times and put in a total of 11 hours fishing. The problem is, that this is mullet were talking about and every one of those sessions has so far produced a big fat blank.  During those trips, I’ve had countless swirls and tentative nibbles at my floating bread flake and even managed to hook into a fish last weekend, but messing about with the drag on my reel saw that one lost.  Tackle was my 8’ spinning rod, 10lb line (Maybe a touch too much) with a small clear bubble float, the smallest swivel I can find to a 2’ length of 6lb fluro and a size 8 carp hook. When I arrived at the river, the water was quite dirty but with zero wind the top was like a millpond. I headed upstream to a spot we fished last weekend and spent five mins scanning the river for signs of life. There were a few mullet moving though but I floated a bait down a few times, with very limited interest before noticing a lot more activity about 30 yards down stream. The problem was although there was a path of sorts, it was very over grown so I left my bag and NET behind, grabbed a couple of slices of bread and set off into the under growth. The first cast from my new vantage point saw a large pair of lips break the surface and mouth the bread, it even disappeared from sight for a split second, but a hasty strike saw nothing more than the float fly back towards me. This happened again on the next cast and again on the one after that before everything went quiet for a while. I was just about to give up and return to get more bread when again the lips came up, but this time the float went under as well and when I struck the fish was on but all of a sudden I realised I had a problem. Between me and my forgotten net was 30 yards of thick undergrowth, with one particularly nasty section being a 7’ high bush which over hung the near bank. Fortunately, the fish took off to the far side of the river and with a combination of a high held rod, and a loosely set drag I finally managed to get back to where I started and set about getting the fish under control. It went quite well, but after a few hairy moments with the fish running away from the net, I managed to scoop it up and pull it on to the bank. It wasn’t a massive fish by any stretch of the imagination, but it was my first thick lipped mullet so I was chuffed to bits. I quickly got a couple of photo’s, weighed her and got her back in the water as quickly as possible. 2.3lb was the final weight: a new pb and something to aim at in future.   I fished on until just after 10pm, but by now it was dark and the fish weren’t rising much anymore so I came home and enjoyed a bottle of Speckled Hen a happy man. Lessons learnt 1. Mullet, they will drive you mad. 2. Thou shalt always remember your net. 3. 10lb mono might be too much, 8lb for next trip. __________________ Right then, checklist: Rods. Check. Reels. Check. Speckled Hen. Check. Bait…… BAIT! Sh*t, where’s the bait?     |
| #2 06-18-2010, 04:33 PM | ||||
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| Re: You want a thick lip pal? - River Otter 16/06/10 thats a good mullet baggie,i enjoyed the report,well done mate |
| #3 06-18-2010, 10:13 PM | ||||
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| Re: You want a thick lip pal? - River Otter 16/06/10 spot on mate well done  dave __________________ www.exmouthsaa.co.uk 24 beers in a case and 24 hours in a day simples You won't know unless you go :D...and if you do go!! please let us know :D as thats how the forum thrives |
| #4 06-19-2010, 05:49 AM | ||||
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| Re: You want a thick lip pal? - River Otter 16/06/10 Well done Rich. Not going to drop down to a 22 with a bit of punch then? You may be needing a bigger net soon  . __________________ Spahill <:--- --- --- --- It was this big --- --- --- ---:> |
| #5 06-19-2010, 09:23 AM | ||||
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| Re: You want a thick lip pal? - River Otter 16/06/10 well done on the mullet and grat report as always __________________ 2010 south coast danglers cod meet champ |
| #6 06-19-2010, 09:58 AM | ||||
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| Re: You want a thick lip pal? - River Otter 16/06/10 Well done on your new PB, I enjoyed reading that. Another mullet lesson.....fishing for them gets very addictive! |
| #7 06-19-2010, 10:19 AM | ||||
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| Re: You want a thick lip pal? - River Otter 16/06/10 well done on PB mate __________________ Richard|Sea Fishing |Carp Fishing| Spud Gun | Zander fishing | Fishing Reports | Hunting Reports |
| #8 06-19-2010, 03:59 PM | |||
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| Re: You want a thick lip pal? - River Otter 16/06/10 Excellent report and a cracking fish. Well done __________________ I am in shape. ROUND is a shape! |
| #9 06-20-2010, 08:09 AM | ||||
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| Re: You want a thick lip pal? - River Otter 16/06/10 Quote:
...Good fun though... __________________ Right then, checklist: Rods. Check. Reels. Check. Speckled Hen. Check. Bait…… BAIT! Sh*t, where’s the bait? |
