Mullet fishing from shore and/or kayak

[Old Man Dave]

Steve and Bushy on Rex Hunt fishing adventure have made several programmes about fishing for mullet as has the great man himself. They rave about their eating qualities, only bettered by KGW's and flatheads.

Dave

[Mongrel454]

KGW mmmmmmmmm

Still one of my favourite eating fish

[SurfnSpear]

Originally Posted by Mongrel454

I actually havent heard of anyone eating mullet.
They are one of the best baits around here and are always sought after by fisherman.
I See them at a local beach here at high tide but they are only maybe 1kg(max),
I might have to spear myself one and try it out.

Know what u mean Mongrel. In South Africa most would not be seen dead with one but that is down to the abundant availability of gamefish, rockcod, crayfish etc. I thank the lord for the UK mullet though and as has been said already, deserve every respect here. I love chunks of them in a fish curry, but then I love any fish in a curry!

[Old Man Dave]

Almost forgot this one. Was trying my new camera and case last year.

YouTube - Guernsey spearfishing 1

Dave

[James T]

I love Grey Mullet when taken from the open sea - I never target Mullet in Harbours or frequently dirty water - they do taste bad - I have tasted them!

Also for the first time last year, on agachon, I took one from a whole herd of golden grey coming through - as I understand it they are a smaller species - In the past I thought I couldn't tell the difference...

The thing is, you read about the golden spot on the gill plate and often I have seen this on the plates of Grey Mullet. But when you actually see a Gold Spot or Golden Grey Mullet you can see the difference quite well - not only is the gold spot really marked but the pectoral fins are longer and more pointed on the Golden Grey than the Grey's which are more rounded. They are prettier/finer in appearance in my opinion. Once you have seen one close up it is actually not so hard to identify them when they are swimming.

The Golden Grey is definately a rarer sight for me when spearfishing than the Grey. However I have taken both from the same environment (clean reef water) and I do not think I could tell them apart from a taste perspective.

As mentioned before in another post I suspect the taste difference/better tast reputation of the Golden Grey is based on its environment preferences rather tahn anything inherently better in the quality or taste of the meat.

IMHO James

[Mr. X]

Good point about the taste. I have only taken mullet well away from habitation and I tend stuff them with a few herbs, specially fennel, garlic & lime. Mullet (and bass) absorb the flavours well, so need to be careful not to overdo it. Thought I might be out on a limb finding their taste similar to but slightly better than bass but HFW's River Cottage Gone Fishing Guernsey fish smoking taste-off makes me think perhaps not (smoked mullet won).

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by strangelove

Mullet hunting, that is one of my favority fish to kill, the place I've fish them in Brazil...
The one I am holding is 5.1 kb, the batch in the boat all of them are over 4 kg.
...
Attachment 18366

I had a question for Mundial but judging by your picture, StrangeLove, perhaps you might have some thoughts. I usually only get one mullet per session. I did on one rare occasion get two mullet (it was a rare, amazing day) - one far out and one very close to shore on the way in. How do you manage to get so many mullet in a single session? I often see groups but they struggle about so much once speared. Are you using boat/kayak to take in different locations?

[capetownguy]

Dave, couldn't see the movie, says its no longer available, any chance u can try again or is it just my pc not loading it....would love to see some underwater videos of the UK waters!

[Old Man Dave]

Look up Theflatfishking (all one word) on you tube. There are a few vids I took last year. Nothing special but a first try with my new camera. Can't post the link from here as work doesn't allow you tube.

Dave

[Magpie]

Here's Dave's:

YouTube - theflatfishking's Channel

And here's mine:

YouTube - jaketheshed's Channel

[strangelove]

X

The credit for the amount of fish should go to the location not to me, the place is called sepetiba bay, it is a bay with murky water 2 meter vizibility normally, but with an amazing amount of fish specially mullet and shook (I think there are three world records coming out this bay). So we normally fish outside the bay where the water has better visibility and just like you mention sometimes we land one or mullets ( among other fish ) and sometimes a couple of mullets around 1kg. But often we also fish inside the bay (normally at the end of the day), then we either catch none or catch a bunch like the day of the picture.

The funny thing about mullet fishing in this place, the location appears to be relevant to the size, in some locations they are around 1 to 2 kg in other locations they are around 4 – 5 kg .

124_New Image Grab.png

[Mr. X]

Thanks for sharing that StrangeLove. The huge mullet in your earlier picture:


... is much longer than any I've seen although I was lucky enough to see a huge one last year but no where near as long as the one shown, but much deeper in the body. ML mentions on his DVD that you will find different but recognisable variants of the grey mullet the world over.

As I usually dive alone, so I don't dive deep. I find doing aspetto/ambush by dropping into weed about 16ft (5+m) has worked best for me so far. However for mullet, I have started looking over my shoulder, behind and above me, having had groups of mullet sneak past me several time. My best mullet last year was shot like that, I looked over my shoulder and a shoal of about a dozen 4lb-ish mullet swam close by; unusually, they turned and headed towards me at first - perhaps I presented a smaller or less recognisable figure from that position? It was very exciting. Most of the mullet I have encountered were in shallower water though, with the fish swimming just below the surface.

[You're right OMD...the thought of the XXV is getting me in a spearing kind of mood Trying not to get psyced up though, as April the last couple of years has been pretty disappointing.]

[strangelove]

X

This one was the last fish of my Brazilian seazon this year (It was a double hitter), I nailed this one plus a smaller one around 3 kb, it gave somewhat of a ride. I was fishing on shallow water just waiting around 5 meters, the bay has mostly muddy bottom but this place is a channel with course sand and rocks. The key is to have your back to the current, so you catch them swiming toward you, I've also learn is they normally swim on the same direction so if they are passing on you back, you may try turning 180 degrees when doing your waiting.
I also think, for mullet fishing the murky water may help us more then the fish, but again the large mullets as well as the great quantity is definitly just credit to the location, that bay is really rich on that type of fish.
You've have thinking about getting a xxv gold now, I think that would be a great gun to fish salmon in AK, but they are still not available in US, also Mark Labocceta, warn me again that double banding would be a bad idea for that gun.

[Coral Sniper]

Tongans call it ''the fish for nobles'', Very high quality fish down here!

Love shooting them

[Mr. X]

As long as it is for Nobles and not No Balls! Interesting that grey mullet are found around Tonga on the other side of the world, I guess ML was right. They do taste very good, yet a lot of folk will not eat them here. I guess in heavily populated areas or heavy industry it makes sense. Always surprised to see articles in angling magazines, showing popular fishing marks near the cooling discharge of power stations, presumably nuclear power stations. [Amazing that we have folk all over the world able to contribute on the grey mullet: UK, Italy, Tonga, Alaska/Brazil, Africa, Oz,...].