Mullet

Mullet can be difficult to catch but the reward is worth the effort. There are several different types that the UK angler can target: Golden Grey Mullet (Liza aurata), Thick-Lipped Grey Mullet (Chelon labrosus) and the Thin-Lipped Grey Mullet (Liza ramada). Mainly found in harbours and estuaries light gear is required as they can easily be spooked.

"The Art of Angling, Rock and Sea Fishing: with the Natural History of River, Pond and Sea Fish" (1740) Richard Brookes at pages 78 & 79

Of The Mullet

The Mullet, in Latin Mugil, in shape is much like a Dace, and has a flat head and a sharp snout. He has large scales not only on the body, but on the covers of the gills and part of the head. The back is of a dirty green; the belly white; the sides are painted with alternate streaks of white and black from the head to the tail; the eyes are of a silver colour; between them and the corner of the mouth is a bone beset with prickles; there are no teeth in the jaws, but the tongue is a little rough, and there are two rough bones on each side of the palate. The tail is forked.

The stomach is small, hard, round and musculous, like the gizzard of granivorous birds. The guts are very long, and are folded back several times. The spleen is large, and the gall yellow. When he is largest his size is about a foot and a half long. He is said to live upon weeds and mud; however it is certain that he abstains from fish. In the beginning of the summer he comes into the rivers on the south of England every tide, and he returns back with it. The river Axe in Devonshire, and Arundel is Sussex, are famous for this fish.

The Italians make a pickle with the spawn, which they call Botargo, in the following manner. They take the whole roes and cover them with salt for about four or five hours, then they press them between two planks during a day and a night; after which they wash them, and set them in the sun to dry for thirteen or fourteen days, taking them in in the night-time. They raise the appetite, provoke thirst, and give a true relish to wine.

They are bold feeders, and are to be caught with most flies that allure the trout. Within two foot of the bottom they will take a lob-worm or a marsh-worm; but your tackle must be strong, for they struggle hard for their lives.

"Prose Halieutics or Ancient and Modern Fish Tattle" (1854) Reverend Charles David Badham M.D. at pages 26, 27 & 144

Chapter II

Ancient Fishing Tackle

The male mugil, or grey mullet, was caught as faunists are in the habit of catching male moths, by using the female as a decoy: the practice was, to hook her through the lip, and allow a sufficiency of line to communicate with the male fish; after telling her story she was drawn back again, and all the males followed, - a shoal of admirers, we are assured, who, pressing close round her person, as a swarm round the queen-bee, were secured without difficulty. We transcribe Pliny's account of the matter, given in prose almost as glowing as the verses in which it is celebrated by both a Greek and a Latin poet:

"Mares autem non aliter quam homines, visa amica, furore libidinis perculsi, circa eam concursant, alius alium praevertere et circum tingere student: ut solent juvenes amantes aut oscula aut vellicationem aut aliquid aliud furtum amatorium venantes."

Talk of fishes being cold-blooded after that!

Chapter IX

Mullidæ or Mullets

… Omnivorous like men, mullet differ from the generality of mankind in preferring stinking things to fresh. According to Oppian, their favourite bonne bouche is some wave-tossed carcase, sodden with water, and distended with mephitic gases; and it is known that they seldom bite freely, unless angled for with a fetid paste. Galen, aware of their nasty propensities, wisely recommends a careful inspection of the body before cooking, and should the inside not stand the scrutiny, that the favourite part, the trail, should in that case be rejected, as unfit for the table. Pliny also confirms what Galen has said of the advisableness of looking and smelling before venturing to cook or taste a mullet, and he gives the particular name of lutarius (mud-fish) to those individuals the flavour and wholesomeness of which have been tampered with by their grubbing in ooze and fattening on filth.

"The Book of Household Management" (1861) Isabella Beeton at page 142

The Grey Mullet

This is quite a different fish from the red mullet, is abundant on the sandy coasts of Great Britain and ascends rivers for miles. On the south coast it is very plentiful and is considered a fine fish. It improves more than any other salt-water fish when kept in ponds.

"Sea Fish & How to Catch Them" (1863) William Barry Lord at pages 37, 38, 108 & 109

The Grey Mullet

The grey mullet is too well known to need a description, and is generally so well appreciated at table as to render any comments on that head uncalled for. Its habits are such as rarely to cause it to travel far to sea; a marked preference being shown for such places as have both fresh and salt water pouring into them at the rise and fall of the tide. Tidal mill-ponds, floating docks, and about the wharfs at the mouths of large rivers, are all favourite localities, many such places being at times visited by immense numbers of these fish, which can frequently be seen at such times with their mouths level with the surface, sucking in the soft particles of floating vegetable or animal matter brought by the flowing tide. The lips of this fish are particularly delicate and sensitive, enabling it to discover and instantly eject any small substance the least distasteful. Several modes of fishing are had recourse to; that practised with the rod and line is generally the most successful. A nine-foot trace of fine strong salmon gut, No. 6 or 7 Kirby hooks, "Trout pattern", tied on eight-inch pieces of stout gut, looped one foot apart on the trace, and retained in their places by knots tied in the trace for that purpose, and a few split duckshot for sinkers, if there is any "run"; if not, use no sinker of any kind. A small cork float may be used in fishing by either of these modes. Bait with either a small piece of mud-worm about half an inch long, covering all the hook but the extreme point, or small flakes of the green weed which is found attached to stones in fresh-water rivulets like green silk; twist three or four times round the hook, and allow a small portion to hang free like a tail. The plump white larvae from wasps' nests, small pieces of soft green cabbage which has been boiled with any description of meat, or artificial flies of a bright gaudy description, may be used at times with success.

The mullet requires more than ordinary care in its management when hooked, as it is exceedingly strong in the water; and the lips, which are usually found to be the bed of the hook, being so easily torn, any violence is pretty certainly followed by the loss of the fish. A landing-net is exceedingly useful. The grey mullet occurs with more or less abundance round the English coast, along the southern shores of Ireland, and as far north as the Baltic Sea and the coast of Norway. I have also taken them in the harbour of Sebastopol, and the mouth of the Tchernaya. The mullet spawns about the latter end of June.

The Harpoon Arrow

Affords sport in the summer months, when mullet or basse are at the surface, or immediately under it. The woodcut shows the arrangement. The bow should be short and strong; and the arrow, which is tipped with about four and a half inches of large sea fish hook, heated in the fire, and bent straight, about two feet four inches long. The shaft should be nratly and securely fitted to the iron with waxed silk; after having bored a hole to receive its blunt end, at the point marked A, a small loop of fine line is to be whipped on, to which the harpoon line, composed of about thirty yards of very fine prepared line, such as No 2 or 3, should be attached. This may be coiled up in a small bowl, with a ring in the bottom, to which the inner end must be fastened. The arrow is discharged in the usual way, the line being placed outside the back of the bow, so as to hang down in front. A little practice at apples or corks set floating, will soon enable a moderately good shot with the common bow and arrow to make pretty sure of transfixing a moderate-sized fish. The point of the arrow should be filed exceedingly sharp, to prevent its glancing off the scales.

"Sea-fishing as a sport" (1865) Lambton J. H. Young at pages 84 & 85

Chapter III

Fish

The Gray Mullet. This fish is a general favourite at table, and is very well known to most readers. Its habits are such as rarely to cause its being taken far out at sea; it generally prefers places where salt and fresh water meet, so as to make it brackish, places near docks and wharves, and about the creeks in and at the mouths of large rivers and estuaries, where they are found in immense shoals; they generally swim in a circle near the bottom, in about a fathom of water, and will continue there for hours, some of them coming to the surface to suck in any animal or vegetable matter that may be floating there with the ebbing or flowing tide. They vary in size from the herring to the salmon; I have often caught them, with pilchard gut for bait (when fishing for bass), ten pounds in weight. They make a very bold fight for their liberty, and, from their lips being very delicate and sensitive, often break away by making a determined dash. In the spring of 1847 I saw a shoal of these fish surrounded by a sean, just at the mouth of a harbour on the Devonshire coast, and on weighing the take they were found to have been more than fourteen tons in dead weight, making a very good return to the poor fishermen, who at that time of the year are generally on short commons. The gray mullet is found all round the coasts of Great Britain, and in Europe generally … It spawns about June. Fine fishing tackle must be used for these fish, much the same as for bass fishing; they also feed like pigs, by rooting in the sand and mud with their noses.

"The Sea-Fisherman" (1884 - 4th edition) James Carrall Wilcocks at pages 153 & 154

The Mullet (Mugil capito)

This although a sea-fish frequents brackish water even more than bass, and is perhaps of all sea-fish the most capricious in taking the hook; it lives by routing up the bottom for worms, soft substances, insects, &c.

Large quantities are to be met with in the various docks, and about piers and harbour works, the gates of tide mills, &c, and are to be taken with a rod and a paternoster line of strong gut, fitted with four or five Limerick hooks of the sizes 7 or 8, which are preferable to larger, as they have but small mouths …

The baits are the red rag-worm found in the mud or sand of most of our harbours, or part of a raw shrimp taken out of its shell, either of which should be carefully put on the hook, or they may suck it off without being perceived.

They occasionally become perfectly ravenous and at such times may be taken as fast as you can throw in your line. Their feeding appears to be more in winter than in summer, and as far as my experience goes they rarely take a bait except from between the end of September to the end of March.

It is a good plan to collect them together by throwing into the water any kind of refuse fish pounded up soft with a few mealy potatoes, a part of the roe of a cod-fish mixed with water, a few pounded green crabs, and a little chalk, as they will remain for hours together in the corner of a dock or other spot in which they find food. This method of baiting the water is termed ground-baiting in freshwater-fishing, and is only useful in still water, as the fish would immediately disperse in pursuit of it when carried away by the current.

The Grey Mullet is of a very lively and sportive nature and in fine weather delights in basking on the surface of the water in large shoals; it is said they may be taken with a fly at such times, but although I have frequently tried I have never been successful, yet I have seen them follow it with great eagerness.

From some of the large tidal rivers on various parts of the coast a considerable extent of land has been embanked, leaving here and there large ponds of water communicating by drains with the sea; in such places you will always find grey mullet, freshwater eels, a few bass and flounders, and occasionally trout, with immense quantities of shrimps and green crabs, on which the fish are supposed to feed; in these pools fish are easily taken by a casting-net, and the eels by hook and line, of which the other fish seem very shy. It would be well worth while to introduce perch, as an experiment, into such ponds. When many mullet are enclosed in a seine or drag-net, numbers will escape by leaping over the cork-line in rapid succession, as sheep will follow each other over a fence; a trammel-net, however, double, is a very effectual means of capture.

The Greeks have an ingenious way of preventing their escape by extending a piece of net from the cork-line on canes.

"Guide to Sea Fishing and the rivers of south Devon and descriptive catalogue of their prize river and sea fishing tackle, cricket, archery, croquet, umbrellas, parasols &c" (1875 - 7th edition) J. N. Hearder & Son at pages 91 & 92

Part Second

Sea Fishing

The Grey Mullet

This is a class of fish either very easy or very difficult to catch with bait. In enclosed portions of estuaries, near bridges, quays, or in extensive docks, they are often caught in great abundance with a rod and line fitted with a gut paternoster furnished with half-a-dozen gut hooks fixed at the knots, size No. 6 to No. 8, and having a dip-lead of ¼ oz. to ½ oz. at the bottom (page 18). These hooks are baited with small bits of mud or rag-worm. The rod may be of bamboo, ash, or hickory, 10 feet or 14 feet long.

With tackle of this kind at the Great Western Docks, Plymouth, as well in the docks as on the outer wall facing the tide, 6 to 8 dozen of mullet, ranging from ¼ lb to 3 lbs., are sometimes caught in three or four hours. In wide estuaries, however, they run much larger, namely, 3 to 6 and 10 lbs., and here they are difficult to catch. The writer, however, recommends a floating trot across the tide with about 25 hooks, with very short gut snoods (page 19), baited with lug-worm, which is about the best bait he has met with for mullet.

An efficient bait is still wanting for mullet, and it is difficult to discover upon what they feed. Mr. Hearder, junr. had an opportunity of watching the proceedings through a bull's-eye in the engine-room of a vessel which was below the surface of the water, and they were observed to come and poke their noses in amongst the weed growing on the side of the opening as if nibbling it or searching out small marine creatures. They will sometimes take portions of shrimps or bruised crab, or even fragments of earth-worms. Mullet fry from 1½ to 2 inches in length are voraciously devoured by Bass; hence they would form a capital bait for the latter fish. About the best mode for taking mullet is to stretch a seine across an estuary at high-water in a part where the tide leaves the sand and retires into its narrow channel between the flats. The mullet are prevented from going back, and thousands may be thus secured, varying from 6 inches to 2 feet in length. It is necessary, however, to have a good purse to the net, and to strain the warp to which the net is attached tightly across the river at a height of 4 or 5 feet from the surface of the water, as mullet will sometimes leap and pass like a drove of sheep over the edge of the net even at this height.

"Angling in Salt Water: A Practical Work on Sea Fishing with Rod and Line from the Shore, Piers, Jetties, Rocks and from Boats" (1887) John Bickerdyke at pages 2 & 82 to 87

Introductory

The angler should not consider sea fish as unworthy his notice by reason of the ease with which they are sometimes to be caught. If he has that idea, let him spend a week attempting to catch grey mullet. He will be completely cured at the end of that time.

Chapter VII

Grey Mullet

Of the sea fish sought after by the angler, the large grey mullet is probably the most difficult to capture. It is very generally distributed, and, having a great fancy for brackish water, particularly that containing a slight admixture of sewage matter, is to be found in large numbers in harbours, docks, and estuaries … It gives good sport when hooked, and is very good eating. Its natural food seems to be vegetable refuse, worms, and certain kinds of seaweed, particularly that growing on ships' bottoms and wooden piles … They do not disdain animal matter, but on one point are very particular - the food must be soft. The baits which they will at times take are varied in character, and include ragworms; macaroni; peeled, unboiled shrimps; soft, fat pork; thornback's or other fish liver, soft roes, pilchard guts, wasp grubs, paste, boiled cabbage, green silkweed, sweetbread, tripe, &c.

… For one angler who catches grey mullet there are ten who fail; and the failure is often owing to ignorance of a very important fact concerning these fish; they are so shy, that they usually refuse a bait unless distributed around is a quantity of food of which the bait seems a part; in other words, ground-bait is necessary.

In summer, when the weather is warm, grey mullet are often found feeding on the surface, but in cold weather they feed deeper. During the winter they sometimes bite well in harbours, a light gut paternoster, with very small hooks, baited with ragworms, being used to take them; but even then ground-bait is desirable, and the large fish will not come well on the feed without it. Grey mullet feed very badly in brackish water, and are more easily caught in the sea near breakwaters, piers, and other structures, round the lower portions of which they find their food …

A very certain method of surface fishing, when the sea is calm, was described by Mr. Collier James, in the Fishing Gazette, about two years ago. For bait he used the tough, upper crust of a newly-baked, plain, bread bun, prepared by removing the crumb, and cutting the crust in strips about ½in. wide, which were kept in a covered tin for a few hours to toughen. When baiting, strips ¾in. long were torn off, and the hooks, which were small, given one turn through them, For ground-bait, he had breadcrumbs. His main line was of horsehair, terminated by a length of twisted gut. No leads were used, and small pieces of cork were attached along the line at intervals. If the fish were not visible, his plan was to row very quietly about spots frequented by them, scattering a few breadcrumbs here and there. If there were any mullet they would, after the boat had passed, come up to the surface, and feed on the breadcrumbs, which were only thrown out to discover the position of the fish. The next thing was to lay out the line (the mullet would, of course, disappear while this was being done), scatter a few breadcrumbs round the baits, and row a distance of thirty or forty yards, paying out the line for that distance.

After a little while, the mullet would again come to the surface, take the bait, and be caught. The principal object of having a hair line was because no rod was used, hair possessing much elasticity, and therefore greatly favouring the fisherman who plays a fish with his hand. I see no reason why a rod should not be used with this tackle; it would be a decided advantage in striking and playing the fish. Very few corks are necessary for this kind of fishing if the line is fine, and well greased. A well greased line will float for a long time on the surface of the water; quite as well, indeed, as if corks were strung along it. The best grease for the purpose is the kidney fat of a red deer. It is kept at several fishing-tackle shops in London for the dry-fly fishermen of Hampshire. Mutton kidney fat, melted with a little pure paraffin, answers very nearly as well; in fact, nearly any grease will do.

A somewhat similar tackle to that just described is used by local anglers at Nice. The main line is of horsehair, tapered to three hairs at the fine end; the hook, which is attached to gut, is small, and the bait, a piece of bread or ragworm. Along the line, at intervals of 1ft., are a series of corks about the size of peas; the lowest, which is as big as a hazel nut, is about two-and-a-half feet above the bait. A very long rod is used. The angler usually wades in, rod in one hand, hook in the other, and, with a gentle sweep of the arm, casts the bait out beyond the surf.

Once, on Dover pier, I saw a man angling for grey mullet in a highly artistic manner, which proved successful. His rod was long and light, and his line of twisted silk a trifle thicker than that used on the Trent for chub, and not quite three times as thick as ordinary sewing thread. At the end of the line was a three-yard length of gut, half as thick as salmon gut. He used three small hooks (about No. 10), pne at the end of the gut, the others as droppers. There were three tiny cork floats on the line, and no sinkers. The sketch (Fig. 53) shows their position and appearance. The end hook is baited with the green weed found on piles in harbours, the others with paste made from stale bread. The day was quite calm, and the fish could be seen. He cast his tackle a few yards off the fish, in such a way that the tide gradually worked the baits over them, a handful of breadcrumbs being first thrown into the water to bring them on the feed. Fishing from a height, the line above the corks was easily kept from sinking. If the same tackle was used from a boat, the line would have to be greased. I do not think better tackle than this can possibly be devised for surface fishing for mullet in summer. As these fish play strongly, and must not be held tightly, having delicate mouths, from which the hook easily breaks away, it is advisable to have not less than 60yds or 70yds of running line. The point which the angler has to aim at in this kind of fishing is to get the ground-bait and tackle over the fish, at the same time keeping as far away from them as possible. Any noise or splashing of oars will to a certainty frighten grey mullet, as they are particularly susceptible to sound. For instance, when gunnery practice is being carried on from Dover Castle, it is rarely any good fishing for mullet from the Admiralty Pier.

A word more as to baits … Common flour paste is not a good bait, ordinary soaked bread being far better. The bread cannot be too wet, or the bait too soft, so long, of course, as it will stop on the hook. Very small portions should be used, not much larger than a pea. Boiled and unboiled shrimps and prawns, peeled, are useful baits when the angler can use the chervin ground-bait … Pilchard guts are also very good, the angler ground-baiting with the same substance chopped up very small. When one thing fails, another should be tried. As a general ground-bait, pounded crabs are decidedly good.

Grey mullet … sometimes feed on the surface, sometimes on the bottom. They also feed at mid-water, working up and down piles which are covered with weed, rooting in it with their noses. For mid-water fishing a small float is advisable; but when this, after a careful trial, fails, the angler should try fishing on the bottom. He may then either leger with bread paste or place his float a foot farther from the hook than the water is deep (a plummet for testing the depth is shown on page 36). The hook link of gut will then lie on the bottom. He should use ground-bait, and strike at the slightest movement of the float. A paternoster of fine gut with small hooks can be used instead of float tackle, and in quite still water it is sometimes cast in without the lead.

The following method has proved successful where the mullet are known to be, and can be reached with ground-bait. A paternoster with three small hooks, each baited with a piece of macaroni, is used. At its end is a pistol bullet, while three feet above the upper hook is half a wine bottle cork. Just as the tide eases, a few handfuls of chopped macaroni are thrown among the fish. Then the paternoster is lowered among them, and more macaroni thrown in. Mullet will not take this bait if it is held unnaturally against a tidal current; it is distinctly a slack-water method. A paternoster baited with live ragworms, and worked with a sink and draw motion, accounts for a good many small mullet at the mouth of the Arun and similar places; but this and other methods are, generally speaking, little use except in the dusk of early morning.

Fly-fishing for grey mullet in the daytime, though it is often tried, is rarely successful. The fish will follow a fly, but will rarely seize it. At night the fly-fisher stands a better chance, and will now and again take a few fish on a white moth. Such an artificial fly may be dressed in the following manner: Wing, owl's feather; white hackle; a body made fat with white wool, and covered with flat silver tinsel …Mr. Charles Walker, of Land and Water, tells me he has been very successful in taking grey mullet in a Sussex estuary with one particular fly - a Heckem Peckem - on a No. 8 or No. 9 hook with scarlet wool body ribbed with gold, and topping at the tail. He could get these fish to look at no other fly.

"Sea-Fishing on the English Coast" (1891) Frederick George Aflalo at pages 46, 47, 89 & 90

Chapter IV

Baits and Diary

Natural Bait

I have now, I think, treated baits as fully as tackle. I have, moreover, mentioned such baits as I have myself used. The late Mr. Frank Buckland recommended for Stour Mullet a portion of the mud from the bed of that river; but never having tried it, I am unable to endorse the recommendation. The experimental angler will doubtless discover many "tips" about these and other baits; but this is by no means a sign of incompleteness in a book, which is meant in all cases to be suggestive rather than comprehensive.

… Do fish feed principally on the baits that abound in their own neighbourhood; or is a new bait, because unknown, often the most killing? Opinions seem about equally divided. My own leans to the former side, viz., locality of bait, though I have certainly met with more exceptions than would be necessary to "prove the rule". One of these is the introduction of various artificial baits, and their deadly success in spots where they could never have been seen before. The Mullet is undoubtedly very "local" in his tastes - the weed of a particular river, or the shrimps from a particular groin, often proving the only reliable bait.

August

… Most writers have dwelt on the difficulty of finding a good all-round bait for mullet; I think the mystery lies in the "locality" of their taste. The bait must vary with locality. I have already pointed out that bass and conger have a great weakness for soft baits, and mullet show a somewhat similar preference. Anything soft will take them, their staple food being probably some form of soft, half-grown molluscs, that they suck from wooden piles. The best all-round bait is perhaps ragworm, the mullet at Plymouth, Littlehampton, and Lowestoft appearing to prefer it to any other; while in some parts of the Channel Islands I am told that live shrimp is used, only because the ragworm is at once seized by small fish, thus giving the mullet no chance. The usual ground-bait for mullet is, when procurable, chervin. There are breakwaters in Jersey constantly ground-baited with it. A mixture of pounded green crabs and potatoes makes a good substitute. At Margate the special bait is skate's liver, a piece about the size of a pigeon's egg being put well over the hook. Soft roe of herring is a good bait, but it must, as a rule, be lashed to the hook. Bruised pieces of shrimp and green crab will also answer when other baits cannot be procured.

So much for the natural baits, or rather fish food, of the mullet. There is another bait much used in some districts, viz., a kind of silkweed, among which these fish may be seen poking their noses in various estuaries. For Stour mullet the common silkweed (which used to abound just below Grove Ferry) is a very good bait. It is always put on the hook in a pear shape, which is recommended, I see, by Mr. Greville Fennell in his "Book of the Beach". It should be wrapped round and round the shank and bend (Fig. 55), and should be used among the weed where the fish are feeding. It is considered an advantage by some to leave a portion of the weed trailing from the hook; this, however, is not the custom at the mouth of the Stour.

Another bait of which I am reminded by the mention of Stour mullet is one recommended to the late Frank Buckland - viz., the brown slime from the bed of this river. How this is used I cannot tell; I have never tried it.

The only artificial bait of any use in mullet-fishing is a fly. This may be either a tinselly "coachman", or a fat white fly. The time for this fishing is sunset.

"The Sea and the Rod" (1892) Deputy Surgeon-General Charles Thomas Paske & Frederick George Aflalo at pages 74, 76, 78 & 79

Chapter IV

The Grey Mullet

… Tradition also credits Master Mullet with a great partiality for boiled cabbage, though when and where he acquired such a taste is an open question; probably in the docks, to which these fish follow homeward-bound ships, with an eye to feeding on the minute incrustations that have gathered on their keels during a long voyage.

… Mullet are very susceptible to sound - e.g., my operatic friend just alluded to, and the Dover mullet, that object to the gun-firing.

… Having hooked a fish, treat him very carefully, with much generosity in the matter of line, out of regard for the extreme tenderness of his mouth, yet leading him, if possible, immediately away from his unsuspecting and timorous companions, among whom his floundering convulsions may create an undesirable sensation. In fishing from a pier or jetty there is some little additional risk of the mullet making for the piles, a proceeding, however, that is fortunately in little favour with the species; the angler will have to exercise a considerable amount of judgment as to the utmost pressure he can safely exert, without risk of the hook breaking away, a matter of much practice and experience. Paste, well worked up from soft white bread, is an excellent lure for this somewhat fastidious fish. English amateurs, fearing that it is very easily washed off the hooks, are in the habit of working up some finely-corded cotton wool with it; …

… But the pursuit of this fish is perhaps - pace bass and pollack ! - the highest order of sea-fishing, and eminently connected with the condition of the weather and state of the sea. Calm, fine weather are the most favourable conditions for mullet-fishing, the rougher days being devoted to the capture of such more energetic and less delicate fish as bass and conger.

"Hints and Wrinkles on Sea Fishing" (1894) "Ichthyosaurus" (A. Baines & Frederick George Aflalo) at page 34

Natural History and Sport

Mullet are as wary as carp and, when large, give quite as much sport. They resemble carp in another particular, their liking for soft baits, pastes and vegetable food. They feed near the surface and are timid, and are easily startled, as a peal of thunder or the report of a gun will send them to the bottom. One of the best baits is the ragworm, but it must be used alive, and is difficult to keep in this state. One day last spring a dog caught a very fine mullet at Great Yarmouth, and landed it without help.

"The Badminton Library: Modern Sea Fishing" (1895) John Bickerdyke at pages 187, 188 & 324 to 333

Chapter VI: From Land and Pier

From the enthusiastic angler's point of view, one of the most important fish found in harbours is the grey mullet. I devote an article to this most shy of sea fishes later in Chapter XI., so this is hardly the place to detail his peculiarities and the methods of catching him or fishing for him. But let it be said here that the surest time to find him feeding is in the grey dusk of early dawn, and the tackle, which may be a paternoster or the ordinary float tackle, should be both fine and strong. Ground bait is most necessary.

A well-known bass fisher once related to me with tears in his voice how, when bass fishing, his hook being covered with skate's liver, a mullet which weighed at least 12 lbs seized his bait, ran out every yard of line, and then broke the triple gut.

No one who has ever fished for mullet will assert that sea fishing does not require skill. I am inclined to say that a mullet of any size is no more easy or more difficult to catch than a carp of the same age. Of course the youngsters, foolish, ignorant, simple little things, like carp at the same period of their existence, come to the hook readily enough. But the adult mullet is certainly no fool. The lesser grey mullet is more easily captured than the larger variety.

Chapter XI: Surface-Feeding Sea Fish

The GREY MULLET, like the bass, has a prickly dorsal fin. It is very easily distinguished from its more voracious companion by the fact that this fin contains only four very evident spines, while that of the bass contains eight. The mouth of the mullet, too, is small and only suited for soft food. Of these fish there are two kinds, the great grey mullet … and the lesser grey mullet … the latter being very abundant in some South-coast harbours, and sometimes as easy of capture as the great grey mullet is difficult. A distinction between the two varieties is the number of rays in the tail fin, the larger kind, which is also called the "thin-lipped mullet", having seventeen, while the lesser, or "thick-lipped mullet", has fifteen.

Grey mullet are gregarious, and very plentiful in some estuaries and harbours … and the mouth of the Stour being favourite haunts of theirs. They appear to be as much at home in fresh water as in salt.

… it is absolutely necessary that any bait used for mullet should be soft, and the hook should be small. If the hook were too large, it would be rejected and the bait retained … So acute is the hearing of these creatures, that old mullet fishers would never dream of shouting to one another, and when rowing after a shoal, the men, if careful, will muffle their oars.

Of all the sporting fish of the sea, grey mullet are the most difficult to capture and among the gamest when hooked. There are times when the lesser variety will feed ravenously, and are caught in large numbers on a paternoster baited with a live ragworm; but the big fellows that we see with their broad dark backs swimming round the piles in harbours, or under the old-fashioned wooden jetties and piers, are singularly cautious so far as taking a baited hook into their mouths is concerned. In the matter of showing themselves their timidity is not apparent.

The great point in mullet fishing is to use ground bait, not, as I have previously explained, so much for the purpose of attracting fish as of lulling their suspicions.

… while I am at work on this chapter a sea fisherman, Mr. John Kirby, under the pseudonym of J.A.C.K., sends a most entertaining and practical account of mullet fishing to the "Field", in which he appears to prove most conclusively that the one really successful bait for large grey mullet is macaroni. This gives me some hope that the Italian paste, either flavoured or not with some biological preparation, will prove a useful substitute for the mussels, pilchards, and other natural baits which the professional fishermen have so much difficulty in obtaining.

With regard to paste, that made from bread is better than the common flour paste. A piece as large as a pea will often suffice, unless, of course, there are fish of from six pounds upwards about. In the Channel Islands the chervin ground bait is used. Few ground baits are more attractive than pilchard guts, and pounded green crab should never be forgotten. A large number of different hook baits have been recommended, including shrimps and prawns, both boiled and unboiled, but always peeled, pilchard guts, live ragworms, cabbage, silkweed, wasp grubs, fat pork, tripe, and gentles. An enormous mullet of about 12 lbs. or 13 lbs. was hooked by a bass fisher at Tenby, who was baiting with ray's liver; the fish immediately ran out every inch of line, and then broke a strong, treble-plaited gut trace.

Generally speaking, mullet are caught more easily in salt water than in the brackish water of estuaries, and the best of all times to begin fishing is an hour before daybreak, if the tide suits. Of course, in places where the tide runs strongly we have to fish according to circumstances; but wherever mullet are found unapproachable in the daytime, very early morning fishing should be tried.

To any who would condemn sea fishing on account of the ease with which the quarry are captured, may I respectfully suggest a short course of mullet or big bass fishing?

"Sea Fish" (1898) Frederick George Aflalo at pages 134 & 135

Chapter V: Fishing from Piers and Harbours

Dover

A time-honoured practice may be witnessed throughout the summer months on the western parapet of the Admiralty Pier at Dover, where a number of veteran mullet-fishers hang out enormous rods, fixed in a clamp. I have watched these patient men off and on for ten years and more, but I never yet saw a fish caught. They bait with rag-worms.

Mr. Kirby, one of the latest exponents of mullet-fishing, gave an account in the Field some time since of how he caught large mullet in the Fleet, a backwater between Portland and Weymouth, the hook and ground-bait consisting of boiled macaroni. A powerful rod was used, but was not brought into requisition until the mullet was hooked, the tackle being first used as a hand-line. On hooking the fish, however, Mr. Kirby found the only plan was to get it to the net as quickly as possible. The best time for this fishing was at slack tide. Groundbait, if it can be so called, is essential in mullet fishing in still waters, and I borrowed from the Italians a very ingenious method of presenting it to the mullet of the private shipyard canal in which I had special leave to fish. The bait was in this case soft Parmesan cheese, and a lump was sent out on the water on a cork just before I put my rod together, the fragments that crumbled from the cork and fell into the water proving wonderfully attractive.

"Practical Letters to Young Sea Fishers" (1898) John Bickerdyke at pages 231 to 234

XXII: The Mullets

… For many years soft baits have been recommended for mullet, such as boiled cabbage, paste of various kinds, silk weed, and, in fact, any green growths found on old piles, &c., in brackish water. They will also take the sea worms. For the lesser grey mullet there are few better baits than a lively rag worm. About harbours, and other similar places, mullet are undoubtedly foul feeders, and are occasionally caught in or near such places on the ray's liver bait intended for bass. Another bait which has been tried with success in some places is the rather tough crust of a currant bun cut in strips measuring ¾in by ½in. In the Mediterranean a bread paste is used composed of the inside of a fresh roll flavoured with sardines or anchovies. Occasionally grey mullet will take a piece of fat pork or tripe. Gentles, too, are not despised by them. Pilchard guts are almost certain to be taken if the shyness of the fish can be overcome, and in the bait list must be included unboiled peeled shrimps and prawns.

Having regard to the habits and shyness of the fish, I am inclined to say the following are the essentials of success in grey mullet fishing:

Time, namely, from an hour before daybreak to two hours after daybreak.
A hook of the size shown in the illustration.
The right tide.
A soft bait.
Ground-bait where it can be used.
The angler keeping out of sight of the fish.
A little colour in the water.

Grey mullet may be caught at various depths. The paternoster is, perhaps, more used for them than any other tackle, but if fished for on the bottom a ledger is to be preferred. For mid-water fishing float tackle with one or more hooks, and for fishing close to the surface a buoyed line from which several hooks depend, have sometimes been used with much success, particularly if bread crumbs are sprinkled around to fetch the fish up and set them feeding.

There is an important point connected with using bait of this kind, the principle of which anglers, whether they are at work on salt water or fresh, should lay to heart. If there is any tide running, and one drops float tackle, baited, let us say, with macaroni or a piece of herring, into the water, and keeps the line tight, the tide carries the float tackle away a certain distance, but no farther, and the fish which come to inspect see the most unnatural incident of a piece of inanimate food holding its position against the tide. If they are shy they will have nothing to do with it. If any ground-bait is thrown into the water, it is carried off by the tide.

To capture shy fish, it is most necessary that baits of any kind should act in a natural manner. In a strong tidal current we keep our paternoster close to the bottom and catch fish. It may be said that this is unnatural, but, as a matter of fact, at this depth the current is usually slight, owing to the unevenness of the bottom. Besides, the bottom feeders are not nearly so shy as some of those which feed close to the surface and are better acquainted with man. If the bait has to be held in mid-water and the current is running strong, it should represent or be a small fish, which would, even if not on a hook, sometimes stem the tide and keep one position for a few minutes. If we place a sand eel on our hook, and let it work hither and thither in the tide, it works in a natural manner, and fish take it. But if our bait is a piece of macaroni, it is unnatural to hold it against the tide, and the large shy fish refuse it unless, maybe, it spins and they think it is something alive.

The Daily Express, Wednesday 27 July 1904 at page 5

News in Brief

Interesting items from our correspondents

World's Happenings

Mullet's Fatal Experiment

A Lowestoft angler has landed a fine gray mullet from the river Waveney which turned the scale at 3 lbs. It took a worm, a most unusual occurrence, as mullet seldom or ever take a bait.

The Daily Express, Thursday 28 July 1904 at page 4

Angling for Mullet

To the Editor of the "Express"

Sir, I was surprised to see in your paper, under the heading of "Mullet's Fatal Experiment," a statement to the effect that a grey mullet seldom or never takes a bait.

My father and self have caught grey mullet in Ramsgate Harbour at different times during the last ten years. Also two or three gentlemen who fish under the extension at Margate from a boat at low tide nearly every year during the months of August and September get mullet up to 6 lbs. in weight.

The reason so few mullet are caught is that the ordinary sea angler fishes, as a rule, with a line and hook strong and thick enough to hold a shark.

The grey mullet is a very shy fish; it takes the bait as carefully as a sea roach or, rather, sucks it into its mouth, and, if it feel the slightest check, immediately discards it.

Also it is nearly impossible to land one without a net or gaff, as the lip is extremely soft, and if the angler be not very careful the hook will tear through.

Arthur E. Henderson
Hay Tor, Vernon-road, Leytonstone.

The Daily Express, Tuesday 2 August 1904 at page 4

Angling for Mullet

To the Editor of the "Express"

Sir, while I agree with your correspondent, Mr. Arthur E . Henderson, that grey mullet take a bait. I do not agree with him that "the ordinary sea-angler fishes, as a rule, with a line and hook strong and thick enough to hold a shark".

I do not, of course, take these words in their literal sense, but, allowing for verbal exaggeration, I may say that during the last twenty years - a period over which my sea-fishing experience extends - a very marked improvement towards fine fishing for sea fish has occurred.

If Mr. Henderson could see the tackle I use, and which is not seldom copied by brother fishermen who notice the fineness of my tackle, I think he would alter his opinion as to modern methods of sea-fishing.

Bassamot

"Sea Fishing for Amateurs" (1904) Frank Hudson at pages 37 & 38

Rod-Fishing

Grey mullet occasionally afford grand sport to the angler, though it must be confessed they are extremely difficult to capture. The best baits for mullet are undoubtedly rag-worms, but they will also take earth-worms, pilchard, raw shrimp, or boiled macaroni. I have illustrated the best tackle in Fig. 32, and a No. 8 "Pennell" hook should be used.

Light paternoster gear is also useful from piers and rocks. To induce these fish to congregate in one spot, ground-baiting is important. It should consist of pilchard or refuse pounded up and thrown in occasionally. Or it may be placed in a fine netting or canvas and cast out where you propose fishing. In brackish lakes this is a capital plan. In the Channel Isles they use a kind of shrimp ground-bait, called "chervin", a small quantity of which is thrown in from time to time. Allow a mullet plenty of time to take the bait, and do not strike until the float has completely disappeared. Play your fish boldly, and get him into the landing-net as quickly as possible. Mullet should not be handled rashly as their fins are very sharp, and they should be knocked on the head before unhooking. Near the mouths of rivers, or in estuaries, are good localities to try, but mullet are most uncertain in their movements. They often assemble near docks, and are seen nibbling the green weed from the bottoms of ships. At Plymouth docks these fish are regularly captured by the pier anglers, baiting with rag-worm. Brandlings are a capital bait for large mullet, and you may use a good-sized hook.

"Practical Sea-Fishing" (1905) P. L. Haslope at pages 94, 95, 152, 153 & 154

Sea Fish: Their Habits and Capture

Mullet, Grey

Like the Bass this fish is often found in the vicinity of fresh water, and ascends the estuaries of rivers in large numbers on the flowing tide. Owing to its inability to swallow any hard substance it is a difficult fish to catch, but when hooked it affords grand sport to the angler, being a stronger fish than the Bass of equal weight …

… In the Mediterranean Grey Mullet are caught with paste composed of bread and sardines, which is rolled between the hands. The hook is passed through one end, and the other portion of the bait is then wrapped round the shank, which entirely conceals it. This bait is lowered near the bottom and a lump or two of the paste occasionally thrown in to collect the fish. The rod, which is merely a long bamboo, is allowed to rest upon the stones, a loop of cord attached to the pier being passed over the butt to keep it in position. The fisherman then smokes his cigarette until the motion of the top indicates that there is a fish at the bait.

At Aden large Grey Mullet, weighing up to 10lb or more, are very plentiful, and they are captured with light floated tackle and small hooks, bread being thrown upon the water to attract the fish. This port, by the way, is, notwithstanding the heat, a perfect paradise for the sea-fisherman.

Fishing from Rocks and Piers

Grey Mullet Fishing

The first rush of a big grey mullet is an experience to be remembered, and there is no other sea-fish so difficult to hook or which requires so much skill in handling. In order to induce fish to congregate near the spot where fishing is going on, ground-bait should be thrown in occasionally, pieces of pilchard pounded up being as good as anything. In the Channel Isles a kind of shrimp ground-bait, called Chervin, is used for the purpose, and bread or paste is also an attraction. If fishing a brackish pond containing grey mullet, place the ground-bait in a coarse canvas bag attached to a line, and throw it out where it is intended to fish. In a place thus prepared the night before I had a good catch the following morning, taking twelve fish weighing 13lb in the space of about an hour. These fish, besides a great many others at various times, were captured at Swanpool, a small brackish lake near Falmouth. A friend of mine made the extraordinary record of over 300 fish in one season, all captured in this pool, and the largest specimen scaled 4lb 10oz. He had some of his finest catches in the early morning, but was also successful during the latter part of the day. When the sea water was just commencing to enter the pool seemed to be the best time for taking them. This pool communicates with the sea by an underground drain, and the salt water only flows into it at spring tides. I hear that the sport has much deteriorated of late, partly owing to being over-fished, and partly to the introduced swans, which have eaten up all the weed upon which the mullet appeared to subsist.

Rag-worms are the best bait for mullet, and those of medium size should be selected. The hook should be concealed as much as possible, leaving two or three short tails hanging down. The tackle I have found best was a single collar of rather fine gut, weighted with three or four shot, and a No. 8 "Pennell Limerick" hook. Excepting the size of the hook, this is similar tackle to that used for pollacking. Fine wire round-bent hooks, as used in worm-fishing for trout, are excellent for small fish, but are hardly strong enough for heavy mullet. With this line I used a taper quill float, which was adjusted about 18in above the hook; but this should be regulated according to the depth of water. As light a float as possible should be used, so that the fish may feel no resistance when biting.

Other good baits are a piece of pilchard, earthworms, soft crab, boiled macaroni, paste, and a raw shrimp peeled. From piers or docks a paternoster is often used, which is worked with a sinking and drawing motion. When a shoal of mullet is detected near the shore, great caution must be observed, and, creeping up, the bait must be carefully thrown so as to alight amongst them. If no disturbance has been made to alarm them, the float will soon take a sideway motion, and presently disappear suddenly, whereupon the angler should strike smartly. Great patience is often necessary in mullet fishing, as they are deliberate, and take some time to absorb the bait. When a large fish is paying attention to the bait, a too hasty motion of the rod will cause him to drop it, or only a weak hold upon the lip may be obtained. Always deal firmly with a large mullet, and maintain a tight hold upon his mouth, if possible, until you can draw him to land, when another person, armed with the landing-net, should place it quietly underneath the fish. Before unhooking a blow at the back of the head is advisable, as the fins are spiny, and injure the hands.

… The summer and autumn appear to be the best seasons, but they also feed well in the winter. These fish often become ravenous after food, and on one occasion I took forty-six in about two and a half hours, baiting with small pieces of rag-worm. For large fish brandlings form capital bait when employed in a pond, but would not be so useful in the sea …

The Daily Express, Saturday 31 July 1909 at page 8

Cult of the Rod and Line

Prospects for Bank Holiday Fishing

Sea Fishing Resorts

… Salt water anglers are likely to meet fairly good sport at the principal resorts along the east and south coasts, for all kinds of fish are plentiful inshore. Grey mullet can be caught under the famous jetty at Margate, and also in the harbour at Ramsgate …

"Sea Fishing" (1911) Charles Owen Minchin at pages 108, 111 to 114 & 116 to 121

Chapter VIII: The Grey Mullet

… Among the smaller fish with which we have to put up in this country, for want of better, there is none more sporting when hooked, and none more difficult to hook, than the grey mullet.

… The largest on record are those taken in Pagham Harbour, near Selsea, in Sussex. This is an extensive sheet of water, formerly navigable, which was cut off from the sea several years ago by embankments made with a view to reclaiming the land. Some shoals of mullet were imprisoned, and they throve in the nearly fresh water in which, when netted, a thin-lipped mullet of 16¾ lbs - now in the museum of the British Sea-Anglers' Society - was found, and several of the thick-lipped species nearly equal in weight.

The mullet is very peculiar in its feeding habits, for though it will eat small worms and crustaceans, and also young molluscs, its general diet is largely vegetable, consisting mostly of the small green and brown algæ which coat the surfaces of wood and stone in shallow salt or brackish water; and it also sucks up the mud of harbours, which is always full of minute organisms. In order to enable it to swallow and digest this food the gullet is modified so as to act as a strainer, and only the finer particles pass down to the stomach, which is hard and muscular, like the gizzard of a fowl.

Almost every winter a shoal gets into Dover docks, and the local anglers, undeterred by previous failures, try all sorts of baits to inveigle the fish, but invariably without any success to speak of. Pretty regularly every season one may see a letter in one or other of the angling newspapers to the effect that a great number of grey mullet have been enclosed in some dock or harbour, that the writer and his friends have been trying for them in vain with all the baits they can think of, and will some one make a suggestion ? The answer to this query ought to be that no bait of any kind is of much use for mullet after they have got into fresh or brackish water. Fortunately it is quite otherwise with mullet in the sea or at the time they are running in.

One of the most successful fishermen at the same place was a French tailor, who used to come down to the pier-head on calm evenings about sundown, when all was very quiet and deserted. He would sit on the pier until the mullet began to play round the harbour entrance, and then collect them by surface-baiting with bread-crumb until they cam near enough for him to drop his hook, baited with dough, just on the surface. He always seemed to get half a dozen or so, though he lost all the bigger ones, as he had no landing net, and the fish had to be lifted out at the end of his short bamboo rod.

There are several requisites for successful mullet-fishing, and they are not always attainable, and, what is most trying of all to the temper and patience, it may happen that, even with all conditions apparently favourable and plenty of fish about, there are days when they cannot be induced to bite. The first desideratum is absolute stillness and quietude - things not always to be got at a harbour-mouth … The next thing wanted to bring a shoal around and keep them on the feed is plenty of hand-baiting or "smurring the watter" as the Cornishmen call it. In the Channel Islands, where mullet are systematically fished for, a mash of young shrimps (called chervin) is generally used for the purpose. The most convenient hand-bait is made up with shrimps or sand-hoppers, well bruised and mixed with boiled potatoes, bran or cow-dung. If a bucketful of this stuff is puddled up beforehand and carried out in the boat or to the pier-head, a judicious ladleful cast lightly on the water will disseminate a cloud of little dainty morsels, and the shoal, if undisturbed, will remain on the browse as long as it lasts.

The next thing is to use very fine tackle; not that mullet, who are as "contrairy" as the Mistress Mary of the nursery rhyme, will not sometimes hook themselves on the clumsy tackle of the ordinary sea-paternoster, but that is a bit of luck not to be counted on for frequent occurrence. A trace of the sort used in fresh water for roach or chub and a Thames roach rod or barbel rod will be found most appropriate. Sometimes a float will be useful, but as a rule it is better to let the lightly-leaded line and bait stream out on the tide and to endeavour to keep a straight line from rod-tip to hook so as to be able to strike quickly and firmly at the psychological moment. If the fish are in mid-water in a deep and quiet harbour one of the best tackles is a paternoster of single gut and great length, such as would be used for perch-fishing. This enables two hooks to be used at different depths, and they should be of small size and mounted on rather long hairs of fine single gut. Fishing in this way, the mullet require a good deal of catching, for they run pretty freely as soon as they feel the hook, and if they rush past the bow end of the boat are extremely likely to get foul of the hawser, in which case it is, of course, good-bye !

… Other rather favourite places are the ends of the various promenade piers, because there are usually restaurants at these resorts, and the mullet attend to pick up the waste stuff, especially the broken bread and scraps of cooked vegetables, and they seem to have a great liking for boiled green peas … If they are regularly and systematically encouraged by hand-baiting the swim they soon learn to pay a daily visit, and then they can be angled for with success. Some of the largest fish hooked on our coast have been got quite close to a much-frequented jetty by an experienced and judicious fresh-water fisherman, using fresh-water tackle and, to a great extent, fresh-water methods.

Opinions differ a good deal as to the best bait for mullet, for they are uncertain and capricious feeders and their natural food is mostly composed of things too small to go on the hook. Many people recommend a small piece of common ragworm, while others pin their faith to bread, paste, boiled green peas, soft-boiled stalk of cauliflower, and other specialities. A little blob of the green, muddy weed that mullet feed on may be tried, but it soon washes off the hook. Mr. W. K. Summers, an expert at mullet-fishing, recommends paste on the ground that, while mullet take it well enough, it has no attraction for wrasse and little poutings which are not wanted. One fairly successful operator uses small cubes of bread dipped in cod-liver oil, and another fisherman, who takes a good many mullet in the course of every season, baits for them with a short bit of boiled macaroni slipped down over the shank of a very small triangle. The drawback of this is that the hook has to be retied at every rebaiting; it saves trouble, therefore, to carry several mounted triangles ready baited in a cast-damper and loop one to the trace as required.

The difficulties are not by any means over when the mullet has been hooked, for either the hook may have merely pierced the edge of the lip, which is very delicate and easily torn away, or it may have been sucked into the gullet, where the fragile barb is liable to get broken. Besides this, there is the question whether the fisherman or the mullet will get the best of the fight; and if the fish is a large-sized one of 4 lbs or more the fight is bound to be a good one. But in this uncertainty lies the best part of the angler's joys. Of all the kinds of sea-fishing practised by the angler there is none (so far as our coasts are concerned) which demands more skill, patience, good temper and willingness to waste time and put up with disappointment than mullet-fishing. Perhaps the most exasperating thing about it is that sometimes, nobody knows why, mullet will suddenly congregate at a pier-head or harbour-mouth and feed greedily so that the clumsiest novice can catch as many as he can carry, but on other occasions the finest tackle and the greatest skill may prove insufficient to master this wary fish.

"Angling in Rivers, Lakes & Sea" (1920) Walter Matthew Gallichan ("Geoffrey Mortimer") at page 108

Part III

Sea Fishing

Chapter II

Grey Mullet

Grey mullet swim in shoals and often come into estuaries and harbours at high tide. They are wary fish and occasionally give great sport to the rod fisherman. Macaroni has been recommended as a taking bait for them and some fishermen use bread crust. It is important to fish quietly and stealthily for grey mullet, and success may not even then await the experienced hand. The tackle must be strong, for the fish are very powerful.

"Modern Sea Angling" (1921) Francis Dyke Holcombe at page 101, 103, 104, 105 & 106

Grey Mullet

They are usually found pretty close to the coast, and are very fond of estuaries, harbours and docks; while they often ascend rivers far above tidal waters, and there is no doubt that, like bass, they are greatly attracted by fresh water …

… Ground bait, or to speak more correctly, floating bait, is necessary, not only to attract the fish, but to keep them near the angler … an acknowledged authority on mullet fishing, recommends soaked bread, bran, boiled potato or cabbage stalk for this purpose if paste be the bait, and chopped fish or roe when the bait is fish. The hook baits for mullet are many and various; paste, ragworms, putrid fish and fat, boiled cabbage stump, bananas, macaroni, bread flavoured with marmalade, and so on. One successful mullet fisherman … swears by uncooked sausage meat, a bait with which he generally takes a number of good mullet every season; it has the advantage (with its attendant drawback) that small particles are continually washing off the hook, and these naturally attract the fish. At Margate, where a large number of fine mullet have been taken underneath the end of the jetty by … anglers in years gone by, the bait generally used was paste dipped in sugar.

… In all harbour fishing, by the way, the early morning is decidedly the best time; for the mullet is a very shy and timid fish, and with the commencement of boat traffic the fun, such as it is, is soon over.

Some authorities on the sport speak of taking mullet on the fly, among those being recommended being a tinselled Coachman and an Alexandra; and sunset is stated to be the best time.

A difficulty which the novice will probably be up against in all mullet fishing is to determine exactly when to strike. When one is float fishing the movements of the float when fish are around the bait are often very tantalizing and perplexing, for the mullet does not bite in the way that most fish do, but "noses" and sucks at the bait; and the angler must make up his mind beforehand that for one successful strike there will be a good many failures … the angler has the best chance of hooking the fish when he can strike by sight …

In playing the mullet the angler may be warned that he will have to exercise great caution, or he will lose the fish. Its mouth is very tender, and consequently the hook hold is often insecure. If the fish be one of the thick lipped kind, and hooked in the lip, the angler will have the best chance of landing it; but in both species the membrane behind the lip is very soft, and if the hook be in this part it is almost as liable to tear out of it as easily as it would out of wet blotting paper. The angler must therefore be very "tender" with the fish, while at the same time always keeping a tight line - the latter of course a golden rule when playing all kinds of fish; and the mullet should not be permitted to approach the landing net until it is thoroughly played out. If it be of any size the fish will usually make several rushes before it is exhausted, and will frequently take out a good deal of line; although, conversely, the writer has assisted in the capture of a 3lb mullet which was into the net within considerably less than half a minute after it was hooked. This particular fish did not run, but spent all its energy in twisting over and over very rapidly on the surface, very much in the same way that the writer many years ago has occasionally seen a grayling behave on the hook. As a general rule however the mullet puts up a very good fight, and in playing the fish it is a good plan to keep him as much as possible away from the boat, pier, or other stand point from which the angler is fishing; for mullet are particularly quick to take advantage of any obstruction round which they can take the line. The writer has seen more than one good fish lost through getting round the boat's mooring rope; in fact this is one of the disadvantages of fishing from a boat at her moorings in a harbour, for in such circumstances the rope is often one of the first things the hooked fish will make for.

The Daily Express, Tuesday 2 February 1926 at page 13

The Sport Searchlight

Sea-Angling Chief

Mr. T. W. Gomm, who has been re-elected chairman of the National Federation of Sea Anglers for the fourteenth successive year, is a Lincoln's Inn Fields solicitor. Mr Gomm was the first to demonstrate the possibility of catching grey mullet on rod and line, thereby confounding so great a naturalist and sea angler as the late F. G. Aflalo. Apart from sea-angling, Mr. Gomm is prominent in freshwater circles as president of the London Anglers' Association, and a member of the Thames Angling Preservation Society Committee since 1877.

The Daily Express, Monday 26 August 1926 at page 8

By the Way

Novel Savouries

I have just been shown an announcement to the effect that "Bortargo is the roe of grey mullet, preserved in wax, to make a novel savoury." The things that epicures will do to make a novel savoury are an unfailing delight to me, and I can vouch for the truth of the above because I was once introduced to the man who prepares the wax in which the roe is preserved. His cousin is a smearer of lard on starfish brains and a blaster of baby armadilloes before they are fastened to the lobes of elks' ears.

The Daily Express, Saturday 6 August 1927 at page 8

Seaside Holiday Sport

By F. D. Holcombe (Hon. Secretary of the British Sea Anglers' Society)

One of the most sporting fish in the sea is the mackerel. It is abundant in the summer off the southern and western coasts. Probably most people have caught it in the usual way - by towing a spinner at the end of heavily, leaded line behind a moving boat. But this is murder, not sport. To have real fun with mackerel you must wait until late summer, when the shoals come close in shore, and fish for them with unleaded tackle.

A drift line is the best. The weather should be calm, and the fish within half a mile of the shore. Sink an old string bag filled with pilchards to act as ground bait. Use a trout fly rod with a fine running line and an eight or nine foot trace of gut. Bait your two hooks with whitebait or sand-eel. Go out either before breakfast or after tea.

Bass is another sporting fish. From June to September you may catch him off our southern and western coasts and off the southern coasts of Ireland. A new method of bass fishing is from a boat, drifting on the tide, with a long rod and a line of pure, undressed silk. A large float is used, and a trace of a stout single gut terminating in a small triangle.

This triangle is lightly attached by one of its barbs to the back of a lively sand-eel or prawn. A good deal of skill is required. The boatman must not lag behind or overrun the tide. The angler must not strike a moment too late or the fish will get away.

Coalfish and pollack are both sporting fish if caught in the right way. Scotland is the home of the coalfish, though be may be taken in Ireland or Cornwall. Pollack may be caught almost anywhere in rocky coastland.

The old method of angling for these fish was with rod and driftline, a stationary bait, and a slipping lead. But a rubber eel with a spinner weighted at the head is more deadly. The line is slowly paid out from a boat and slowly wound in. You may use a gut trace unless sharks or dogfish are about, in which case it is safer to use a trace of wire. Spinning baits seem to have a peculiar fascination for sharks.

You will need a good deal of patience if you are bent on catching grey mullet. These fish are common in summer and early autumn on our southern coasts, but they are of all sea fish the most difficult to catch.

They, may be caught from rocks or breakwaters with a roach rod, a fine silk running line, and a fine gut trace. Use a taper float and some large split shot. As for bait, you may try paste, rag, worms, putrid fish and fat, boiled cabbage stumps, bananas, macaroni, and a great many other things. It depends upon local conditions. In playing mullet remember that its mouth is extremely tender.

"Sea Fishing Simplified" (1929) Francis Dyke Holcombe & A. Fraser-Brunner at page 34

Chapter VI

Bass

… Nothing will be said, by the way, about the grey mullet, because mullet fishing really isn't worth while unless you have an infinite stock of patience and a first-class knowledge both of local conditions and of the ways of this exceedingly wary fish. After all, most of you, when you go fishing, like to catch fish; and when one is mullet fishing blank and poor days occur very often.

"Modern Sea Fishing" (1937) Eric Cooper at pages 148 - 159

The Grey Mullet

There are three species of grey mullet found in our waters, the thin-lipped, thick-lipped and golden. This last species, which is so called from the golden-yellow colour of the head and a distinctly marked spot on the gill-cover, is certainly a very rare fish. Some biologists doubt whether it should be included in a list of British fishes. The angler need not concern himself as to which species of the grey mullet he is the more likely to catch, as the differences are very slight. Both grow to the same weight, take similar baits and are caught on identical tackle. Actually, the mullet most common around the coast is the thick-lipped, the thin-lipped mullet being a more southern fish, most frequently met within the countries bordering on the Mediterranean.

It is a shore-loving fish, nosing around rocks, mud shores and harbours. It ascends rivers well up into brackish water, and instances are recorded of their having been kept in fresh water aquaria for long periods … The average size of mullet caught by anglers is between 2 and 3lb; any fish over this weight may be considered a specimen.

For eating purposes, those mullet caught in estuaries are considered of finer flavour than those taken in the open sea …

Being warm-water fish, mullet are found in greatest number during the height of summer …

The angler new to the game, who seeks the grey mullet, must be prepared for many blank days, for there is no fish in our seas so difficult to catch on the hook. All mullet-fishing is done from the shore, except in the case of some house-boat or old hulk moored in an estuary, around which the fish may be expected to collect. Mullet are swift and strong fish, and being shy and very easily frightened, must be fished for with the finest of tackle. As they are a surface-swimming fish, the angler must make himself as inconspicuous as possible …

The bait used in mullet-fishing are so many that lack of bait need never be an excuse for leaving the rod at home. Every mullet specialist has his own favourites. The first essential is that it must be soft. Worms, the best of which is the small harbour ragworm, can be used either fresh or kept for a long time until they have developed a strong odour. In this latter condition the triangle will be the most suitable hook to use. Fish entrails - the liver particularly - are also good. If marine baits fail, the angler can turn to the farmyard, vegetable garden or dust-bin. The more disgusting condition the bait is in the better: odd scraps of fat, meat and bacon, boiled cabbage, cauliflower stalk and other bits and pieces too numerous to mention. There is one flavour the mullet, or any other fish for that matter, has not yet acquired, and that is - tobacco. If, when baiting the hook you are smoking, it is best to wear a glove to prevent any possibility of the bait being contaminated. This is particularly the case if you should be fishing with a bread paste, which many anglers use, sweetened with sugar or honey.

Ground baiting is of the utmost importance in mullet-fishing. Indeed it can be truly said to be the secret of success. Its use is to attract the fish, to keep them in your vicinity and to bring them on the feed. Given suitable conditions, at any known or likely-looking mullet locality, ground baiting, if kept up long enough, will bring the fish together. You may have to continue baiting for half an hour or more, starting with strewing the water all around and then gradually lessening the distance. Eventually the fish will assemble. Ground bait for mullet can be made up from boiled potatoes, bran, fish entrails, shrimps and many other materials. Always include among the ingredients a good percentage of the same bait which you intend using on the hook. To start with, ground bait should be moulded into firm balls, for ease in casting, and when the mullet are close in-shore the mixture can be thinned down so as to remain close to the surface of the water when it is thrown out.

Now, when the fish are around, you can quietly let down your tackle, working the baited hook in amongst the ground bait. Keep the rod well up in the air. Don't wave it about over the surface of the water, for it will cast a shadow or the sun will be reflected off the varnish. A highly varnished rod may look well in the window of the tackle dealer; it is not the best finish for practical fishing.

When you are doing up your rods at the end of the season, rub down the last application of varnish, when dry, with a little pumice powder. This will take away the sheen …

… the mullet does not rush at the bait but noses around and sucks at it. In clear water, where you can see what is happening below, you will know when to tighten on the fish. At other times the flick of the rod-tip, tightening of the line or movement of the float, will tell you when the mullet has got hold of the bait. Strike gently, for the mouth of the mullet is very tender. It will depend in what part of the mouth the fish is hooked whether or not you will have a good chance of bringing it to the net. Throughout the fight do not attempt to force the pace. Let the fish have plenty of scope, and assume all the while that any undue strain will tear out the hook. Mullet do not make any long runs though they are very swift fish. Twenty yards may be considered as the maximum amount of line taken out in a single run. Any rocks, posts or other obstruction in the water will be made for by the fish in its effort to escape. In these tactics the mullet closely resembles the bass.

If you have succeeded in keeping the hooked fish away from the main shoal of mullet, you can start fishing again as soon as your fish is netted. If, however, the shoal has been disturbed, it is useless to expect the fish to return to that spot for some time.

Mullet can be taken on bottom tackle where the ground is free from rock or weed. It is best to use two hooks when trying for the fish in this way, as many bites will go unobserved, so quietly is the bait sucked off. With a single hook you may be fishing for some time with it bare. Small pieces of ragworm will stay on the hooks well; the softer mullet baits will fall off the hook when the tackle is cast out. The previous remarks on the necessity of giving a quick strike apply equally well when bottom fishing. A tight line must always be kept and the fish struck on the faintest suspicion of rod movement …

… In the early morning when all is quiet will be the most hopeful time to start experimenting.

The Daily Mirror, Friday 2 September 1938 at page 31

Angling by Silverscale

Ever tried to catch grey mullet? One of the shyest, most tantalising, elusive, easily frightened and most difficult fish to locate.

A rare experience recently befell Mr H. R. Smy, of Church Lane, Ipswich, He heard that a large fish had snapped a boy's line just above the float. Two days later, fishing further up river, he saw a float about two feet under water moving erratically forward.

"Tangling my line round the float with the tip of my rod, I jerked and caught it." he says. "I knew the fish was on this piece of line. After a struggle I landed a 7½ lb. grey mullet. It was the lad's hook, not mine, in the fish's mouth. l am glad to say I found the lad, and together we shared that fish that night around his parents' table. But why the fish took that boy's rough bait beats me."

The Sunday Express, 23 June 1940 at page 10

Angling

Marmalade to Catch Mullet by Redfin

The custom in sea fishing is to regard the mullet man as the master of arts. Not only is his catch first-class food, but persuading mullet to swallow a bait (and hook) calls for patience and brains.

Experts leave their ordinary sea tackle at home when after mullet. A Nottingham-style roaching outfit is the approved gear, the type of outfit employed on fast running rivers like the Trent and Hampshire Avon.

Sea water will not ruin this tackle if proper care is taken. Safeguard the reel if it is made of a light metal alloy by drying and oiling it before and after fishing. Rinse the line in fresh water.

As the tide may vary considerably in a short time, a float which can be made larger is most useful.

Crystal or round bend hooks, size eight, are generally big enough. Where the grey mullet run to a large size, say up to four pounds, a size two hook may be best. Gut casts should be one yard long, thickness 2x.

Baits the Problem

Baits are a problem. Mullet browse around piers, jetties and ships moored in harbours, feeding on weed. Yet a bit of weed offered on a hook will probably be left, even though you dangle it under their noses.

Try them with bread paste mixed with pilchard oil, or the oil from a tin of sardines. Even try a flavouring of marmalade. Very small ragworms from the black harbour mud, cubes of cooked cabbage stalk and macaroni can be used.

Always use a landing net when mullet fishing. Hooks are small and the fish have tender mouths.

"Sea-Fishing from the Shore" (1940) A. R. Harris Cass M.B.E. at pages 85 & 86

Chapter VIII

When to use Float Tackle

Before finishing with this interesting method of angling, and the very important part that it plays in dealing with the fish that visit these estuarian waters, mention must be made of that shy fish, the grey mullet. Probably there is no more tantalizing sight than to see hundreds and hundreds of these fish, in vast shoals, calmly swimming round and round, utterly indifferent to the well-baited hooks that bar their passage … Our success was always attained when the water was at its lowest level, and we decided that the solution of the mystery was to be found in the state of the water. Grey mullet are notoriously partial to estuaries and harbours where the taint of sewage exists, hence at low tide the "seasoning" would be more piquant.

Of the many varieties of baits employed, none equalled the killing qualities of the small ragworm used in conjunction with exceedingly light tackle.

"Sea Angling Modern Methods and Tackle" (1952) Alan Young at page 58 & 61

Baits

Earthworms

Lobworms and other earthworms are not recommended for general sea fishing, but they can be used as an emergency bait for mullet and wrasse.

Maggots

Maggots are sometimes used in mullet fishing. A couple should be hooked through the skin of the tail on a no. 10 freshwater hook. The tail of a maggot has two dark spots, which look to the uninitiated like eyes, causing them to confuse the insect's ends. Maggots can be bought from tackle dealers who cater for freshwater fishermen.

Paste

Paste made from bread or flour is used as bait for mullet. A small quantity of the green, silky weed found on harbour stones stiffens the paste and gives it a marine tang.

The Daily Express, Thursday 7 June 1956 at page 12

It's Time for Angling

Try for Artful Mullet

By Tom Float

Grey mullet the artful sea fish that out-think anglers, are shoaling around pier heads and in estuaries.

You may watch them in clear water as they feed near weed-covered piles and old hulks.

Catching a plus-6 lb. Specimen grey mullet is one of sea angling's hardest tasks. It may take years.

Adopt freshwater angler's ideas rather than normal strong sea tackle. The 10 ft. rod used by Nottingham roach fishermen is good. Their 4 in. composition reels do not warp or corrode in salt water. Terylene and nylon 5 lb. lines are practically rot-proof.

Discard enormous sea fishing floats that are big enough for navigation buoys. Ordinary quill or celluloid club floats are best.

Hook sizes must vary according to the bait. Err on the small side. When offering a bunch of harbour ragworms select a No. 9 roach hook and put four lively worms on it.

Two-Hook Gear

A good tackle for this ragworm bait is the trout fisher's two-hook worm gear. The ragworms dangle from the top hook and the lower one lies hidden among their tails.

Bread-cubes, crust or paste are best on a No. 10 hook. Live shrimps kill on a size 12 round bend.

Conceal a No. 8 crystal hook inside a lump of boiled cabbage stalk or a chunk of sweetened cooked macaroni.

Ground-baiting pays. Inland freshwater anglers visiting the coast might catch a lot of grey mullet with the match-winning Sheffield style. This calls for "feeder" maggots galore to gather fish around and a trio of slowly sinking plump "specials" on a No. 14 hook.

The Daily Express, Thursday 16 August 1956 at page 8

Anglers … try the fish that see too much

By Tom Float

How can you catch the fish that know all the answers ... those artful grey mullet? Anglers look at, but cannot hook, the big specimens. Stop watching them: when you can see fish, they can see you.

Give them a steady supply of stale bread. For surface feeders or in shallow water, the bread must float.

Plan for attack at long range. A thread-line outfit helps.

Wind a fine new line on the reel. Tie a modern plastic bubble float on its end. Three feet above the float loop a No. 8 roach hook on 3x gut.

Intelligent use of the bubble float calls for part-filling it with water.

Treat these top of the water feeders as though they were shy freshwater rudd.

Hide yourself, or at least kneel to cast. Strike only at definite bites and then not too hard.

"Salt-Water Angling" (1956) Michael Kennedy at pages 358 & 359

Chapter Ten: Natural Baits for Salt-Water Fish

Baits from the Kitchen

The kitchen yields materials for a number of baits, chiefly for grey mullet. Some of the more useful are the following:

Bread

A piece of dry bread, cast like a fly in the track of a shoal of mullet, is at times an effective bait, especially where the fish are accustomed to feeding on scraps of bread. Use a size 10 treble or size 8 single hook, and embed it in a piece of bread the size of one's finger nail, threading the hook link through the bread first, by means of a baiting needle, as when using ray's liver.

Bread Paste

Crumble a piece of dry, stale bread: wet it, and knead it up into a stiff paste. Then mould a piece the size of a pea around the bend of a size 8-6 single hook. A useful float-fishing bait for mullet.

Dough

May be substituted for bread paste for grey mullet. Mix the dough from flour and water or milk. A little cotton wool mixed in with the dough mix makes it adhere better to the hook. The addition of some chopped-up mint leaves increases its attractiveness. (The use of bait made of flour and milk, with mint, for grey mullet was described by Oppian nearly two thousand years ago.)

Pork Fat

A piece of pork fat, the size of the top joint of one's little finger, or smaller, baited in the same way as a piece of ray's liver, will, at times, be taken by grey mullet.

Sundry Other Mullet Baits

Pieces of the following may also be employed as float-fishing or drift-line baits for grey mullet - boiled cabbage stump; uncooked sausage meat; banana; macaroni (cooked); cheese; brandling earthworms.

"Sea Fishing with the Experts" (1956) Jack Thorndike at pages 72 to 76

Chapter 9: Mullet (Derek Fletcher)

… Mullet are inshore fish, with a decided liking for freshwater … It is the thick-lipped we are most concerned with and likely to find in large numbers … Bluish-grey in colour, they have short blunt heads, a thick body and tiny mouths …

Early summer brings in the main force of the mullet, and they remain until autumn, with the latest keeping to the extreme south-west. The late part of the season also yields the heaviest fish.

It is a moody, fussy fish, and due to this has been credited with the title 'the shyest of our sea fish'. Some anglers still believe that you cannot catch it with rod and line but this is sheer nonsense. The fact that mullet are caught from piers while paddle steamers churn up the water makes the 'shy' part absurd. Harbour and pier fish are used to noise, but rock mullet will of course move off if suddenly disturbed by an angler showing off his latest glistening tackle.

Mullet are often caught at river mouths, which hold a great attraction for them. Fish are landed during all tidal conditions and they appear to have no regular mealtime. But at the beginning of the ebb I have found them more interested in baits.

Groundbaiting definitely helps attract them, though sad to say, few anglers seem interested in trying it out. Even a mesh net full of bread scraps hung in the water will make all the difference.

Mullet are nosey fish. They want to examine and nose everything, even to the extent of following ships for miles just to see what the weed covered bottom can offer them. Often you see them on the surface, detective fashion, searching every mussel on a pier pile. It is worthwhile to pull off a clump of mussels and see what sea life you find among them. Many an expert has had fish baiting up with the small creatures he has found.

The menu for mullet is lengthy and some strange baits have lured fish at times. Mostly used are tiny ragworm, bread, cooked winkles, cooked cabbage stalk, small pieces of banana and macaroni paste. Whatever bait is used, don't make it too large. Too often an outsize bait is not only useless, but tends to scare off the fish. Many pier mullet are taken with small ragworm, two or three, according to size, bunched on a hook festoon fashion. It is not necessary to cover the hook point, but very important to have this needle sharp. In fact resharpen it even when you think a fish has grazed it.

Short rods are not advisable. An ideal length is an 11ft roach rod. A hooked mullet always heads for the piles and a short rod is useless to battle it out. The line need not be any stronger than 6lb breaking strain monofilament nylon running straight from a light centre-pin reel connected to a No 8 Model Perfect hook. A tiny spiral is the only weight necessary, fixed a yard from the hook.

First of all we will deal with clear water fishing. Let the bait in slowly, preparing yourself for a dexterous strike as soon as the fish is seen to mouth or nose the bait. And play it firmly but not roughly, for the hook usually catches in the frail membrane behind the thick upper lip. Remember when you are playing the fish the tendency is for the membrane to split and the hook drop out …

A mullet's first dive is powerful, but don't stop it or you too will join the ranks of the "can't catch them" class. Not only will you lose the fish, but tackle as well. Other runs are not so tough, but don't think by this I am suggesting poor sport. And … don't forget a net, one of the essentials while mullet fishing …

In thick discoloured choppy water mullet keep nearer the bottom, but it is still possible to get them if you follow this method. Keep the bait a foot off the bottom, but not still. Every few seconds make a slight strike just by raising the rod tip a little. If the shoal are in nosing mood they can be fairly hooked in this manner.

Some anglers think mulleting needs float gear. But for pier work it is only necessary when the fish are known to be laying a few yards off. A small river float is recommended, plus keen eyesight to watch for the slightest movement. It will not dip but merely tremble as the fish noses the bait, so strike on a rumour.

Bread is a favourite bait … and many big fish have been recorded using this. But in all cases the big fish men have groundbaited first. A small amount of bread crumbs anointed with pilchard oil should be lightly thrown in. These will cling to seaweed, move in and out of the crevices and in general become the appetiser. Wait a few minutes, out of sight, and then follow this up with a few damp bread pellets.

The time is now set for the hook bait and once again let this down slowly and quietly. If you should be fishing from high rocks add another small spiral weight a few feet up the line from the bottom one. This is particularly essential if it is windy, and will steady the rod tip and keep down unnecessary movement.

Have you noticed in the fishing reports each year that several large mullet catches are made from one particular coastal town all in one week? This is known as "suicide week", when large shoals congregate and lose all sense of danger. The special week varies from coast to coast, but it is an annual event, quite unexplained, and the fish leap out of the water in high spirits. During this spell of madness they take the bait in a way quite out of their ordinary manner. The angler who is initiated into mullet fishing during this spell sometimes wonders why he doesn't get fish quite so easily later, for they disappear as quickly as they came, and any left behind, usually the largest of the species, revert back to the nosing tactics.

Now for the odd man out. Red mullet are occasionally taken off the south coast with ragworm, and offer good sport and food value. Most recent recorded fish have come from the Portland area and were caught with float tackle, but the fish are few and far between and no-one fishes especially for them.

Thin-lipped golden grey mullet are easily recognised by a golden spot on the gill covers, with a smaller similar spot behind the eyes. But this species is rare and only small ones have been reported during recent years, again off the south coast. Thin-lipped grey mullet mostly keep to Cornish waters and the Channel Islands.

One "must" in mullet fishing is to keep the hands free of any smell, such as tobacco or petrol … it has been proved that mullet are affected very much by scents.

"Sea-Fishing" (1960) Arthur Sharp at pages 59 & 60

Baits that attract mullet are many, and include ragworms, maggots, peeled raw shrimps, fat pork, ray's liver, pilchard entrails, fish roe, peeled prawns, green silk weed such as is found on wood piles, etc and boiled cabbage, paste, bread-crust and macaroni.

Perhaps the most attractive bait is a red ragworm nicked on the hook so that it dangles in a way calculated to tempt the wary fish in an irresistible manner.

For success in mullet fishing use plenty of ground-bait, consisting of chopped worms, crabs pounded up etc. If at all possible the ground-bait should be of a similar nature to the hook-bait i.e. when fishing with ragworm, bait up with ground-bait that consists largely of worms; if angling with pilchard gut, the ground-bait should be of the same substance, chopped small; and so on.

Fish fine, keep out of sight, use ground-bait judiciously - these are the three essentials when mullet fishing. Early morning is the best time for sport.

"Tackle Sea Angling this Way" (1964) John Michaelson at pages 97 & 98

10. Flatfish and Others

The grey mullet which fascinates and exasperates the sea angler is quite different from the ugly red mullet seen on the fishmonger's slab, appreciated for its delicate flavour, but rarely caught on rod and line except by accident on ragworm offered by boat angler's after other fish. The grey mullet - really blue rather than grey on its back - appears in huge shoals at certain times and places in the south. It is one of the most difficult sea fish to hook and land for a number of reasons. It has a small mouth and no teeth which means the bait is sucked in rather than seized. It is shy, but is generally found in shallow water near the surface. The membrane in which they are hooked is very tender - and so are the baits they take. They are elusive in the sense that even in the season when they come close to the shore they are here today and gone tomorrow. If you are after mullet, you must forget paternoster and ledgers and think rather in terms of the rod and six-pound line of the roach fisherman. Sooner or later in the south you are likely to be exasperated by finding the water near a pier, breakwater or rocks full of mullet and being unable to catch them because you are without the equipment and bait.

Mullet are scavengers and need very small, soft baits on a small hook. This must be presented without alarming them. In clear still water the most effective tackle may be a fine trace with nothing but the hook and a single shot to enable the bait to be flicked into place. You strike by watching the take. If a float is used, it should be of the most sensitive type allowing a quick, smooth strike on the slightest touch. Any hesitation and the bait is blown out. The line should float and where the water is very still a floating bread crust may be the most effective method of taking them. But almost any bait which is soft but can be kept on the hook may take mullet. The only normal sea-bait is ragworm and this must be of the smallest and tenderest kind festooned on the hook, generally most effective when the mullet are feeding near seaweed-covered piling or rocks.

In harbours where fish offal is thrown out, they may take fragments of soft gut or mussel. Bread and dough are standard baits. Cubes of boiled cabbage stump, parboiled wheat and cheese fragments may be taken. Sometimes they will take a small hook which has been made bright with a little silver paper or part of a milk-bottle top wrapped on the shank. They can be very choosy about baits and local knowledge is of great value. They are likely to be frightened by a boat and from land care must be taken to avoid waving arms and flashing rods.

A hooked mullet makes a powerful first rush. It must be kept away from piling or rocks, but not held so firmly that the always fragile hook hold is torn. Trying to lift a mullet out of the water is nearly certain to result in the hook tearing out. It must be netted and as quickly as possible because of the danger of the hook coming away. It is no good fishing for mullet unless they are obviously there. The record is 10 lb. 1 oz. but bigger ones have been caught in nets. The average fish taken is likely to be nearer two pounds.

"The Sea Angler Afloat and Ashore" (1965) Desmond Brennan at pages 38 - 40, 177, 178, 181 - 185, 188, 189 & 190

The Fishes of the Sea

The Grey Mullets

The Thick Lipped Grey Mullet (Mugil labrosus (Risso))

… The Grey Mullet looks dark on top, i.e. brownish or bluish grey, merging into silver on the sides. The average size is 2 to 5 lb, but mullet of well over 10 lb have been recorded … it is found all around our coast but is most plentiful in the south. A gregarious species, it swims in shoals of anything from two or three fish to several thousand, and haunts our beaches, estuaries, creeks, harbours and tidal lagoons. Mullet have a liking of brackish water and can live for a time in water that is entirely fresh.

Their natural food consists of minute marine organisms and small molluscs and crustaceans sifted from the sand and mud, but in places they can become accustomed to feeding on refuse and offal. Little is known of their spawning habits but indications are that it takes place inshore in May and June. They first appear towards the end of April, migrating into deeper water offshore around October. They are caught by float fishing, legering, and on paternosters using a great variety of baits including fish flesh, ham fat, cheese, red ragworms, mussel, bread, peas and cabbage stumps.

The Thin Lipped Grey Mullet (Mugil ramada (Risso))

This species closely resembles in appearance and habits the thick lipped grey mullet but is a more southerly species. It differs from the latter in that the space between the two dorsal fins is one and two-thirds to two times the length of the base of the first dorsal fin; the pectoral fin is not more than two-thirds the length of the head and does not exceed the length of the pelvic fin by more than one-quarter. The greatest thickness of the upper lip is less than half the diameter of the eye and the taste buds are absent or poorly developed. There is no scaling or only slight scaling at the base of the second dorsal and anal fins.

The Golden Mullet (Mugil auratus (Risso))

The rarest and smallest of the three species attaining only about half the size of the other two. A more southerly species, it is reported mainly from our southern coasts. It possesses long pectoral fins and distinctive gold spots, a large one on the gill cover and a smaller one on the cheek behind the eye. The other mullets sometimes have a hint of gold on both cheek and gill covers but are not spotted. The thickness of the upper lip is less than half the diameter of the eye; the space between the dorsal fins is about one and a half times the length of the base of the first dorsal and the pectoral fin at least three-quarters of the head and at least two-fifths longer than the pelvic fin. Taste buds in upper lip absent or poorly developed.

Mullet

Mullet are the most fascinating fish in the sea and fishing for them provides the sea angler with his greatest challenge. Legends have grown up about their intelligence, wariness and the virtual impossibility of catching them short of using a seine net, a stroke haul [1] or shooting them with a .22 rifle, none of which is exactly a sporting method. Let me state here and now that mullet cab be caught and are being caught regularly but it takes a persistent and intelligent angler to catch them. In places they are relatively easy to catch but on the whole it is difficult fishing, requiring patience and long-term planning. They present a real challenge to the angler as their habits and reactions differ from place to place. A method or bait which is successful in one spot may be entirely useless with mullet a mile or two away. Mullet fishing is no game for the angler who fishes for the "pan" but rather for the man who wants sport and a really strong fighting fish.

[1] Stroke hauling is a method used to catch fish which involves casting a hook and line into the river and trying to impale the fish anywhere in its body then drag it to the bank.

… Mullet are frequently mistaken for bass. Indeed, the two species are often found together but there is a marked difference in their swimming habits. The bass is always purposeful and looks as if he has somewhere to go and something to do. The mullet, on the other hand, looks lazy and indolent as if he had nothing to do and all day to do it. On calm summer days mullet will be seen outlined like grey shadows in the lazy roll of a wave in the shallows of a beach or may betray their presence in a river or estuary by the typical arrow-shaped wake they create as they glide along with the tide near the surface. They may be seen hanging motionless in the water, their dorsal fins and sometimes their backs breaking the surface as they sun themselves. For that again they will be seen playing and cavorting, chasing one another around and leaping from the water, for all the world like a crowd of children playing "tip and tig". They are no lovers of wind or ruffled water and will sink deep under these conditions. When swimming some distance under the surface they are not easy to see even when the water is clear on account of their slow, leisurely progress and their presence may only be revealed by a sudden golden flash or gleam as a fish rolls.

A hooked mullet is an entirely different proposition altogether, displaying an amazing turn of speed and possessing incredible strength and staying power. It will jump frequently and when a good fish want to go, it goes and there is little you can do about it. At times in the early stages of a battle with a 4 or 5 lb mullet I have wondered whether I was playing the fish or the fish was playing me. The fight goes on for an incredibly long time for a fish of that size, as the mullet gets its fourth and fifth wind and never seems to tire. The result is never certain and by the time it slides safely into the net your wrist and arm are aching badly and you are glad that it is all over.

Mullet, despite their apparent indolence, are very shy and wary fish, doubly so since they frequent shallow water. They possess excellent eyesight and are very easily frightened, especially by sudden movements or shadows. The shadow of a bird flying over the water is enough to make a whole shoal of surface-swimming mullet erupt in panic and even single mullet feeding in very shallow water will frequently take fright at nothing at all as if it suddenly realised that it was in a vulnerable position. It is uncanny how the reaction of one fish in a shoal is instantly communicated to the others and the whole shoal of fish reacts as one. Strangely enough, at times nothing seems to frighten them and, of course, mullet in harbours and around seaside resorts become accustomed to people and movement and are less easily scared. However, more than with any other species, caution and the best use of available cover are essential if one is to be successful in catching them …

Ground baiting is the secret of mullet fishing. In the case of urban mullet … they may already have been ground baited and conditioned to feeding on something that you can use as bait, i.e. where they are grubbing on fish carcasses in a fishing port, and it is then a matter of introducing your bait quietly without frightening the fish. If they are not feeding you must introduce ground bait (preferably something which they are accustomed to in the particular locality) to bring them on the feed. With wild mullet, however, the problem is a more difficult one, as you must get them used to and to accept something to which they are not accustomed. This takes time and persistent ground baiting over several days until the mullet come to accept and expect the food and lose some of their natural caution.

Alan Mitchell, in his excellent book Grey Mullet ("How to catch them" series, Herbert Jenkins, London 1961), maintains that pilchard mashed up and pounded into a "soup" makes the best ground bait of all. Not all of us are fortunate enough to be situated where pilchards are easily obtainable but any of the oily fishes, e.g. herring or mackerel will also do quite well. Indeed the finest ground bait I ever used consisted of about three dozen herrings wrapped in a cellophane bag and left in my old Commer station wagon for three days during a heat wave. The old wagon used to heat up like a furnace on a warm day and the resultant brew of highly odoriferous juices mixed with crushed barley meal made an attractive "cloud" ground bait the mullet could not resist and yielded a wonderful day's sport. I must confess, however, that the old Commer never smelt the same afterwards!

One must, of course, know where to place the ground bait. Mullet are in many ways creatures of habit, frequenting the same places on the same stage of the tide. Not always, of course, for weather and other factors may affect their habits; but they frequent certain places consistently enough for them to be known as recognised mullet holes or lies. At low water they will be found waiting for the tide in certain bays or pools and as the tide flows they will travel with it up estuaries or along beaches, usually by a recognisable route, dropping in to visit favourite places. On the ebb the pattern is repeated and by careful observation one can get to know the routes they take and the places in which they lie up or feed. Once you have this information the serious business of ground baiting can be undertaken.

Mullet can be very erratic in their feeding habits. You may fish for hours and watch them cruise or cavort around, ignoring both ground bait and hook bait. Then suddenly one will show an interest and then the whole shoal will start feeding for about half an hour before stopping abruptly and it may be hours before they will feed again. Then again, while a large shoal of mullet may ignore every offer, the odd fish may take occasionally. Mullet love to cruise around even when feeding so that it is difficult to hold their interest and keep them in one place. For that reason it is worthwhile ground baiting several spots within your fishing zone so that the fish have a choice and can move around yet can be covered by casting without it being necessary for you to move. This problem of holding the fish in your fishing zone is a very real one and "cloud" ground bait (so familiar to coarse fishermen) is very useful in keeping fish interested without actually feeding them. It should be remembered that, when fishing, the purpose of ground bait is to interest them and start them feeding so that they may take your hook bait. You must be careful not to overdo it lest they become satiated and stop feeding. It is quite easy to overfeed them, especially if the shoal is a small one and particularly if you are using bread which swells when wet and soon fills their stomachs.

Ground baiting for wild mullet is usually a long term proposition lasting for three or four days before you can fish for them with confidence. Do not be in any hurry to fish as the mullet require time to become accustomed to the new food and if you are patient your chances of catching them will be improved. Ground bait the places in which the mullet feed or remain for some time and in picking these places the question of suitable cover and of being able to land a hooked fish safely must be taken into consideration.

A thick "soup" of crushed and pounded fish makes about the most useful ground bait. Pilchard is superior to any other fish on account of its oiliness, followed by herring or mackerel but most any soft fish will do and the addition of fish oil will greatly help to attract the mullet to the bait. Pilchard oil is the best for this job but even a quantity of veterinary cod liver oil which can be obtained quite cheaply will prove useful. The paste should be smeared over rocks which are exposed by the tide at low water where the flood tide will gradually wash off the scent and little bits and pieces. Where the water is deep the ground bait can be placed "rubby dubby" fashion in a wide mesh bag such as an onion bag or one made of small gauge chicken wire, through which both scent and little particles of fish can escape. The bag, if necessary, should be weighed with stones to keep it from being swept away. Mashed up crabs, shrimps, prawns and mussel make a very useful addition to the "rubby dubby".

On beaches which do not strip too much and where there is a suitable incline, a good plan to adopt is to bury ground bait in a very shallow trench running up towards high water mark. The incoming tide and light surf will disturb the sand, uncover the bait and release the oil, providing a steady supply of ground bait to keep the fish interested and enabling you to fish up the tide. Sand releases oil slowly and in little bursts and a small tin of pilchard-oil-soaked sand placed close to the ground bait is a very useful addition at any time.

Fillets of fish or the filleted carcasses of fish to which soft shreds of flesh are attached can also be used. The fillets can be anchored by tying them to a small stone or the lid of a tin which is then buried in the sand. They can be smeared thickly with fish oil or a tin of sand soaked with oil can be placed close by. Remember to give the fish a choice so use a number of fillets located in an area about 15 yards wide.

Bread is another useful ground bait and has many applications. When kneaded into tiny balls it will sink to the bottom and nice patterns of ground bait can be laid with these bread "bullets". If the bread is thoroughly soaked and then squeezed dry it can be moulded into balls which can be cast out to where you want the bread to be distributed. It will break up and disintegrate slowly, spreading the ground bait through the water and over the bottom as it sinks. Bread crusts and pieces of stale bread which float on the surface of the water will bring mullet (particularly urban mullet) on the feed. Unfortunately, it frequently also brings sea gulls and swans which can be a dreadful nuisance and, in addition, as the bread is floating, both wind and tide can waft the bread away from your fishing area. There is nothing more frustrating than the sight of mullet making great holes in the water as they suck down surface floating bread just outside casting range.

When at last you see that the mullet have come to accept your ground bait and are feeding confidently on it, you can start thinking about fishing for them. You should commence by ground baiting with small particles to bring them on the feed and gradually increase the size of the particles until they are large enough to be used on a hook. It is fatal to introduce one big hook bait in the midst of small pieces of ground bait for it will be viewed with deep suspicion and be studiously ignored. Get them used to the bigger pieces first and remember to keep up the supply of pieces as you fish, without overfeeding the shoal … mullet like a choice and if the only piece of food around is the bit on your hook it will be left strictly alone.

Where the ground is already prebaited, as frequently happens in harbours, towns and seaside resorts by local dumping, it is usually a matter of waiting for the tide to cover the ground bait and for the mullet to arrive and feed. In others it will be necessary to bring them on the feed as described in the last paragraph. Where suitable waste is discharged at regular or irregular times, such as at sewer, factory, cannery or creamery outlets, it may be necessary to wait for this discharge and fish in it if you have no suitable ground bait with which to entice them in between. Sometimes in these conditions a cloud ground bait made up of crushed barley meal mixed with fish oil and thoroughly soaked with water, makes a very attractive cloud in the water and not alone gets but keeps the fish interested in feeding for a considerable length of time.

The list of baits on which mullet are taken is long and varied so a word or two about them will not be out of place at this point. Fish is high on the list and again the oily fishes - pilchard, herring and mackerel take pride of place. The rolls of flesh from the back of the fish makes the most durable baits but I have also had excellent fishing using the guts as well. The roe of the fish seems particularly attractive and so does the liver but it is difficult to keep on the hook. I find that if the liver is wrapped in a piece of fishnet nylon stocking … it can be kept securely on the hook.

Bread can be used in many ways and Procea or starch-reduced rolls are most suitable as they are soft and fluff out when wet. If these are not available use a fresh pan or loaf. It must really be fresh and preferably still warm. A piece from the inside of the pan can be kneaded to a doughy consistency with the fingers and it will stay on the hook securely. Usually I like to cover my hook completely but when using bread this way I leave the point exposed. I find that though the piece of bread fluffs out on the outside in the water, the inside becomes very hard and if the hook point is blanketed by the bread it will not pull free on the strike and hook the fish. When mullet are taking bread from the surface or just underneath I prefer to use bread crust. The hook should be inserted from the outer side of the crust, turned and the point brought out again. The bait will cast further this way but even at that you will be lucky if you can cast it twice as it becomes very soft when wet.

The small red ragworm is a favourite bait in many areas for wild mullet. They are easily obtained and a fistful or two of mud will usually provide sufficient for bait. It is a soft fragile worm when fresh and there are many different methods used to mount them on the hook. One is to thread one up the hook and on to the trace and two or three others are then hooked though the head and let dangle. The general idea is that the mullet can take the dangling worms quite easily without feeling the hook and, with suspicions allayed, will come back for the worm threaded partly on the hook and partly on the trace. Another is to mount two worms in tandem fashion, the first partly threaded up above the hook and the exposed bend inserted in the other worm.

Cheese is another successful bait particularly when used where there is milk waste. It can be cut in cubes and impaled on the hook or else, if it is very soft, it should be mixed with cotton wool … Ham fat is also a good bait at times and as it is durable it can be cast with confidence and fish after fish can be landed on the same piece of bait. It should be hooked in the same way as bread, i.e. in through the tough skin and back out again on the same side. Mussels, crab flesh, macaroni, spaghetti, earthworms, banana, boiled cabbage stumps, maggots and a number of other baits account for mullet also and occasionally they are taken on artificial lures.

A successful and interesting method used in France is worthy of note. The bait used is a small worm or red ragworm mounted on an 18 inch trace. Above the swivel, the line is threaded through a small perspex "button" about the size of a halfpenny. This is spun or driftlined in a current and gives a crazy "wibble wobble" action to the worm which, from all reports, the mullet cannot resist.

When casting to a feeding shoal it is best to cast beyond them and then to reel the bait back carefully into the desired position. To cast into the shoal is to risk frightening them and putting them down. Mind you, there are times when you can throw bricks at them and they will hardly notice it but that is very seldom so take no chances and be careful. When trotting a bait down with the current to mullet feeding below you, remember to delay your float from time to time so that your bait swims down naturally ahead of the float and is not dragged along by it.

"Sea Angling" (1965) Derek Fletcher at pages 37 to 41

Chapter 2: The Mullet Family

Small ragworm, macaroni paste, bread, cubes of banana, whiting flesh, red garden worms, cooked winkles, cooked cabbage stalk and boiled potato are all useful baits for mullet. Macaroni paste is easily made with a half-cupful of small pieces of macaroni scalded with hot water which should be left to cool for about three-quarters of an hour. Drain off the water when cool, mix with a small amount of flour and knead together to the consistency of soft putty. Pellets of the size of a pea are used on the hook.

Ragworm are very useful for luring pier mullet but should not be more than 1 - 1½in in length. Four or five of these should be put on the hook in a flowing festoon, making no attempt to cover the hook shank. Particular attention must be paid to the sharpness of the hook and it is essential to keep it needle-sharp by constant touching up with a small carborundum stone. Many experienced mullet anglers re-sharpen the hook even if a fish only grazes it.

A 10-11ft roach-rod of medium action is ideal for mullet-fishing. Shorter rods are not suitable, particularly for pier-fishing, for the good reason that mullet, hooked from a pier, always make for their haunts between the piles, a fact which makes the benefit of a good-length rod obvious. A 6lb nylon line will take care of most mullet and should run unknotted straight from the reel to the hook. An ideal-sized hook is a No. 8 model perfect, and larger sizes should be avoided. Three foot from the hook fix a small spiral weight, remembering to try and keep the tackle as invisible as possible.

When mullet are visible in clear water insinuate the bait amongst them with great care, concentrating all the time in readiness for a dextrous strike immediately a fish is seen to take the bait. A hooked mullet should be played firmly for two reasons. Firstly, because the hook rarely penetrates the thick upper lip but usually engages in the fine membrane behind this which tears instantly with rough movements. Secondly, to prevent the fish from gaining the piles where often sharp clusters of mussels cut the fine nylon line. All the time you are playing the mullet it will be seen that the hook is tending to enlarge the hole in the thin membrane and is liable to fall out. Quickness is, therefore, very necessary, but the first downward rush of a hooked mullet should never be stopped or loss of fish and tackle will result. Its first rush is as of a fish of much greater size: one often has visions of a record mullet on the end of the line!

In choppy or thick water, when fish are not visible, the bait should be kept a foot off the bottom. A bite should not be waited for, but every few seconds lightly strike by raising the rod tip a few inches. If mullet are nosing the bait in their natural manner it is possible to hook them fairly with this procedure. Foul-hooked mullet are exceedingly rare as their large scales come away very easily. Occasionally one will find a scale on the hook which is proof that mullet are at least there.

Floats for mullet pier-fishing are only necessary when the fish are seen shoaling some way off, and then only a small quill sliding one should be used. Watch the float continually, striking on the slightest movement that differs from its usual motion. Unlike other sea-fish, mullet will not cause the float to dip but merely to waver or tremble as the bait is sucked in or expelled.

From groynes, harbours, indeed anywhere in calm, warm weather the floating bread-crust method will take fish. All leads and floats are taken from the line and a small piece of bread-crust put on the hook and allowed to drift slowly near the surface. In the same way seaweed draped on the hook near weed-covered obstacles will provide bites when fish are feeding. A small silver metal milk-bottle top wrapped tightly around the shank of the hook and moved very slowly through the water has attracted fish in the past. In fact, nothing is too out-of-the-way for mullet, for their curiosity will overcome suspicions at all times.

"Sea Angling" (1967) Alan Wrangles at page 83

The Quarry

Mullet

… Spinning is another method which will take these fish. Mullet spoons can be bought from most tackle dealers, but bearing in mind the mullet's habit of feeding with the flow of the tide, remember to spin with, and not against, the current.

"Popular Sea Fishing" (1968) Peter Wheat (editor) at pages 155 to 167

The Mullet Family (Peter Wheat)

… Perhaps, before going further, I should describe the major differences between the three mullet species … A distinctive fin arrangement includes two dorsal fins. The one nearer the head has four webbed spines; the second and smaller has only two spines, followed by a number of softer rays. It is the distance between the two dorsal fins which forms the major means of identification. If you measure the base of the leading dorsal and then discover the dorsal distance is about twice that length, the fish is almost certainly a thin-lip. If the distance is equal it is a thick-lip. Golden grey mullet have a distance of about I times - check this even though the mullet you have caught has a golden head, the other two species develop gold patches and spots under certain environmental conditions. There can be no doubt that the golden species is rare in the extreme. Other differences, perhaps of more use to the biologist, do exist, but for all practical purposes fin distance will reveal all you want to know.

Bass sometimes get mixed up with mullet; why this is I can never really understand for both species are quite distinct and major differences are soon apparent. For a quick check the bass has a lateral line which, as already mentioned, is missing from grey mullet.

Mullet make their home in shallow coastal waters rather than the open sea, but once the weather warms in the spring the shoals swarm into the brackish tidal reaches of rivers, creeks, harbours, estuaries, docks, etc., taking up residence in the vicinity of pier supports, piles, permanent anchorages, warm water outlets, sewage pipes, harbour walls, and places which receive a regular dosing of offal from cafes, canning factories and moored boats. These are the sort of places to seek and catch mullet throughout the summer and autumn, until the weather turns cold. Even then, in choice spots receiving a flow of warm water, mullet will remain and feed throughout the year, very much a resident shoal. Under normal conditions mullet in cold weather are torpid, and not at all easy to catch without a great deal of perseverance - even more than that required in the summertime. Unless you are set on becoming a mullet specialist I would advise that you concentrate on the species only during summer and early autumn. Later in the year it just isn't worth the effort.

Tackle-wise, freshwater gear is quite suitable for mullet fishing. The rod must have length and a fast action, yet be firm enough to control a strong fish … A big mullet will fight furiously, twisting, turning, shaking - yet remember that in the soft lips the hook hold may be very crucial indeed. The longer the fight lasts, the greater wear on the hold. This does not mean that one should slacken right off each time a mullet tries a little harder for freedom; indeed this could well mean the hook dropping out. Instead, constant pressure should be maintained all the time until the captive is played out ready for netting …

… Mullet have highly developed senses which necessitate every effort being made to hide, as far as possible, the tackle from the fish … you can never take enough precautions with such a nervy fish. Choice of breaking strain is very much a matter of conditions. Obviously it would be very unwise to use an extra light line when fishing in the structure of a pier for instance, where the strongest line will part on contact with the rusty iron supports. On the other hand, light line would be unnecessary for mullet in rough water washing through a rocky gully where the fish are more interested in grabbing what they can as quickly as possible. I fish as light as I can in reasonable conditions, for part of the fun when mulleting is playing a strong fish on gossamer tackle - excitement I assure you is often very intense indeed.

From time to time big mullet will be located; then it would be most stupid to sacrifice the chance of landing such a fish by using light gear. The sport then is persuading the fish to bite and getting it out of the water as quickly as possible. An increase in line breaking strain is the order of the day; after all there is little point in hooking a mullet of say 6 lb, knowing full well you don't stand a chance in a million once it gets round some barnacle-encrusted snag. If you have a fixed-spool with a number of spare spools you will be able to change line in a jiffy. A range from 2 lb to 8 lb is none too many.

I find little use for traces of any kind. Every knot means an added weakness, so why take chances? Run the leger or float up the main line, then attach the hook direct. Eyed hooks with short shanks, in a range of sizes from 16 to 8 take care of most situations, but make sure they are of the very best quality. It is a sound idea to carry hook selections with silver, bronze and gold finishes - to match bait colour. That is a small point but worth some attention.

Most float fishing requires little more than a swan quill, cleaned, painted red at the tip and varnished over-all. Swan pins are cheap enough to buy, but should you find a dead swan in the estuary take advantage and remove the wings with a saw. You'll have enough quills from a pair of wings to last for many many years. Small floats can be made by cutting 2 or 3 inches from the clear end of a big quill, blocking it with a wood plug, and finishing in the normal way. A sliding float comes in handy for water of great depth when mullet are feeding along, or close to, the bottom. I use the type with a dowel stem and a streamlined cork body. The line is passed through the bottom ring and stopped at the required depth with a stop shot.

The normal fixed float is held in position with a thick rubber float cap at tip and bottom, then cocked so that just the tip is showing - just how much tip is allowed above the surface depends on both conditions and tactics. Fishing at a distance or in a choppy water will require 1 inch or more; close in tactics when the water is like glass can be covered by a tip of ¼ inch, or even less. Split shot for cocking purposes is bought by the ounce in different sizes - swan, AAA and BB. The hard shiny sort, which so easily cuts a fine line if it is pinched on too hard, is best avoided in favour of soft shot which can be opened and closed with the fingers very easily indeed.

There are many types of leger weights. Those most useful from the mullet angler's viewpoint are Arlesey bombs, coffin leads and drilled bullets, in size ¼, ½ and ¾ oz. Other small items worth having along on your trips are streamlined bubble floats for use with surface baits, and for driftlining. The streamlined type, half filled with water has little resistance to a taking fish and for this reason is preferred to the more common ball-shaped bubble. A landing net is essential - the larger the better. I prefer one of the modern light-weight jobs with a triangle frame and a telescopic handle.

… When it comes to the actual fish there is far too much to learn about mullet to ever become a true expert. The successful techniques and methods of one area are often next to useless in another, so one can only hope to catch quantities of fish by concentrating on a particular place, studying the habits of a single shoal, and very often devising fresh methods to suit the results of your findings. Herein lies the crux of the whole sport. Mullet are not uncatchable anywhere, despite what you might be told to the contrary, but they do have highly developed senses and a good deal of effort and guile will be needed if they are to be caught. The very fact that their feeding habits differ from place to place only increases the challenge - indeed a bag of fish after a series of blank days of frustration is reward of the very sweetest kind.

… Mullet which are subject to heavy quantities of offal are fairly easy to catch since they are conditioned to feeding on the food items thrown or expelled into the water. Providing a method is chosen which presents a similar bait in a natural manner they are not slow to suck it down. It is the mullet known as weed feeders which have a reputation for not being catchable. Such fish browse on the soft weed which grows along harbour walls, the hulls of old ships, groynes and piers. It is quite likely they don't eat the weed for its own value but to get the small creatures living in the weed. Whatever the answer, anglers' baits are not given a second glance, so they are thought to be beyond the bounds of capture. This is not strictly true; they can be caught, but it very much depends on the effort you're prepared to make.

The whole idea is to get these mullet feeding on what you want them to eat - preoccupied with hook bait rather than minute life in the weed. This means groundbaiting, perhaps the most important consideration in this sort of angling. Groundbait can be made from a number of basic ingredients. Minced crab, herring and bread, mixed to a pulp will do the trick; so will prawns, shrimps, mackerel guts and bread, well soaked in pilchard oil. A groundbait list would really be quite endless; enough to say that the mixture should be smelly and full of tempting titbits. In slow moving water the pulpy mess can be thrown in by the handful, but for long term baiting up over several days, which may be required to wean a shoal from the weed, it is a better idea to suspend the mixture in net bags, refilling at intervals as necessary. On the actual day of fishing the area is liberally fed with loose mix as the final attraction to get them really feeding.

Even mullet which move right up rivers into completely fresh-water can be caught. I have observed them feeding on soft weed, or leisurely moving upstream close to the bank, occasionally stopping to sip in a freshwater shrimp from the silt. In the early part of the year they are noticeably shy, but later, when they have lost this natural caution, it is possible to watch them at close quarters with-out them showing the slightest sign of alarm. I've had a number of good mullet while river fishing in late summer, mainly after baiting a swim for most of the day with handfuls of maggots. What fighters river mullet are! They are quite the equal of sea trout in my experience.

Mullet baits are numerous, many of local use only. I think it is true to say that, if the fish are subjected to a steady stream of food particles of some kind or other, they will eventually start eating them. It's a good plan to study the shoal you're after and then decide what bait is most likely to appeal. Pilchard and herring cubes have caught plenty of mullet, small harbour ragworm and immature lugworm also have an excellent reputation, particularly in the vicinity of sewage outfalls. Floating crust, bread flake, and paste kneaded in fish oil all work well in harbours and round piers. For really finicky feeders small particles of cooked crab teased on a size 14 or 16 hook may be the answer - if you have enough patience. River mouths can be fished with maggots, although freshwater species such as roach and dace, which thrive in brackish conditions, may often be a menace.

Use the simplest method possible for the conditions. Many times a loose-lined bait with no float or weight, either slow sinking or floating, will catch mullet when all other methods fail. The shoals are inquisitive, constantly on patrol inspecting everything they sense around them. A surface bait amid a quantity of food particles stands an excellent chance of getting taken. The strike is made, if you can see the fish, as soon as the bait enters the mullet's mouth. If the water is murky, watch the line where it enters the water and strike as it moves off.

Without doubt, float fishing is the most popular method. The tackle is rigged up in the normal way with the shot bunched so that a long 'tail' is left. Bites vary enormously, from slow sinks to the slightest dipping nibble. Experience is the only way to a greater understanding of the many different indications - at first don't expect to catch a fish every time the float makes a movement. Obviously when the float goes under strongly you will have little difficulty in making contact, but hitting slight knocks at just the moment when the fish has the bait in its mouth is not at all easy.

Bubble float fishing is an excellent way to catch shy mullet at long distance, or when they are feeding on waste carried out on the tide. A torpedo bubble is threaded on the line through the two small holes, leaving a 'tail' of about 3 feet. The bubble, three quarters full of water, is weighty enough for casting purposes, yet offers little drag to a biting fish. For surface-feeding mullet out of normal casting range I use a different technique, crude but useful. The method is to roll a crust up and fix it on the line with a couple of half hitches 1 foot above the hook which is then baited with a small piece of flake or paste. The cast is made, and very soon the whole thing is a soggy mass.

Interested mullet nudging around will find the hook bait floating a little way from the main lump. As a fish takes the bait and moves away, the line comes free from the crust and the strike is made. It sounds weird but it works.

Much the same thing is possible with lump salt in place of the bread. In this case the salt disperses in seconds, leaving you with just the baited hook among the mullet. Using this technique, a slow sinking bait of pea size can be fished at considerable distance.

Two and three hook nylon paternosters can be an advantage when the mullet are feeding in deep water under the rod tip. The rod is held the whole time and bites felt through the line. Plain legering with a small Arlesey bomb is a method for distance work along the bottom. Keep the line slack to allow for the initial mouthings on the bait. Many anglers adorn their tackle rigs with swivels to counteract the twisting action of a hooked mullet. Considering the amount of damage to the line resulting from the fight, I doubt if it's worth adding more unnatural weight and reducing the chances still further.

Because of the often shy nature of mullet, there is an ever present need to keep your movements as inconspicuous as possible. Dull clothing is a great help; one also needs to keep well back out of view and not stamp about making noise vibrations which will be trans-mitted to the fish. Although the mullet is a sea fish it should nevertheless be realized that it does not have the bold nature of most sea species ready to bite at anything, at any time. Lack of caution and finesse of approach is very often the sole reason why mullet are not being caught.

… Mullet spinning is not popular and it is only of local importance. Nevertheless it is effective and worth trying anywhere. The standard Mepps spoon is as good as any, although the traditional pattern is a silver, willow leaf bar spoon, about 1 inch long with a row of red beads along the bar. The method works even better if a small harbour rag is draped around the treble - in fact the ragworm addition is very often the difference between catching mullet and doing little more than making them chase the lure. Why they should take a spinner is hard to say They are non-predatory by nature, so it would seem that it is their curiosity more than any desire for food which motivates them to move after and snap at lures.

Angling for mullet is not everyone's idea of true sea fishing. For many it lacks the excitement of the deep water marks, the lonely atmosphere of the winter cod beaches, or the chatty friendliness of the club competitions. There are many blanks for every success, and yet, to be fishing when the shoals go mad, feeding with complete abandon, is to experience some of the finest and most exciting fishing imaginable.

The Daily Express, Saturday 9 March 1968 at page 3

Fishing

Browse and catch the craftiest fish of all

By Clive Gammon

I'm waiting for Crenimugil labrosus. For this is the time of year he slips into our local estuary like a grey ghost, nosing at the weedy piles of the bridge, making V-ripples on the surface as he glides upstream.

Yes, it's the grey mullet, the craftiest, dodgiest, most exasperating fish in the sea as far as salt water men are concerned.

Nevertheless, they can be caught, if you are willing to spend a lot of time weaning them away from their mini diet.

Last season, I watched a Cornish expert work on a vast shoal of mullet that swung idly in the tide just off Porthcurno beach. While I was with him, he didn't even put his tackle together.

He just sat and watched and every now and then he dipped an old dessert spoon into a can of vile smelling mixture he called "browse" and flicked it into the water.

He said the fish might not start feeding for three or four days, even a-week. But in the end they would - and then they could be caught in earnest.

His best catch had been more than 100 mullet of between three and five pounds.

These were wild open sea mullet. The fish that moves into harbours and docks, "urban" mullet as a friend of mine calls them, are easier to tempt since they have become used to feeding on fish scraps and galley waste.

Bait

For wild or for urban mullet use a freshwater rod of the Avon type, a fixed spool reel loaded with 6 lb. line, and some No. 6 or No. 8 hooks. Float fishing tactics are best. In the open sea use tiny red ragworm for bait.

For the urban mullet almost any soft whitish bait will take fish - bread paste or cubes of banana, ham, fat or processed cheese.

The exact recipe for browse was a close secret. But its basis was very old pilchard mashed Into a paste. Any oily fish, preferably past its best, pounded up with crushed barley or sausage rusk makes good ground bait for mullet.

The Daily Express, Saturday 3 August 1968 at page 10

Fishing

Fine for coarse types

By Clive Gammon

"This isn't angling," said the man on the harbour wall, "it's diplomacy."

He'd been watching me for some time and he wasn't far wrong. Two long hours I'd been laying siege to one of the biggest grey mullet I'd ever seen, easily a seven pounder.

Grey mullet are true holiday fish. In calm, sunny weather they'll nose into almost every estuary and harbour round the British coast and they make a fine challenge for the coarse fishermen looking for something to do at the seaside.

Freshwater men, in fact, usually do better at mullet fishing than dyed-in-the-wool saltwater types. That is because they understand the necessity for fine tackle when approaching a shy, cautious species.

Five or six pounds test line is about right and the hook should not be larger than a No. 6. If you are fishing directly beneath you, as I was this week, there is no need for a float, but you'll need the casting weight that a float gives if the mullet are feeding well out.

Mullet that are cruising around are not taking as a rule. The best plan is to put on a pair of polarising, sunglasses and walk around the harbour or along the pier until you find fish actually feeding, tails up and heads down.

If they are taking harbour waste or fish scraps, well and good. But if, as sometimes happens, they are feeding on minute diatomic life, you will have to wean them off it by heavy ground baiting with bread and bran, preferably soaked in fish oil. Then you can catch mullet on bread paste or on pretty well anything white and soft – even on cubes of banana or macaroni!

"Sea Fishing" (1969) Clive Gammon at pages 40 & 41

For successful mullet fishing, the first requirement is the liberal use of ground bait in an estuary pool where the fish stay to feed … Once a shoal of mullet has been located, an intensive baiting-up programme must be started. The object of this is to wean the fish from their regular diet to items of food that can be presented on a hook when the time comes.

The ground bait can consist of bread-and-bran mixture with pilchard oil and small ragworms added. In some areas, a mashed-up paste of shrimp is used. But the main thing to be remembered is that samples of the hook bait should be included.

It may be several days before this policy begins to work, but eventually it will do so, and then sport can be fast and furious. Even when mullet are taking well, however, it still pays to be cautious, and it is worth while to remember that early morning and late evening fishing give the best results, where these times coincide with the vital tide times.

Besides ground-baiting and choosing your time, there is still a very definite technique for catching these fish.

When you hook mullet the float will often sink boldly, but no contact is made on the strike! Only experience will teach you how to get the timing right, but it should be said that more fish are hooked if it is possible to fish under the rod-top and strike by lifting the rod-tip.

Mullet play very hard, and should not be "horsed", since their mouths are, in part, soft, and tear easily. A landing net is essential for these fish.

"Pelham Manual for Sea Anglers" (1969) Derek Fletcher at pages 52, 53 & 70

Grey Mullet

They are often called a shy species but a better tag is a wary fish. It often shows a capacity to learn and imitate the movements of other fish in its efforts to find food and, in this respect, is very inquisitive. Feeding does not follow any set pattern, although anglers have most success at hooking them on the ebb tide.

Frequently they are found well up rivers, and shoal by rocks, nosing around the weed. In some areas they congregate in vast numbers, leaping clear of the water and generally acting with abandon. This period is sometimes called "annual madness week".

Many baits can be used to lure them. Macaroni paste, bread, whiting flesh, red ragworm, tips of King ragworm, cooked cabbage stalk, boiled potatoes and cooked winkles.

Mullet are great fighters and light tackle is recommended to get the best pier sport. The line, 6 to 8 lb b.s., should run unknotted from reel to size 8 hook. A spiral lead is added for weight about three foot from the hook. Float tackle can be used from rocks where there is a good depth of water.

After hooking a mullet must be played firmly, although some restraint should be made in trying to stop its first downward rush. Keep it fighting well away from the pier to prevent it chaffing the line on the sharp mussels on the piles. Groundbaiting helps to start them feeding, and an aid to landing on light tackle is a long-handled net. Many mullet are lost at the point of landing by a sudden last dive and this can be avoided by quick use of a landing net.

Macaroni Paste

Can be used on float tackle in calm sea conditions and is successful for luring mullet. Scald a half-cupful of small pieces of macaroni with hot water, leave it to cool for 45 minutes, then drain off the water. Sprinkle it with a tablespoonful of flour mixing together until it becomes putty-like in consistency. Roll into tiny balls about the size of a pea and place on the hook point.

The Daily Mirror, Saturday 23 May 1970 at page 15

Fishing

Fresh approach to the sea

Hal Mount

It's a pretty safe bet that thousands of freshwater anglers, impatiently awaiting the arrival of the coarse fishing season on June 16, will be trying their tackle in the sea this holiday weekend.

Providing both rod and reel are given a thoroughly good wash in freshwater after the day's fishing, they will come to little harm, and there is no reason why the angler who does not possess specialised sea tackle should hesitate to use his carp or pike rod - particularly if they are fibreglass models – for doing a spot of bass fishing.

Use a prawn bait in the more sheltered areas; a spinner in the faster tide rips.

Grey mullet, if you can find them, will provide first rate sport on light gear. Look for these fish in the quieter corners of the harbour, and toss two or three large pieces of bread crust on the water's surface to keep them interested.

Bait up with a tiny piece of bread on a size 12 hook and flick it close to the floating crust.

Slow

Mullet fishing is, in fact, much akin to rudd fishing in fresh water, and if you can catch rudd you should have no difficulty in bagging the mullet.

Maybe you fancy a plaice or two? Stop a small drilled bullet a foot from the hook, use a lugworm or ragworm for bait and after each cast retrieve the line very slowly, dragging the bait over the sea bed.

"Sea Fishing for Beginners" (1970) Maurice Wiggin at pages 72, 73 & 77

Chapter IV

Pier and Jetty Fishing

… Mullet approach some piers in high summer, and it is almost irresistible, at any rate to some natures, to try for them. But the mullet is a desperately crafty fish, not exactly shy, I'd say, but supernaturally cautious and fastidious, and to catch them regularly is really among the most difficult exercises in the sport. Stealth and fine tackle are prime necessities for mullet - and since mullet grow big and burly, fine tackle can mean frustration, fish hooked and lost. (A mullet's mouth is very soft, and if you rough them up the hook hold gives way all too readily.) But stout tackle means that you never get a chance, anyway. So there you are. It's not much use trying to catch mullet when the pier is crowded; quietude is called-for. You may have a chance early and late - especially late, on those piers which allow night fishing. Likelier, though, I fancy, from a small harbour jetty than from a populous seaside-resort pier. You can fish for them with ordinary roach tackle, but a good compromise is that sort of middleweight coarse fishing rod known as the Avon style. In fact this is a perfect rod for the sport. With a centre-pin reel loaded with something like five-pound breaking-strain line, you can send your float subtly down the current, with a fragment of almost anything on the hook, fishing it merely two feet below the surface, and trying ever-greater depths until you get among them. A scrap of tiny ragworm is as good as anything, but mullet have been caught on all sorts of bait - even macaroni! They certainly eat bread - and cheese. But sticking to marine worms and bits of fish makes sense …

When the mullet are right on the surface it isn't a lot of use to offer them conventional fishy or 'natural' baits. I think I mentioned macaroni. Bread is also reasonably effective. "If they won't eat bread, give them cake", said Marie Antoinette. Or almost. I have approached this state by mixing custard powder in my bread paste, just as I do ashore. I don't know that it made it work any better. A bit of floating bread crust I once saw do considerable execution when fished from a jetty in the West Country. But since I was standing alongside the floating crust expert, and catching them lower down in the water on bits of ragworm, I'm not sure what that proved. But I do fancy that a touch of pilchard oil mixed with the bread paste really pays off. So far as anything can be said to pay off in this branch of fishing. Mullet are real worthwhile targets: they can tax the patience of a saint, yet on occasion they can give great rewards …

"Modern Sea Angling" (1970) Richard Arnold at pages 54, 55, 149, 164, 166 & 168

The Round Fishes

Mullet

Of all methods, surface fishing with hooks of size 8 or 9, using bread crust, after ground-baiting the area, is probably unbeatable in harbours. Light float tackle, with small hooks, using ragworms, macaroni, peeled shrimps, fish liver, portions of tripe, green silkweed, and bread paste, is a good method and of all the baits to use I have had most success with very small ragworms, not exceeding an inch in length. A light quill float, with 6 lb breaking strain line, a split shot about a foot above the hook and four small ragworms on a number 9 hook is, from my own experience, the best tackle to use.

Ground baiting is, however, absolutely necessary for mullet.

Grey mullet feed at all levels from surface to the bottom and though light tackle is advised in order to get them to bite, no mistakes are allowed when the fish is hooked, for anything from 5 to 15 lb of fish on light tackle can cause the angler many anxious moments because mullet make a strong determined rush when hooked.

When using light tackle do not attempt to stop this first rush otherwise he will break you. Control must be maintained, however, for a hooked mullet in his downward rush makes for whatever obstacle is handy, be it a pier pile or other underwater obstruction. When a mullet takes he approaches the bait very cautiously and may even suck in the baited hook. It is possible to see the fish doing this and when he takes the hook, allow him a split second to get it well into his mouth then strike gently but firmly. It is essential to draw the hooked fish away from any feeding shoal otherwise they will disperse and the sport is spoiled for some time.

When one is float fishing and cannot see the fishes, the float must be set so that it cocks at the slightest bite. The angler must strike as the slightest movement of the float. For mullet fishing a long-handled landing net is an absolute necessity.

Paternoster methods are sometimes used, combined with a sink and draw method, but usually only results in small, immature fish being brought to basket.

An unpredictable method is that of fly fishing. Sometimes this can be very successful, sometimes it can be absolutely negative. But after sunset is the best time for the fly fisher and the best lures to use are bright sea-trout flies, dressed with plenty of tinsel and white.

Finally, whatever method is used, the angler must maintain a strict bank discipline if he is to be successful as mullet are timid fishes. He must not only remain still and out of sight himself, but must keep his rod still. Ironically enough, though the angler himself may put mullet off the feed, they seem to take no notice of passenger traffic along piers and jetties around which they feed. When boat fishing, movement in the boat should be avoided, and, for preference, the boat anchored or allowed to drift. Noise in the boat, the use of oars, will drive the fish away.

Natural Baits

Fish Baits

Kipper The ordinary common-or-garden kippered herring, and its cousin the bloater, are excellent baits, and I have used them successfully for mullet.

Natural Baits

Other Baits

Vegetable Baits Mullet are partial to portions of the soft green weeds which cling to piers and jetties. This should be placed on the hook in such a manner that a small portion of it trails from the end of the hook and waves about naturally in the water. The best method is not to gather this weed but to cast a naked hook into the weed in situ: some of the weed will remain caught up on the hook and can be presented naturally to the mullet in that area.

Gentles These, the maggots of the blow-fly, are well-known to coarse fishermen and some game fishermen and do not need any description. For sea angling their use is rather restricted to grey mullet fishing in harbours, but even this is rather a chancy business. Though recommended by some angling writers, I, personally, would never recommend it to the tyro sea angler. Fished in conjunction with a cuddy fly, it might be successful, but, in reality, there is no need to affix a gentle to an already efficient lure. Perhaps the sea angler may note that gentles are limited in use, only to be tried against one species, the grey mullet, when nothing else is to hand or when all else has failed. In the unlikely event of success with these baits, it should be regarded as one of those unusual happenings which occur every so often in every sport.

Macaroni Macaroni, strange though it may seem, is a very good bait, well proved in grey mullet fishing. It should, of course, first be boiled. The hook should be smallish, say size 7 or size 8 in the Redditch scale, and the whole should be hidden in the piece of macaroni, about one inch in length, so that the full hook, including the point, is covered. A generous ground baiting with chopped up boiled macaroni is essential for success when this bait is used.

"Competition Sea Angling" (1970) Bruce McMillen at pages 66 & 67

5. Species

Mullet

… Many anglers labour under the quite mistaken impression that mullet are uncatchable. It must be admitted that, due to their comparative timidity and the soft nature of their mouths, they must be fished for with light tackle, soft baits and small hooks (I would suggest size 8 or thereabouts). Float tackle and baiting with small ragworm or peeled shrimps sometimes proves successful and drift lining is another successful method.

If you try to lift these soft-mouthed fish out of the water without a net you are courting disaster as the hook will, more often than not, tear out and the fish will be lost. Groundbaiting not only helps to attract these fish but it also serves to keep them in the area. The strike should be gentle but firm and a large mullet, hooked on light tackle, will give an extremely good account of itself.

Mullet are one of the few species of sea fish which leap completely clear of the water and, when doing so, they are often mistaken for bass, a fish which does not leap. It is interesting to note that, although a complete shoal of mullet can leap clear of an encircling seine or trammel net, the Greeks have an ingenious idea for preventing this catastrophe happening. They simply mount on short canes attached to the main net-corks an additional net which rises a foot or so above the surface of the water, thus preventing the trapped fish escaping.

But to return to competition fishing, it is possible to beat your opponent, particularly in pier events, simply by concentrating upon fishing for mullet which often haunt pier supports. They are often found in water only a foot or so deep.

… great sport can be had by fishing with very light tackle. A medium trout rod and 6 or 8 lb breaking strain line can give tremendous sport, remembering always that a reasonably soft bait must be used.

Light float tackle is also excellent but one must, as I've said before, remember the limitations which equipment of this strength imposes. The lighter the tackle the longer it will take to land the fish - and this lost time is a vital part of competition fishing.

However, on the other side of the coin, when dealing with species such as mullet, light tackle will frequently take more fish than the heavier and more orthodox equipment.

"Successful Sea Angling" (1971) David Carl Forbes at pages 103, 104 & 105

The best mullet tackle is the tackle of the freshwater angler, the long, supple rod, light floats, tiny hooks, and the finest nylon line you can get away with using …

You cannot expect to fish a new, unknown venue and take mullet immediately. Doubtless the fish will be there in the summer months, but their presence is not enough. You must know their habits, what they are feeding upon and, having discovered that, you must present the bait in as natural a manner as possible. Exactly what that bait is, is not necessarily of prime importance, but one cannot emphasise too strongly that it must be presented so as to appear to the fish as just another morsel of natural food. You will not be able to achieve this with a clumsy, heavily-shotted float rig.

Perhaps the easiest mullet - and even then 'easy' is merely a relative term - are those found in localities where food refuse finds its way into the sea, or alternatively, one may educate the fish to a bait, say bread, but this is a lengthy process. There may be many days, even weeks, to wait before the mullet will take the food you have been introducing at regular intervals, and bread in various forms can be the most convenient bait.

The majority of mullet taken by the author have fallen for a portion of floating crust, presented on a leadless line and cast from a fixed-spool reel. The reel should be loaded to capacity to facilitate smooth and easy casting, the line should be 5 lb b.s., and a size 6 freshwater hook is tied direct to this line. There is no other tackle.

A piece of crust, about one inch across, is put onto the hook and then dunked into the water to give additional casting weight. The angler notes the position of the shoal, and then creeps carefully into position, using whatever cover is available - essentially down off the skyline and preferably without trying to look at the fish after once noting their position. Well back from the waterline, the cast is made with a smooth action, the rod is held almost vertical, and a bight of slack line is pulled off the reel to stop further line blowing off the spool, rather than to engage the bail arm, for some bail arms spring back into place with a loud 'clang'. This metallic sound will send the mullet streaking away.

As soon as the line pulls tight, you engage the bail arm of the reel simultaneously with striking in a controlled lift, and start to play the fish immediately. Play is the operative word, for mullet are soft-mouthed creatures, and you will not get your fish by heaving and winching. Let the fish run under pressure, then turn it with side strain, let it run again, then turn it again. How often you will have to do this will depend upon the weight of the mullet and the breaking strain of your line, but, whatever happens, do not give the fish a chance to make slack line.

Side strain, a playing technique which beats a fish in almost half the time taken by conventional, overhead pressure. With side strain you utilise the fish's own power and speed to your benefit as it is turned in the direction of your choice. An essential technique where rocks, weeds, or other snags abound.

Two things are essential for mullet - fine tackle and caution. Seal this combination with ingenuity, and you may catch mullet consistently.

"Modern Sea Angling" (1971) Alan Young at page 119

Mullet cruise around: groundbait helps to keep them within the angler's reach. In summer cloud groundbait may hold near-surface shoals in one spot: in winter a fish's skeleton, with bits of fish still adhering to it, will serve the same purpose if anchored to the bottom with a bit of scrap iron.

The Daily Mirror, Friday 21 April 1972 at page 25

Mirror Angling Club

Grey ghost plays hard to get

By Hal Mount

This is going to be a bumper year for grey mullet. The mild winter has treated these fish kindly and a new British record specimen could well hit the headlines.

In spite of the fact that mullet are one of the commonest of our south water species these gallant scrappers receive relatively little attention from anglers.

The main reason for this being, I think, those often-repeated stories of mullet being "impossible to catch". Granted, the mullet is a very wily adversary. If ever there was a fish to test your patience and your angling ability this is it.

Wits

But if you study the ways of the mullet there is no doubt you will take a fair share of specimens in a season.

Who, anyway, wants a fish that is easy to catch? Half the fun of fishing is in the uncertainty.

The mullet, aptly titled the "Grey Ghost", is far too canny to fall for ham-handed methods and badly chosen tackle.

If you really want to catch more than one of them and pit your wits against one of the great characters of the sea you must, after locating them, familiarise yourself with their habits.

Bait

They are predictable in that they will return on each tide to their normal foraging areas.

Note these spots and you will then know where to fish at a given stage of the tide.

Swirls in the water are a general indication that mullet are feeding.

You may not always see the fish, but any "rise" - similar to that made by trout – is a sign to watch for.

Keep the mullet in the area by the judicious use of a cloud groundbait - a mash, say, of breadcrumbs and pilchard oil.

Forget the normal sea fishing gear. This is far too coarse and clumsy for specialist mullet fishing. Use an Avon-type rod, a carp rod or a light pike rod, coupled with a fixed spool reel and seven to ten lb. Line.

When you've had more experience with the mullet the line strengths can be lowered a little - but play safe in the early days. Slide a quill float onto the line and pinch the proportionate shot on just below it. Then put a number 8 hook on a short length of 6 lb. monofil and bait up with a piece of ragworm.

What happens next is up to the mullet - and your angling abilities. If you haven't caught a mullet before, be prepared for same very hairy action when you make contact.

You need all the available advice if you hope to include mullet in your catches. So a well-written booklet by a Sussex angler, G. Green, should come in handy. Called "Success With Rother Mullet," it is available from the author at 53 Downlands Close, Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, price 18p, post paid. And if you have any doubts as to the elusiveness of mullet, just listen to this excerpt:

"The best way I can describe the fight is to couple the speed of a sea trout with the tenacity of a tench. I've seen good fresh water anglers fishing for mullet for the first time, look in sheer amazement when, after playing a fish for fifteen to twenty minutes, and assuming it to be at least 5 or 6 lb., eventually-net a fair mullet of 2 lb.!"

A very gentle art!

Whether a fish will live or not when it is returned to the water (and this is the accepted practice in freshwater fishing) depends entirely upon the way in which it is handled.

Rough handling will undoubtedly damage the scales and leave the fish open to attack by waterborne disease.

But the greatest danger lies in injury to the gills, the most sensitive area of all.

Gill damage is inevitably fatal, and it is the clear duty of every angler to ensure he keeps his fingers away from this vital area whenever a fish is being landed, returned or held, while a photograph is being taken.

I'm becoming increasingly concerned by the number of pictures in the angling press ot fish being held by their proud captors in a manner guaranteed to result in fatal injury.

Anglers, keep your fingers away from those gills.

The Daily Mirror, Thursday 10 May 1973 at page 33

Mirror Angling Club

Beware the grey ghosts of the deep

By Hal Mount

Fighting grey mullet have been known to lure dedicated coarse fishermen away from ponds and streams and bring a strange look to their eyes.

Once you are hooked on mullet fishing there is little anyone can do - short of pinching your tackle - to stop you spending all your spare time in pursuit of these fish.

The nickname "grey ghost" is an apt description of one of the finest sport-giving fish in the sea. And there are few harbours that do not shelter these crafty, powerful fighters.

Fishing for them on light sea tackle is one of the supreme experiences in angling.

Chub

Think of the mullet as a salt water chub and use similar tackle. Plump for a hollow glass carp or Avon rod and couple this with a fixed spool reel and 10 lb. monofil line.

Use a stout float - quill or slim-bodied cork and a size 8 hook. Weight the line directly beneath the float to let your bait sink slowly. A slow-sinking bait attracts the mullet.

Another point in the mullet's favour is that he's not too choosy about baits. A small piece of bread or even maggots will often get results.

Where you see the fish swirling at the surface throw in a little ground bait. A mixture of mashed bread with a few bits of floating crust will do. Fish at a depth of two or three feet and flick into the ground baited area.

If these surface-feeding mullet play hard-to-get be as crafty as they are. Take the float and weights off, make two loops in the line about a foot above the hook (A in the diagram). Lay the right loop on the left (B) and put a piece of thick bread crust through the centre at X, pulling the two ends to tighten the loops. This will act as your float and also keep the mullet interested, as bits break off and sink.

Where mullet are not showing, try fishing on the bottom (you may need a sliding float for this).

Rind

Use the same bait or peeled shrimp, macaroni, bacon rind, shelled winkle or anything else you may care to experiment with.

And don't forget your landing net. You'll lose plenty of hefty mullet if you ignore this vital item.

One final point - if the fish seem extra wary scale down line strength by tying a 3 ft. hook length of 5 lb. monofil at the line's end.

The Daily Express, Friday 5 October 1973 at page 13

Fishing

Clive Gammon

…

A few weeks ago I wrote about those subtle and tough-to-catch grey mullet that come into our harbours and estuaries each summer and autumn.

And Fireman Brian Culmore, of Deal Kent, took a fine grey mullet that makes him Daily Express saltwater winner for September. He too wins a line rod and reel. Fireman Culmore went to one of the stone jetties to the west of Ramsgate Harbour with bass or cod in mind.

The action was slow to begin with then he spotted a big grey shadow of a fish picking up fragments of bread crust from the surface.

Gleaming

"He was too wily a customer" Brian wrote me, "for my normal gear." So he took off his lead and other heavy tackle, tied a small hook straight on to the line and found a small piece of crust to bait with.

And while Brian watched a number of smaller mullet which had entered the harbour the big fish sneaked in and took it.

It was a wild 10 minutes before the fish was landed – 6 lb. ½ oz. of gleaming mullet.

The Daily Mirror, Saturday 20 July 1974 at page 18

Mirror Angling Club

By Hal Mount

Deadly bit of bait

Here's a good way to get mullet on the feed when fishing from a pier or jetty. Tie a long length of cord to the tail of a dead mackerel. Then, after squashing the fish, lower it down to the surface. Next, tie a small hook on your line (no sinker) and bait up with a piece of mackerel flesh. Lower the baited hook into the immediate area of the mackerel.

"Estuary Fishing" (1974) Frank Holiday at pages 82 to 91

Chapter Five

Estuary Mullet

Kinds of mullet

One thing can be said at once about mullet - and that is that they are a very much under-rated species. As a fighting fish capable of long runs and sustained effort I would say they are almost as good as bass. In terms of the finesse required to catch them I'd rate them superior to bass. Yet only a relatively small number of anglers set out to catch mullet each season and those who have developed the know-how to make consistent catches possible are incredibly few in number. Why this is so I cannot imagine except to suggest that mullet have not yet become a 'fashionable' angling fish in terms of the publicity accorded certain other species. One would think that the mullet's reputation for being uncatchable would have enticed more fishermen to try their hand than is the case.

Mullet are not in fact uncatchable although they can admittedly be extremely difficult when approached in the wrong locations. Even Clive Gammon concedes that there are only two venues he knows where mullet can be caught in quantity. One of these will be discussed later in the light of the writer's experience. However, this tends to over-state the position and mullet are caught in many places and often in quantity although real angling skill, local knowledge and much trial-and-error will be needed before the stranger learns the secret of mullet hot-spots.

Feeding mullet

The mullet is largely a surface-feeder in the shallowest of estuary water. Obviously, feeding in such locations, it has learned to be a very cautious fish. It is a creature that drifts silently on the tide like, as someone put it, a 'grey ghost'. Instead of swallowing a bait it prefers to suck and taste - and anyone who has had dealing with shy-feeding roach of similar habit knows how infuriatingly difficult such fish are to hook. This sucking trait is so marked that such adjectives as 'impossible' and 'uncatchable' have been used by various anglers over the years whose abilities have hitherto been tested only on dogfish and other gross feeders …

Tackle

… In considering the tackle required for bait-fishing it would be a good point here to consider also the tackle for fly-fishing. In this connection it may surprise many anglers that mullet can, in fact, be caught on fly but this is correct … When I occasionally fish fly for mullet and school bass - which also take fly avidly - I use a light, two-piece, 9-foot tubular glass fly-rod kept for this purpose. An inexpensive floating fly-line, a trout-size fly-reel and some 6 lb monofil to cut into casts represents the rest of the gear. It is the sort of outfit you might assemble for trout fly-fishing almost anywhere. However, make sure you have plenty of terylene backing under the fly line because one day you may need every yard of it.

What do mullet take the fly to represent? There is no ready answer; nor do we really know why flounders pursue a big spoon. All that can be said is that they do. However, a clue may lie in the fact that Jersey mullet fishermen sometimes use ground-bait made up from immature shrimps which have been boiled and salted mixed with bread-crumbs. The hook-bait used with this mixture is a boiled, peeled shrimp. It is an interesting fact that whitish, shrimp-like flies about half an inch long are the most effective ones you can use when mullet fishing. One can only conclude that baby shrimps form a major part of the mullet's diet and it is these that the fly-fisher is simulating, albeit unwittingly …

Location and fishing methods

… Ground-baiting - strictly speaking, it is surface-baiting - certainly attracts and holds a shoal of mullet and, in this respect, they can almost be treated as if they were a shoal of rudd. In an enclosed lagoon such baiting is easy enough but in an open estuary, thanks to tidal currents, it may not be a very good plan. There is very little point in baiting if the tide is likely to change and lead the fish away from the angler. Bread, bran, boiled offal and so on can be used for ground-bait. Prawns and shrimps, if they can be spared, make an excellent ground-bait if boiled and pulverised. In this case a dozen or two of the smallest should be retained, peeled, and used as the hook-bait. Fish-paste mixed with fresh bread is also said to be good on the hook …

… Mullet fishing calls for keen eyesight and instant responses. A fish will become interested in your bait and spend 10 minutes sucking and nibbling at it. If the water is clear you may catch a glimpse of your quarry as it plays around, pausing to suck at some other item on the surface, then returning to taste the bait on your hook. No other form of sea fishing that I have heard about calls for such concentration by the angler nor for such lightning reactions. Because, when you have lost all hope of an actual bite, your float, instead of merely dancing and bobbing in small circles, will instantaneously have shot out of sight. Possibly the mullet has sucked a bit too hard and pricked himself with the hook so that it has penetrated the skin of the lip. Or maybe he has drawn in some water and this has carried the hook with it into his mouth. In either case you have only a fraction of a second in which to tighten. Anglers who think they have a fast response to quick-biting roach are encouraged to try their hands with mullet. Many will find their reactions slower than they thought.

… The cream of sport with mullet, however, is to be had using the fly. And don't forget that if you have no trout fly-tackle available you can fish the fly using a spinning rod, fixed-spool reel and bubble-float. It isn't as much fun as using fly-tackle but it is very efficient and catches fish as well, if not better, than a conventional fly outfit. If you haven't tried the method, the idea is to half-fill the bubble-float with water and slide it up the line until it is about 4 feet above the flies. The flies can then be cast and retrieved over the surface with ease. Good flies to use are Teal-and-silver dressed on small hooks. Or one can try to dress a fly to simulate a baby shrimp. After being cast near feeding mullet the flies are recovered slowly with imperceptible jerks after the manner of a swimming crustacean.

This technique has been particularly effective from beaches around Swanage in recent seasons where it has accounted for mixed bags of bass and mullet. Wareham, Dorset, anglers who specialise in the method report spectacular battles with big fish not all of which are won. Even so, catches of up to two dozen fish on a single tide are not uncommon.

Fishing fly for mullet very much lends itself to use of a dinghy and oars. There are few more pleasant ways of spending a summer evening than to pull quietly round a harbour on the evening tide while dropping a fly beside flotsam being patrolled by mullet. Needless to say, it isn't all action. Mullet are very perceptive fish and they are very easily startled. They have no use for the waning sun glistening on a thick leader and the angler will find that the sport drops off if he uses monofil much thicker than about 6 lb. Mullet, indeed, seem to be the one exception to the rule mentioned earlier that the thickness of the line has little effect on sea fish captures. With mullet I'm sure it has a marked effect …

"Sea Angling Hotspots" (1974) Hugh Stoker at pages 26 & 27

A lot of sea anglers are deterred from fishing for mullet because they have a reputation for being almost uncatchable on rod and line. In actual fact, this reputation is only fully justifiable when applied to the wild creek mullet found in muddy estuarial backwaters.

Harbour mullet are much less wary, and even the mullet of our rocky open coasts can be caught with a fair degree of consistency if one sets about it the right way.

Nevertheless, the newcomer to mullet fishing would be well advised to concentrate his attention first of all upon harbour mullet. Various methods are used to catch them, ranging from ultra-light spinning with a baited fly-spoon to light paternostering. The most common method, however, is light float fishing.

A small, cork-bodied Avon-type float is the ideal choice for most conditions, and the hook should be about size 8 or 10. I usually tie the hook direct to the end of a 7-pound reel line without using a swivel or separate trace.

If the water is very clear, or the local mullet happen to be rather sophisticated, it may be necessary to fish finer and use a 5-pound line. However, this is the exception rather than the rule when dealing with harbour mullet.

The rod, of course, must be flexible enough to match the light line; and it must also be long enough to pick up line quickly when striking. Most sea anglers use a 9 or 10 foot two-handed spinning rod quite successfully, but freshwater anglers who possess an Avon-type rod will find this even more suitable.

A wide variety of baits are used to tempt mullet, ranging from tiny harbour ragworms to bread mixed with anchovy paste. When fishing for mullet in a harbour used by commercial fishing boats, it is fairly safe to assume that your quarry has already grown accustomed to feeding on fish scraps. Therefore, a small piece of pilchard or mackerel flesh makes the best hook bait.

When you arrive at the harbour you may, with a bit of luck, find the mullet already feeding on some fish scraps. It is fascinating to watch a dozen or more big mullet sucking and nuzzling at a discarded plaice frame. They attack it so vigorously that the plaice skeleton, like a fishy ghost, rises off the harbour bottom and is carried upwards by the mullet, almost to the surface.

When the mullet are going strong like this it is only necessary to drift your baited hook into the centre of activity, and the chances are it will be grabbed almost immediately.

Normally, however, you will have to coax the mullet into a feeding mood by groundbaiting your swim. In most … harbours the favourite groundbait is mashed-up pilchard flesh and guts, but mackerel used in the same way are almost as good. For best results flick out small quantities of the groundbait at frequent intervals, taking care to keep well back on the quay so that you remain out of sight.

Above all, avoid casting your shadow on the water, or making sudden movements. This is one reason why I prefer to do my mullet fishing early in the morning, before curious holiday-makers begin to appear on the scene and start peering over the edge of the harbour wall, pointing and gesticulating at the fish.

There is a lot of satisfaction to be had in watching a shoal of mullet come nosing towards the groundbait, and in eventually getting them going really well. The sport then becomes fast and furious and, with care, it is possible for four or five anglers to fish the same concentration of fish.

Mullet look such lazy creatures as they cruise slowly among the harbour moorings that one is tempted to underestimate their strength and fighting qualities. However, the moment a mullet is hooked it undergoes a "Jekyll and Hyde" character change. It swirls and dives; then rips the line off the reel with such determination that, to begin with, there is little you can do to stop it.

Anyway, provided the fish is not obviously making towards a boat mooring or some other obstruction, it is usually best to let it run until it is well clear of the other feeding fish, so as to avoid frightening them. Then, slowly and quietly, you should move along the harbour wall and, if possible, play the fish in towards some steps.

Use a landing net to lift the fish from the water; never try to gaff a mullet. If fishing from an outer breakwater where there are no steps, you will have to use a drop-net.

"The Long Book of Sea Fishing" (1975) Dick Murray at pages 72, 73 & 74

Mullet love the quiet waters of harbours, boat marinas and estuaries. They haunt the wood and metal piles of piers, jetties and groynes. Most are caught with float tackle fished near harbour or any underwater weed-carrying obstruction.

They live on insect, weed and tiny marine life. Worms, fish gut and soft foods like cheese and banana will also take them. Pilchard oil is a good attractor to add to the groundbait.

Mashed bread thrown into the fishing area will help encourage the mullet to feed. Soak the bread well in a bowl of water and add a good measure of pilchard oil.

Squeeze the oily bread into lumps the size of a golf ball. The bread must be thoroughly soaked so no dry lumps remain.

When fishing from jetties where the fish are directly underneath bread may be crumbled in the hands to flake off to the mullet below.

Many west country anglers use neat fish oil and offal to attract their quarry. They literally spoon feed the fish.

One of the most killing baits is red rag. Use three or four of the tiny worms, hooked at one end only, on a fine wire size eight or 10 hook. The same size hook can also be used for pieces of bread paste.

Mullet feed at various depths. Sometimes on the surface, mid-water and even scavenge about on the bottom. Try various float settings until bites result. If bites suddenly stop, alter the float depth.

The Daily Express, Friday 23 April 1976 at page 13

Beware the lips that can make a sucker of you

By Alan Bennett

Roll on those lazy summer days of shirtsleeve fishing. They can't be too far away, now, for already the first mullet are ghosting into harbour.

Many an experienced sea angler has yet to catch his first mullet. He's as crafty as the proverbial cartload of monkeys and once hooked doesn't mean he is landed.

As soon as the water warms up after winter he sneaks in from the deeps to cruise the weedy estuaries, piers and harbour walls.

Trapped

A feeding mullet is perpetual motion, foraging the rich mud for minute animals and plants with his sensitive gill raker. Hard objects are immediately rejected.

He comes in on the first of the tide and will often stay in the upper reaches until driven out by lack of water. Sometimes he leaves it too late and is trapped.

The thin-lipped mullet reaches a length of about 2 ft. - a handsome brown fellow with up to 10 brownish-green lines along the flank.

His relative, the thick-lipped mullet, is the most common of the species and frequents most waters around the British Isles – a 3 ft. torpedo clothed in olive green and glistening silver.

Many are the excuses put forward by unsuccessful mullet anglers. Too crafty; lips too soft to hold a hook; useless to eat.

Cunning

They're crafty alright. If you put a net across a harbour they will jump over the top of it. And cunning – big hooks and ungainly bait are no use.

The soft-lipped theory arises because the mullet sucks his food before swallowing it, and often a hook engages the fine membrane behind the lips and tears out easily.

They are shy. A sudden movement may send them darting away. But they can be caught.

Try a light spinning rod about 10 ft. long, a fixed spool or small centre pin reel with 8 lb. Breaking strain line and No 8 or 10 hook. A small bubble or stick-type float and a small spiral lead weight completes the outfit.

Ideal baits – red harbour ragworms, prawns, herring roe, mussels and breadcrumbs soaked in pilchard or sardine oil.

Often the first indication of a bite is a little tremble on the float. Hit him fast and firm before he can feel the hook, and stand by for an exciting time.

And don't forget to have a landing net handy. Many a mullet is lost by trying to haul him out of the water.

"Fisherman's Handbook" The Marshall Cavendish Volume 1, Part 23 (1977) Des Brennan at pages 636 to 639

How to Fish

Mullet Fishing

Mullet are probably the most frequently seen and easily observed marine species around our shores. They are strong sporting fish which lend themselves to light-tackle fishing, yet are little fished for except by enthusiastic specialists. Due to the mullet's natural caution and unique feeding habits, myths and legends about their virtual uncatchability abound. Difficult they may be at times, but uncatchable they are certainly not.

Three species of mullet

Three species are found in British waters. The thick-lipped grey mullet is the commonest and is found all round the coast. It is also the largest, attaining weights in excess of 10 lb, but the average size is about 2-4 lb and a 5 lb mullet is considered a specimen. The thin-lipped grey mullet is smaller on average and has a more localized distribution, being found mostly off the south coast of England, in Cornwall and the Channel Islands. The golden grey mullet is the smallest and scarcest of the three species. Mullet are inshore fish, frequenting sheltered beaches, bays and coves, harbours and estuaries. They have considerable tolerance of freshwater and will travel a long way up estuaries, creeks and lagoons, even penetrating for a while into freshwater.

Mullet will be seen from time to time scouring the bottom, sucking and blowing mud and sand as they extract diatoms and other tiny creatures from the waste matter. As their food is available to them virtually everywhere and at almost all times their feeding patterns are unpredictable. Such food is impossible for the angler to imitate, but in places the mullet become used to feeding on other than their natural food and become vulnerable to the angler.

In harbours where trawlers gut their catch or dump waste fish and fish offal, or where fish factories and processing plants pipe their waste into the sea, mullet acquire a taste for fish. In holiday resorts or places where waste food is regularly dumped or near sewer outlets, mullet will again become accustomed to feeding on a mixture of scraps and can be caught on a large variety of such baits as cheese, ham-fat and bacon rind. Generally, however, the most frequently used and most successful baits are pieces of fish, bread flake, dough and small harbour ragworms. These mullet are fished for as soon as they are observed feeding on the waste, and all that is required is to introduce your hookbait without frightening the fish. At other times it may be necessary to groundbait with fish or bread to interest them in food and bring them on to feed.


Shore	Harbour	Estuary

Groundbait for mullet can be tethered in perforated tins or anchored. The three illustrations show rigs for shore, harbour and estuary mullet fishing. The terminal tackle and lead for the shore fishing style is exaggerated for clarity.

Groundbaiting

Mullet feeding on their natural food require a very different approach. They must be weaned onto feeding on something which the angler can use as bait. This requires careful planning and patience. Choose places where mullet come to feed on the tide and spend time before moving on. The groundbait such as fish frames, bread, or a mash made of fish waste mixed with fish oil, should be spread on the bottom at low water. Mullet like to move around a lot when feeding and will not remain in one spot, so they must be given a choice. Groundbait in three or four different places but ensure that all are within casting range of where you will be fishing. Fish frames or skeletons should be tethered to the bottom, so that they will not be swept away by the current. No effort should be made to actually fish for the mullet for three or four days until the fish have become accustomed to and have accepted and started feeding on the groundbait.

Ordinary coarse fishing tackle is ideal for mullet fishing. Indeed, in many ways they are a coarse fisherman's fish, as his techniques, tackle and methods are best suited to catching them. A long flexible rod, a freshwater fixed-spoof reel, 5 lb b.s. line, hook sizes 8-14, floats, lead shot and a few Arlesey bombs are all that is required. When the water is not too deep, or mullet are feeding near the surface, float fishing with a fixed float set at the desired depth can be most effective. Sufficient shotting should be used to give the float the least possible positive buoyancy compatible with visibility. Mullet are cautious and the less drag they feel from the float the better.

Floating crust

At times, mullet take floating crust and the bait must then be presented to them on the surface. A controller float is used to give casting weight but a fixed float with all the shot bunched immediately under the float will also work. The float should always be drawn away from the floating crust in case it might obstruct or frighten the mullet when it tries to take the bait. On occasions mullet taking surface bread may try to sink it and break it up before actually taking it. In these circumstances, a two-dropper terminal tackle is very useful, as one bait can be fished on the surface and another in the water. When wishing to float fish but at a depth which makes casting either awkward or impossible, a sliding float should be used. A stop in the form of a piece of elastic band which will run through the rod rings without catching may be used to regulate the depth of the bait.

Paternostering

When fishing from rocks, piers or harbour walls for mullet which are feeding close-in either on the bottom or along the wall or rock face, a one or two-hook paternoster can be used. If the fish are feeding well off the bottom and the depth is ascertained, an elastic band fixed to the line can be used as a gauge. For this kind of fishing the rod should always be held and a finger kept on the line so that the slightest indication of a bite may be felt. Mullet take very gently and may either let go again or strip your bait without signalling a bite unless the rod is hand held.

"Sea Angling with the Specimen Hunters" (1977) Hugh Stoker [3] at pages 115 to 117

17: Mullet from Tidal Rivers (Gerry Green)

… I prefer to fish the quieter tidal rivers. To do this it is necessary first of all to find the type of mullet that lend themselves to preoccupational groundbaiting. Coupled with the correct tactics, this will bring certain success once confidence has been gained.

… It will be obvious to anglers, especially those with previous freshwater experience, that for groundbaiting to have maximum results, one requires a slowish flow of water - the mullet being easily seen and confined to a given area as long as possible.

Baits

Bread, once the mullet know what it is and have acquired a taste for it, is superior to any other kind of bait. When used as hook-bait it can take the following forms:

Flake - crumb from a new loaf pinched over the hook.

Paste - stale bread kneaded just stiff enough to stay on the hook. Place the bread in a piece of clean cloth, soak and squeeze out the water. Then knead to a medium consistency.

Crust - small cubes cut from a loaf about three days old. A cube measuring about three-eighths of an inch across is about right for mullet. Push the point of the hook through the brown crust first and out, then turn the hook-point back into the white portion and so secure.

Groundbaiting - bait the swim initially with stale bread kneaded fairly stiff into flattened balls. These will break up over a long period and feed your swim. From time to time thereafter use cloud bait - dried stale bread crushed fine, with just enough water added to make it hold together.

Small Red Ragworm - these provide an alternative bait to bread, and can be dug in the mud of most tidal rivers at low tide.

[3] "Big-fish tactics of the experts edited by Hugh Stoker … expert accounts of techniques and tackle by the men who catch the specimen fish."

The Daily Express, Friday 14 July 1978 at page 35

Luck Ray fights to 'net' record

Angling by Alan Bennett

I once drove, the best part of 20 miles to a favourite fishing spot before I realised I had packed everything but the rods.

There have been many times when I have left the landing net behind, yet lapses like these are not unusual, it would seem.

South Walian Ray Gifford realised he had forgotten his net when he started fishing at Leys Lagoon, near Aberthaw - and it almost cost him a place in the record lists.

Ray, 39, of St Athan Village, near Barry, South Glamorgan, hooked a marvellous 10 lb. 3 oz. mullet on 5 lb. line, and there wasn't another angler in sight.

So he just had to hang on and hope for the best. Half a dozen times he brought the fish within netting distance, only to see it power away into deeper water.

But fate was certainly on his side. After 45 nerve-tingling minutes Ray beached the monster thick-lipped mullet, smashing the British shore-caught record by 10½ oz.

Said Ray: "I think I would have burst into tears if that one had managed to slip the hook."

The magnificent mullet took bread on a size 10 hook. Bread is a consistently good bait for the species, but it's always worth experimenting.

One mullet fanatic I know uses macaroni paste, cubes of banana, red garden worms, maggots, cooked winkles, cabbage stalks and boiled potatoes.

Sometimes he groundbaits with crushed hard-backed crabs, minced herring and pilchard oil. It sounds dreadful - but he gets a lot of good fish.

However, he has yet to contact a fish the size of Ray's which wins the saltwater section of our June Angling Feat of the Month contest.

"A Manual of Sea Fishing Baits" (1978) Hugh Stoker at pages 96 to 98

Other Baits

Baits for Grey Mullet

Bread, in one form or another, is a favourite bait with expert mullet fishermen. It has the important advantage of being always readily available, and even 'wild' mullet soon acquire a taste for it with the assistance of some bread-based groundbait. Another advantage is that bread has little or no appeal for most other kinds of saltwater fish, so the mullet specialist who uses this bait can rest assured that he will not be pestered by tiny pouting, wrasse and similar unwanted small fry.

Paste

This is possibly the easiest type of bread bait for the beginner to use. It is prepared by cutting a thick slice from a stale white loaf and trimming off the outer layer of crust. The remaining slice of 'crumb' is then wrapped in a square of clean white linen cloth and soaked in water for a few seconds.

On lifting the cloth and bread from the water, squeeze out all surplus water and knead the cloth thoroughly between your fingers until the bread inside has been reduced to a stiff paste. Shape the paste into a ball and keep it wrapped in the damp cloth until required for use.

To bait up with paste, take a pinch between your fingers and thumb and mould it around the hook, leaving the hook-point slightly exposed.

Flake

This bait requires no preparation. Simply pinch off a small piece of the white, spongy crumb from the inside of a NEW loaf, and wrap it round the shank and bend of the hook, leaving the point protruding. The secret is to apply the piece of flake so that it folds itself around the hook shank; after which it is pressed into place between forefinger and thumb.

Crust

For this bait you need a loaf about three days old. Slice off a layer of crust from the underside of the loaf about ⅜ inch thick, so that there is a thin layer of crumb attached to the crust. If there is time before you go fishing, dampen this slice of crust slightly and leave it for several hours between two boards with a weight on top. In fact, leave it overnight, if possible.

Next, take a sharp knife and divide the slice of compressed crust into narrow strips, then divide each strip again crossways to form numerous ⅜ inch cubes.

To bait up, insert the hook point into the brown crust side so that it emerges through the thin layer of crumb.

One final word of advice - keep the strips and tiny cubes of crust in a bait box with the lid closed. If left exposed to sun or wind for any length of time they will dry out and become useless.

Additives

Pilchard oil and anchovy paste are sometimes added to the above-mentioned bread baits in the belief that they give them extra 'mullet appeal'. This may well be true, but the additives should only be used in very small quantities.

Cheese is a hook bait that has lured many a big mullet into the landing net. If you use the ordinary cheddar or 'mousetrap' variety, it must be fresh and moist, because cheese that has become dried-out and brittle will be useless for your purpose. Even fresh cheese will have to be kneaded thoroughly between the fingers before it can be moulded around the hook.

Processed cheese - the sort sold in small foil-wrapped triangles - is also attractive to mullet, and it is more convenient to use because its creamy consistency makes baiting up a lot easier.

Mullet sometimes become very adept at sucking cheese baits off the hook without falling foul of the barbed point. When this problem arises it is often possible to outwit the mullet by mixing in some strands of cotton wool with the cheese.

Obviously, cheese bears no resemblance to the mullet's natural diet, so it is something of an acquired taste. However, I know of one excellent fishing spot at Dungarvan, on the south coast of Ireland, where the local estuary mullet have become accustomed to feeding on curds and whey flowing from the outfall pipe of the local creamery. John Casey, a well-known Dungarvan angler, began capturing these mullet many years ago on cheese baits; then he adopted the cheese and cotton wool method that I have just described. Finally he discovered that the mullet cruising around the outfall pipe had become so conditioned to swallowing anything small and white that he was able to catch them on a hook baited only with cotton wool!

Banana pith, cut into small cubes and presented on a size 10 hook, can be an excellent mullet bait in some areas. It seems to be particularly effective in certain west country estuaries.

Macaroni, lightly cooked and cut into tiny pieces suitable for a size 8 or 10 hook, has proved very useful in harbours, and near estuary moorings, where the local mullet shoals have grown accustomed to feeding on galley scraps thrown overboard from yachts.

Beach hoppers are plentiful on most shingle or sandy beaches. There are several species, varying in size from about ⅓ to ¾ inch, and each favours its own type of habitat. However, those most commonly used as bait for mullet are generally to be found under rotting seaweed along the high tide line. They are often present in their hundreds, and can be trapped quite easily under a child's small-meshed shrimping net. Be sure to keep them in a deep-sided container, otherwise they will hop out again as soon as you take off the lid to bait up.

Incidentally, it is advisable to gather considerably more beach hoppers than you are likely to need for hook bait, and to use the surplus mixed in with the groundbait.

"How to Improve Your Sea Fishing" (1978) Melvyn Bagnall at pages 30 to 35

Mullet

The popularity of this species can be gauged from the fact that a National Mullet Club was formed early in 1975. The formation of the club was fitting, but long overdue, recognition of what is rated by some anglers to be the hardest fighting fish in the sea. Members of the club aim to dispel the popularly held theory that mullet are hard to catch, arguing that, since they are under very little pressure from commercial fishing and that they seem to possess a greater resistance to pollution and disease than other species, they must be a fish of the future …

Thick-Lipped Mullet

Distribution

Although this fish is found fairly extensively around our coasts, the best rod and line returns occur along the south coast … Mullet are basically a summer fish, their season running from April and May when they first appear close inshore, through the warm months until August or September.

There is no doubt that a certain percentage of mullet are hard to catch. These are the wild mullet, fish which stick strictly to their natural diet and are difficult to tempt with bait. They feed by scooping in mouthfuls of mud, swallowing the organic matter, and spitting out the waste material such as sand or ejecting it via their gills. This organic matter consists mainly of plant remains and microscopic algae. Wild mullet also graze on the algae which forms on underwater rocks and breakwaters or even on the hulls of boats. Unlike most other fish, the mullet rarely feeds on other fish or small animals.

It is the mullet which gather to feed on the offal around the outfalls of food-producing factories, or move close inshore to take scraps thrown into harbours from boats or by holiday-makers, which really provide the sport for anglers. Mullet usually swim in shoals and in the summer they can often be seen swimming around the pylons of piers and jetties, working along harbour walls or swimming around moored boats in search of scraps of food. They can also be found foraging among the effluent discharged into the sea from sewage outfalls. In his book The Sea Angler's Fishes, Michael Kennedy conveniently names these fish the 'urban' mullet and refers to the wilder variety as 'rural' mullet.

Tackle and methods

… An 11-foot hollow fibre-glass rod is ideal. This will help steer a hooked fish away from jutting rocks or jetty supports. It would spell disaster if the fish should get around them. A rod of this length is also better for striking than a short one … mullet fishing usually means float fishing and a long rod is best for picking up line from the water on the strike - especially at a distance. Team this type of rod with a fixed-spool reel of the freshwater type. This makes casting easier and, provided it has a good slipping clutch, it will allow good control of a fighting fish. Use a 6lb line for bold biting mullet, but scale down to 4lb when the fish are more reluctant to take a bait. It is dangerous to go lower than this because of the mullet's exceptional fighting qualities.

Float fishing is the most productive method of catching mullet. A tiny porcupine quill of the type used for catching roach from freshwater is perfect. The float should not need more than one shot to cock it in the water. It can be fixed to the line so that the bait is suspended at a certain depth in the water or a sliding float can be used (see figure 5). A sliding float comes in useful when a fixed float is set to a depth which makes casting difficult. A float fixed at eight feet, for example, may lead to the hook catching on the rocks or harbour wall behind when you attempt to cast. But a sliding float is stopped by a piece of elastic band on the line which can be reeled through the rod rings, thus overcoming the problem. The outfit is completed by a size 10 freshwater hook. It may pay to scale down to a size 12 if the fish are timid, while a size 8 is a safer bet when bites are bold.

A piece of bread flake the size of a two-pence piece is by far the best bait. Squeeze it on the shank and bend of the hook, concealing the point but leaving it free to penetrate on the strike. The bread should be squeezed firmly enough to keep it on the hook during the cast. But if you pinch fresh bread too tightly it will become rubbery once in the water and can easily be pulled out of the fish's mouth without the hook finding a hold.

Groundbait is not essential when mullet fishing, but few serious mullet men would consider fishing without it. The most convenient and effective groundbait is again made from bread. Just soak a loaf of bread in water, then drain the excess water from the bucket before mashing the loaf into a pulp. Handfuls of the groundbait should be thrown into the spot where the angler intends to fish. It will spread into a creamy cloud on contact with the water, but, while it will attract the mullet, it will not satisfy their appetites. Dropped into the cloud of groundbait, the hookbait will appear as a bigger offering among the mashed morsels and fish seem particularly attracted to it. It is also evident when fishing in this fashion that there is some rivalry among the fish to get the bigger offering first. Pilchard oil is a groundbait additive used by some mullet experts, but it is not essential, especially in areas where mullet are known to feed.

Mullet can even be 'educated' to feeding on bread by a special groundbaiting technique. The idea is to groundbait the same spot each day so the mullet become used to feeding on bread. This is best done by leaving the bait on the rocks for the rising tide to wash off or to hang a carrot sack of mashed bread over a pier or harbour wall so that the action of the tide steadily sifts the cloud into the water.

Rocky coasts can often provide their own groundbait. Look for the gullies which dry out at low tide. The seaweed in these gullies will rot in the sun between spring tides. Flies will lay their eggs in the weed, maggots will emerge and the mullet will feed on them when they come in on the spring tide. It pays to collect some of the maggots on these occasions and use them on the hook in threes and fours.

Mullet can be caught from the beach, particularly on the sandy patches between rocks. In this case a very light paternoster will pay dividends and it might be worthwhile experimenting with the small tail of a ragworm on one of the hooks. A small swimfeeder is a useful addition to bottom fishing gear. The one inch long plastic feeder should be light enough to roll in the tide. The sensitive mullet will soon detect a heavy swimfeeder or one that is anchored. Another method is to use only a hook plus a small shot - to add casting weight - two feet up the line. The fly casting method is adopted to put the bait in the required spot. The rod is flicked backwards and forwards until the line has gained enough momentum in the air to flick out the bait. If bread paste is used on the hook it will provide extra weight for casting. This is a very sensitive method, allowing the bait to move naturally in the tide.

Whatever method is used, the rod should be held at all times. The strike must be quick - there is no time for using rod rests or leaning the rod against pier railings. A landing net is essential, for you cannot lift fish out of the water on such small hooks and light line. This light tackle also makes it impossible to bully the fish to the net. Mullet are truly remarkable fighters. Their sleek bodies are built for speed and conceal an amazing amount of strength. Approach them in the right way and they will provide sporting qualities second to none.

Thin-Lipped grey Mullet

… The two species are not easily definable by the untrained eye, though an expert has little difficulty in telling them apart. It is always worth checking the identity of the fish carefully, otherwise you may have a record on your hands without realising it. The most obvious difference between the two is, as their names suggest, in the lips - the upper lip being much more pronounced in the one than the other. There is also a noticeable difference in the dorsal fins. These - there are two - are smaller and wider apart in the thick-lipped mullet.

A crucial factor from the angler's viewpoint is that the thin-lipped variety is not so widely distributed. Almost all those recorded have come from the south and south-west coasts. The feeding habits of the two fish are similar. They also frequent the same haunts and are caught by similar angling techniques. Both thick- and thin-lipped mullet are often found in rivers well away from the sea. The Sussex Rother is probably the best venue in the country for freshwater mullet fishing.

Golden Grey Mullet

This fish is distinguished by a conspicuous golden spot on the gill covers, much different from more poorly defined golden blotches found on the gill covers and flanks of the other two species of mullet. Its qualities as a sporting fish are dubious to say the least. For it is both a rare fish and a small one. The occasional golden grey mullet caught by anglers in British waters usually come from the Devon and Cornwall coastlines …

"Sea Angling Supreme" (1979) Mike Millman at pages 135 & 136

Mullet can be contacted anywhere. Find a cove, ground-bait with bread mixed with water to which a little pilchard oil has been added, and within minutes grey ghosts will be in the area. Like all mullet, they have the uncanny ability to pick out the bait concealing the hook, but naturally every so often one makes a mistake and pays the penalty. Light tackle is essential and you can't beat an 8-foot spinning or float rod, matched with a small fixed thick-spool reel, loaded with 6 lb monofilament. Hook size can be from 8 to 14, offered on a float rig, lead-shot being used to give it the least possible buoyancy. This is vital as at the least sign of drag the mullet instantly rejects the bait. For fishing deep or close to the bottom, the sliding float can be used, but in my experience this is generally unnecessary, as the fish usually feed on the ground-bait within five feet of the surface. Bottom fishing does occasionally pay off at open sea rock marks, particularly during late summer and autumn. Whatever the method, the rod must be held at all times, with the line caught between thumb and forefinger so the lightest of bites may be felt. All must be struck like lightning, or you will remain fishless. Mullet are extremely mobile and seldom stay in the same place for more than a few hours, so it is good policy to ground-bait a spot 20 yards away, as well as the area you intend to fish first.

Blend as much as possible with the surroundings, and avoid unnecessary movement. Even a shadow thrown across the water is enough to put a shoal to flight, and a few birds sweeping low can have the same effect.

Three species of mullet are common to British waters, thick lipped, thin lipped and golden grey. Of the three, the latter is the rarest …

"The Bait Book" (1979) Ted Lamb at pages 171, 172, 173, 174 & 180

Other Baits and Oils

Bread

The grey mullet, although fussy, is however partial to bread, fished either as paste or flake. Some anglers stiffen paste with some cotton wool to make it stay on the hook well. For flake, a pinch taken from a fresh loaf is moulded around the shank of the hook leaving an attractive ragged bunch around the point of the hook. Paste is made by soaking a staler loaf in water, then squeezing out as much of the water as possible before kneading to a soft consistency. A good paste can also be made by mixing flour and water to form a soft dough - this is good material for adding to cotton wool.

Bacon and meats

Mullet are again responsible for the use of these 'alien' baits, although they will also take other species, especially that ubiquitous nuisance, the pouting. Both raw and cooked bacon have been successful, and so have most kinds of meat. I've heard that dogfish are very partial to a lump of raw steak, but I've never had the courage (or the purse) to try it !

Groundbaits

Then a friend of mine who was living in Plymouth told me of his experiences with mullet, which he fished for in a tidal arm of the Tamar. The tide in this arm rose gently, with no surf and no current to speak of, and was therefore quite like a large lake. Big shoals of mullet were active throughout this arm, but even after several fishing sessions my friend had had little success. Then he hit on groundbaiting. He was fishing with bread and so he groundbaited with soaked bread stiffened with some bread crumbs to make balls for throwing. He tried this in the same spot for two nights and again did not have much luck. On the third night, however, a large shoal of fish did come along and he finished with a record catch. In this sort of sheltered water, the, it seems that is scope for groundbaiting - in the same style as fresh-water groundbaiting …

… The fresh-water style of groundbaiting is also simple when used for sheltered water, although it need not be restricted to mullet fishing alone. Flounders and other flatfish seem a reasonable target for this approach, and small fish pieces, chopped worms or prawns and mashed up crabs would all make good additives for a crumb base.

Sea Species

Grey mullet About the most finicky of feeders, it is well known for its ability to try the angler's patience to the extreme. Large shoals are often seen feeding avidly, while whatever the angler puts before them is ignored. However, they do get caught sometimes with light tackle. It is also essential to use small baits, presented on hooks from size 12-6. Bread flake has been used to catch mullet, also bread or flour and water paste worked into cotton wool to make it stay on the hook. Other baits are small rag or lugworm fragments, tiny pieces of fish or squid, pieces of mussel or other shellfish, and even bacon rind. Bits of peeled shrimp and prawn are also good.

The Daily Express, Friday 19 June 1981 at page 39

Fatal greed that traps this gourmet

Angling by Alan Bennett

Enterprising Ayrshire angler Jim Bunting surprised a lot of people when he baited up with macaroni and ham rind.

But surprise turned to astonishment when he lifted the heaviest catch prize – 16 lb. 2 oz. of mullet in the shore contest at Irvine last spring.

It didn't surprise me, however. I've been advocating exotic bait for mullet for many a season now.

Shy he may be, but the mullet is regularly caught off guard by a dainty offering.

Like a gourmet searching for perfection he can't resist a new taste – as another Scot discovered a few days ago.

Gary, 16, was fishing the freshwater River Irvine, not that far away from the scene of Jim's triumph when he spotted what he thought was the rise of a small brown trout.

Said Gary:

"The water was running normal with a little colour. I only had a seven foot spinning rod with me so I mounted onto it my fly reel with a 3¾ lb. Cast, and a No. 16 Badger dry fly. It began to rain heavily. I cast about 12 yards out over the fish and was straining to see the fly among the heavy raindrops. Suddenly there was a tiny sip and the fly was gone. I struck right away and the line went away at an incredible speed. The fish took off making several runs of about 25 yards.

Knowing the hook size I had to play it very carefully. The fish was very powerful and I only just managed to keep it out of the bankside weed. However, I got some side strain on it and persuaded it to put into open water again."

Twenty five minutes after it "sipped" the fly, the fish was netted by water bailiff David Bide.

A big brown trout? No indeed - a super 4 lb. thick-lipped grey mullet, well-hooked in the side of the mouth.

The Daily Express, Wednesday 22 February 1984 at page 38

Angling by Alan Bennett

Put some beef into your tackle

There is nothing quite like British roast beef after a couple of pints in the pub on Sunday lunchtime. Exiles yearn for it. Frenchmen drool over it. And in the Channel Islands, even the fish are developing a taste for it.

Fishing from Alderney's breezy breakwater, tenacious Tim Morley baited up with a succulent sliver of beef and captured a splendid 5 lb. 12 oz. grey mullet.

He took another just two ounces lighter, four more over 4 lb. and several others all around 3 lb. on a size 10 hook.

The next day, not to be outdone, his pal Roddy Hayes, caught another magnificent mullet of 5 lb. 10 oz. - also on beef - on a size six hook.

Reputation

Mullet have a reputation for being particularly shy and extremely hard to hook, certainly in cold weather, but they really came out of hiding when Tim and Roddy "beefed" up the menu.

It really does pay to experiment with unusual baits. Do not listen to those old codgers - every harbour has them - who say you will never hook a mullet if you live to be 100.

Mullet are not easy fish to catch, but with a little initiative they can be beaten. They have very sensitive mouths, and use their fine gill rakers to sort out the food. Hard objects are rapidly rejected, small pebbles spat out.

They are shy. A sudden movement on the harbour wall will send them fleeing like chalk stream trout. And they are crafty - I have seen them jump a net stretched across a harbour mouth.

But they are certainly far from being uncatchable. If you draw the line at putting your Sunday lunch on the hook, then they will go for a variety of properly presented baits - small red harbour ragworm, lugworm, herring roe, mussels, prawns, even breadcrumbs soaked in pilchard oil.

Handsome

Once the weather starts to warm up we will see plenty of mullet caught. These handsome grey ghosts of the sea cruise into harbours and estuaries on the first of the tide. They are inquisitive creatures and are often the last to leave. Sometimes they are too late and become stranded in small, muddy pools. Served cold like fresh salmon they are delicious.

"The Sea Angler's Sporting Fish" (1985) Mike Millman at pages 47 & 48

Mullet

Without doubt the grey mullet is the most difficult of all sea fish to catch. To be successful one has to devote a lot of time, patience, and a great deal of thought to the species. The best mullet fishermen are completely dedicated to outwitting the fish and seldom spend much time pursuing other species. The mullet grows to a large size - fish of fifteen pounds having been caught in commercial nets but few over ten have been taken on rod and line. The British Record of 10 lb 1 oz standing since 1952 has been unapproached for years. The main reason for this, I believe, is that being a difficult fish relatively few anglers bother with them, preferring to spend their time fishing for more predictable species. Consequently if more people became interested the catches of big fish would be far greater. The mullet are widely distributed and found throughout the warmer waters of the world. Common around much of the British Isles, they are silver grey in colour with dark even stripes running along the body, from just behind the head, which is short and broad, to the forked tail-fin.

By and large the smaller fish, up to about five pounds, tend to swim in shoals which at times can be very large indeed but the big ones prefer to hunt alone or in the company of two or three of their own size. Mullet have a great liking for harbours, creeks and tidal rivers, and are a most obliging species from the point of view of accessibility for they can often be seen nosing around the weed growing on the supports of piers, floating pontoons, or moored up ships, to name but a few locations.

Essentially, the mullet is a fish for the shore angler, although they are sometimes fished for from small boats; this method does not meet with any great level of success, although I can recall an angler taking two scaling over five pounds within a few minutes of each other whilst fishing in deep water. At times good sized fish can be caught from rock marks which face the open sea. To get the best from this type of fishing the water must be fairly calm, for they have a definite dislike of rough conditions. Patient ground baiting is absolutely essential and it sometimes can take as much as two hours to attract the fish into a swim and induce them to feed.

Some mullet men ground bait for a period of time, over several days, lulling the fish into a complete sense of security before finally attempting to catch them. Ground bait can take many forms - bread crumbs being the most popular. These can be used alone or have pilchard oil added to them. Worms chopped up into very small pieces are successful, attracting good numbers of fish as do maggots used to attract coarse fish.

Hook baits must of course be made up from whatever is being used as ground bait, for the wily mullet will quickly spot anything different. Mullet fishing calls for very light tackle; a single handed spinning rod and small fixed spool reel loaded with four pound monofilament, is ideal. The trace, about three feet in length with a single size 16 or 18 freshwater hook, should be even lighter. Float fishing with either a quill, or a float made up from thin balsa small enough to be cocked with split shot, is much the best method. Every bite must be struck very quickly for the mullet can eject anything it considers suspicious in a flash. The strike must be firm but light, otherwise the hook will be torn out. Mullet are tough fighters and will battle all the way to the net. For mullet fishing the more inconspicuous an angler can make himself the better the end result will be.

Quick movement on the banks or rocks must be avoided at all costs, as this will quickly put the fish to flight. This really applies to summer fishing. When colder weather sets in the fish begins to lose a lot of its caution to eventually become as bold as any that swim in the sea. On very cold frosty nights they will strike at almost any bait that is offered without a moments hesitation.

A hooked fish must be played carefully, with line given as it is demanded, otherwise it will be surely lost.

"Sea Fishing: Expert Advice for Beginners" (1991) Trevor Housby at pages 34 & 35

Mullet Fishing

Many sea anglers regard mullet as a practically uncatchable species. This is because mullet do not conform to basic sea fish standards. They can, in fact, be caught by using the tackle and techniques of freshwater fishing rather than those of sea fishing.

The three species of grey mullet in British waters feed mostly on soft weed and its indwelling creatures. Exceptionally tackle-shy they seldom fall to a bait presented on a big hook and heavy line. Freshwater rods, 5lb BS line and size 8 or 10 freshwater-scale hooks have to be used. There are also several mullet rigs to use.

A freshwater float or a light nylon paternoster are the standard rigs for mullet fishing. These can be baited with fish flesh, fresh pork or beef, or bread. Regular mullet anglers use a groundbait called 'shirvy' to attract fish. Shirvy is made up of minced fish or meat, fish or animal blood, and bran, and must be spooned sparingly into the water. Never overdo it, as too much free food will make the mullet vanish.

In harbours or estuaries where mullet feed in shallow water a slice of dry bread anchored by a stone can also act as groundbait to attract and hold the shoaling fish. This, accompanied by a piece of bread on float tackle, can be deadly.

In some estuaries the thin-lipped mullet will take a baited spinner. The spinner should be small and incorporate some orange beads in its make-up; the bait is usually a 1in section of ragworm. Once on the feed, mullet will hit this bait solidly, often hooking themselves in the process. Mullet fishing can be fun but it calls for finesse.

"Estuary Fishing Afloat & Ashore" (1995) Dave Lewis at pages 63, 64 & 65

Fish Species

Mullet

For many years mullet were considered more or less uncatchable on rod and line, and many of the older sea angling books proudly proclaimed this fact [2]. Furthermore, they usually went on to state that this was due to the fact that mullet have very soft mouths and fed mainly on minute particles and seaweed. Today we know this to be far from the truth, and mullet are widely regarded as one of our finest light tackle sports fish, with many anglers specializing solely in fishing for them.

Mullet can be, and often are, caught in the open sea, but the most prolific venues are usually in and around tidal estuaries. There are three species of mullet in UK waters, the thick-lipped and thin-lipped grey mullet and the golden grey mullet. Each species displays varying degrees of tolerance to brackish water. Golden mullet are generally caught in the open sea, but occasionally venture into the lower reaches of an estuary. The thick-lipped mullet are common in brackish water, and can often be caught well upstream towards fresh water. The thin-lipped mullet are common in both brackish and fresh water well inland from the saline influence of the sea. Hence they are often caught by freshwater anglers.

Mullet start to appear in the south of the UK mainland as soon as the water starts to warm up in the spring, and remain throughout the summer and early autumn. On hot sunny days they are often seen cruising around, sipping at plankton and other particles on the surface in harbours and river channels; sometimes they are mistaken for bass. At times like this mullet can be at their hardest to catch, and it was just this sort of behaviour that resulted in the 'uncatchable' stigma.

The two best pieces of advice I would give the would-be mullet angler are, firstly, to be fully aware that the mullet are an extremely cautious fish by nature, and always exercise extreme stealth when fishing for them. Stomping about along the water line in a bright yellow jacket is certainly not conducive to successful mullet fishing. Secondly, to fish as light as possible. Not only are mullet deterred by heavy tackle, but their excellent sporting potential can only be fully appreciated if caught on tackle allowing them to give a full account of themselves. Pound for pound, mullet are one of our hardest-fighting fish.

Groundbaiting (known locally as shirvy in the Channel Islands) is a very important part of the mullet angler's technique. The use of groundbait serves three important functions. Firstly, it attracts the fish, secondly, it holds the fish in the required area and, thirdly, it educates the fish into taking with confidence the food item that will eventually be used to tempt them on the hook. The fact that unusual baits such as bacon rind and chicken skin are used around commercial harbours, where the fish become used to scavenging, proves the point. Let's look at each of these factors.

Mullet have an exceptionally keen sense of smell and can be drawn great distances towards the angler. There is nearly always a flow of water in one direction or another within an estuary, and the current should be fully utilized to send a strong scent signal downstream. Mullet regulars often pre-bait a particular mark for several days before they actually fish, and before very long the timing of the arrival of the mullet can be set by your watch.

Like most sea fish mullet are opportunists, and will switch over to whichever food item is most abundant for the bulk of their feeding. By introducing a supply of hook bait into your groundbait, mullet can soon be duped into confidently feeding on that particular item, greatly improving the angler's chances when it comes to fishing for them.

The groundbait can be made up of more or less anything, but in general a base of bran or bread, with a few mashed fish, some fish oil, perhaps a few handfuls of chopped worms or maggots, some particles such as sweetcorn or small cubes of cheese. The list is never ending; just be sure to include some samples of your hookbait with the groundbait. The best all-round hookbaits are bread, small strips of fish or red meat, cheese and maggots.

The need to fish as lightly as possible cannot be over-emphasized when referring to the mullet. Most specialists use freshwater float fishing tackle, with lines as light as 4 lb BS or even less. Hook sizes should be scaled down accordingly, but sizes 8 and 10 are a good guide. When you see a few feeding fish, avoid the urge to cast straight at tem. If the fish are spooked you can forget all chances of catching mullet during that session. Try and trot your bait steadily down towards the fish, or better still draw the fish towards your baited hook using a combination of groundbait and loose feed.

Spinning is another very popular technique for catching mullet, especially for thin-lipped. The best type of spinners are small bar spoons, notably the Mepps types, which need modification before use. Firstly, the standard treble hook is removed and replaced with either a single or a pair of single hooks, usually fine wired Aberdeens. These are mounted in tandem using a short length of about 20 lb BS nylon, so that they trail behind the revolving spoon.

The hooks are baited with several small live ragworm, usually harbour rag, then cast out and gently retrieved. This is light tackle sport at its finest, a highly visible form of fishing where it is often possible to see the take - one of the most exciting ways of catching the mullet.

[2] Editor's Note: I am not aware of any sea angling book which proclaims that mullet are "more or less uncatchable on rod and line". A later reference to this angling myth can be found at page 16 of "Salt-Water Fishing: A Step-by-Step Handbook" published in 2006 (see also below):

"… contrary to belief (Mullet) can be hooked and caught by the angler. Mullet have long been surrounded by a myth that they are uncatchable, and if hooked by the angler they are easily lost, because of their soft lips. However, although they are a shy, clever fish and often seem to ignore angler's baits, they can be caught, and the lips of the mullet are actually quite tough."

In fact, the fighting prowess of a rod-hooked mullet has long been acknowledged in the literature. For example, in "The Art of Angling", published in 1740, the author (Richard Brookes) writes:

"They are bold feeders, and are to be caught with most flies that allure the trout. Within two foot of the bottom they will take a lob-worm or a marsh-worm; but your tackle must be strong, for they struggle hard for their lives."

A view shared by Melvyn Bagnall who writes at page 30 of "How to Improve Your Sea Fishing" published in 1978:

"The popularity of this species can be gauged from the fact that a National Mullet Club was formed early in 1975. The formation of the club was fitting, but long overdue, recognition of what is rated by some anglers to be the hardest fighting fish in the sea. Members of the club aim to dispel the popularly held theory that mullet are hard to catch, arguing that, since they are under very little pressure from commercial fishing and that they seem to possess a greater resistance to pollution and disease than other species, they must be a fish of the future."

Finally, in the footnote on page 133 of "Sea Fish" (1894) Frederick George Aflalo makes this comment on the challenges of grey mullet angling:

"I have been more than once accused of exaggerating the difficulties of catching this fish. Chance, however, apart, it is essentially the fish for residents with many opportunities. Thus, there are anglers living at Littlehampton who catch between two and three hundred in each season."

The Daily Express, Friday 28 August 1998 at page 69

John Wilson Angler's Retreat

How to weed out the crafty mullet

If you like fly fishing and have a yearning for casting into the surf, you may just fancy a crack at one of our most mysterious sea species, the grey mullet.

Recently I accompanied angling journalist Mike Ladle along one of his favourite Dorset beaches to catch mullet on the fly rod for one of my Go Fishing TV programmes.

We met up in late afternoon as the tide was on the make and made our way along the rocky shore to an area covered in rotting seaweed.

Most important this, because in the weed were millions of tiny, white maggots, offspring from a fly which lays eggs in decaying seaweed. They attract huge shoals of thick-lipped grey mullet and bass at high tide, when the waves wash them all out to sea.

Mike helped the process by putting his arm deep into the writhing, stinking mass and lobbing wodges of it towards the waves.

This heroic action (rather him than me) had great shoals of mullet suddenly appearing from the gentle surf not 30 feet away.

There must have been several hundred up on the top gorging greedily on maggot, soup. It was going to be easy, I thought.

Mike's artificial fly is a sliver of white polystyrene cut from a drinking cup tied securely along the shank of a size 14 eyed hook.

It works much better if a couple of real maggots are nicked on so I'd brought along half a pint of fresh whites. Our tackle was nine foot rods with WF7 floating lines and long leaders well greased to a 4 lb. tippet. Mullet fight incredibly hard, and to go lighter is foolhardy.

At first the fish deliberately ignored our offerings but as all mullet addicts know. the species is out on its own for obstinacy.

It was also a real struggle due to a thick carpet of weed in the surf which became caught round the floating line. Wading out and holding the rod high above the waves helped, but those crafty mullet were for the most part ignoring us.

I was getting anxious when I hooked into a mullet, not a monster, perhaps 2½ lb. Which scrapped like hell and stayed on until Mike scrambled it into the net.

Several more were hooked and lost before Mike switched to his plugging rod. With his second cast the rod tip went over as a chunky bass of 4 lb. grabbed hold to save the day and provide us with sufficient action for the programme. Phew, thanks Mike.

The Daily Express, Friday 27 July 2001 at page 75

All roads lead to mullet city

Angler's Retreat by John Wilson

If you find yourself at a loss this summer and unsure about which technique or species to target next, then try your hand at catching the elusive thin lipped grey mullet.

Being an estuary and tidal river fish, even the majority of coarse anglers, I'm sure, will already own a suitable tackle combo. For instance, a basic 13-foot float rod with a centre pin or fixed spool reel holding 4 lb test monofilament, is ideal for presenting a piece of fluffy white bread flake on a size 10 or 12 hook, in conjunction with regular helpings of mashed bread to keep the mullet working where you want them. It's then a simple matter of trotting the float along as though you are fishing for roach or chub.

Alternatively, you can enjoy a day's spinning as I did recently using an ultra-light outfit comprising of an eight to nine-foot rod and small fixed spool reel filled with just 4 lb test monofilament.

You'll need to doctor your spinners mind, replacing the weighted brass barrel of say a Mepps No3 with a line of small beads on the wire stem. This is to ensure the lure works near the surface where the thin lips are most likely to grab hold.

My guide for the day, Steven Batchelor from Lymington, had painstakingly doctored a dozen or so spinners to ensure we had a good supply for our day out in Christchurch Harbour, where the fertile waters of the Hampshire Avon and the Dorset Stour converge.

The harbour is like mullet city, with concentrations of thin lips. Every now and again a sizeable sea trout or salmon crashes out, but when the rod tip is yanked round, a lively thin lip is usually responsible.

"Salt-Water Fishing: A Step-by-Step Handbook" (2006) Martin Ford and Bruce Vaughan at page 16

Species

Thick-lipped Mullet Chelon labrosus

There are three species of grey mullet that the angler is likely to observe while out fishing: the golden grey, the thin-lipped and the most common, the thick-lipped. When they are small they are often confused with the bass, but there are a few differences that help to identify them correctly. Mullet have large scales all over the body, even over their gill covers, unlike the bass. It is possible to tell the age of a good-sized mullet from the scales by counting the number of rings present. The thick-lipped mullet is coloured in a shade of grey across the back and has a white belly. As the name suggests, it has a pair of thick lips, and contrary to belief can be hooked and caught by the angler. Mullet have long been surrounded by a myth that they are uncatchable, and if hooked by the angler they are easily lost, because of their soft lips. However, although they are a shy, clever fish and often seem to ignore angler's baits, they can be caught, and the lips of the mullet are actually quite tough.

Thick-lipped mullet move in shoals and feed close to the surface on small crustaceans and vegetable matter. They have poor teeth, so food is swallowed and broken down in the stomach. They can be located close to the shore and in summer are present in many harbours and estuaries. Visit any harbour in the warmer months and you will see the mullet cruising around just under the surface, searching out scraps of food and sucking items of waste from the underside of fishing boats. As they are able to tolerate brackish water, they are very often caught in the lower reaches and estuaries of many river systems.

Season April through to October

Distribution They are present throughout the shallower waters of the British coast, the Channel Islands and north-west Europe.

Natural Diet Mainly plant life, small crustaceans and algae.

Top Spot Dover's Admiralty Pier is just one of the man-made structures around which mullet love to live.

Top Tip Fill an onion sack with mashed bread and lowering it over the side of a pier or breakwater often attracts mullet to the surface. Fish with light tackle and use bread flake on the hook as bait.

"Operation Sea Angler: The Second Wave" (2013) Mike Ladle & Steve Pitts at pages 115 to 118

Mackerel, Scad, Shad, Mullet and Garfish

Mullet

Like thick-lips, the thin-lips battle it out and never give up. The thick-lips are much less easy to tempt with baited spinners than their freshwater-tolerant relatives. However, there are times when the method works well for them. This is particularly the case in flat calm, gin-clear conditions …

All three British mullets are something of an enigma. Pick up almost any sea fishing book or magazine and you will find the same (mis-)information: 'difficult', 'wary', 'grey ghosts', 'freshwater tackle', 'soft mouths' and so on. Inevitably, all this perceived wisdom puts many people off even trying to catch mullet … would you like to feel the excitement of a bending, bucking rod and hear the wild buzzing of the reel's clutch ? If the answer is yes, then mullet are the fish for you.

Harbour fishing for mullet

"Mullet and how to catch the thin-lipped variety" Tim Knight, Anglers Mail, 9th July 2015

Thin-lipped mullet are often referred to as the English bonefish - hook one and you'll soon see why.

Thin-lipped mullet, an estuary-loving fish, fight like crazy on light gear and are definitely proud contenders for the hardest fighting sea species. They are certainly on a par with carp and barbel, with the added attraction of tail-walking scraps and acrobatic leaps!

Mullet are abundant in summer, especially in estuaries and harbours, where they can be seen in their hundreds, mooching around, cropping tiny organisms and filamentous algae on the bed and harbour walls. They are also tolerant of freshwater, and will travel many miles upriver searching out tasty treats.

Thin-lipped mullet are notoriously tricky to catch and, unlike their slightly larger thick-lipped cousins, ignore any offerings presented to them, such as flake, maggots or static sea baits. They can often be very spooky, too, and shy away from any suspicious rigs that pass by their rubbery lips.

The winning tactic for some heart-racing mullet action is to use a spinner tipped with a smallish harbour ragworm. It sounds a bit of a strange method considering their usual grazing diet, but they'll happily follow these slowly retrieved baited spoons, sometimes in pods of half a dozen individuals. But take the little ragworm off and they'll show no interest at all - odd little fellows, really!

Take a quick stroll along any southern tidal river, harbour or muddy estuaries and you'll see thin-lipped mullet, often in vast shoals. These spirited scrappers shun crude sea rigs and standard baits, but a spinner tipped with a harbour ragworm is the key to success.
Saltwater fishing isn't always as peaceful as a day spent on a tranquil lake, so be prepared to share your session with all manner of other water lovers, from boats and swimmers to jet skis. The prime thin-lipped mullet time is on a rising tide, when vast shoals can appear suddenly, swimming shoulder to shoulder as they harvest algae and tiny marine life. Thick-lipped mullet tend to feed in the surface layers and can be tempted with bread baits. They don't usually venture as far upriver, but thin-lips migrate these tidal stretches in their droves, and can't resist a baited spinner whirring past their noses.
Thin-lipped mullet may look lethargic as they mooch around estuaries and harbour walls, but these marine beauties kick up several gears when you hook one, making run after blistering run. Thin-lips hate landing nets, too, and have a habit of leaping clear out of them just when you think they're beaten. Take care when you unhook them as they have spiny dorsal fins, pelvic fins and gill plates, and these can inflict painful puncture wounds. Scales are shed easily, too, so use a wet cloth and a small unhooking mat to prevent excess scale loss.
Medium-sized spinners make the best thin-lip lures. I've experimented with real cheap versions but they tend to be useless, refusing to rotate, especially on very slow retrieves. Spend those extra pennies and go for high-end models such as Mepps. Trying to present a harbour ragworm on a treble hook doesn't work, so they need to be removed using pliers or wire cutters. I've yet to find a single winning colour of lure, so take a selection. Silver scores well in clear water and on sunny days, while orange or black are effective on overcast days or in coloured water.
I've experimented with different lines between spinner and hook, but most kink or twist. Pike wire is definitely the way to go, being mega-strong, anti-twist or kink and because it won't wrap around the spinner body so often. Wire crimps enable a neat, tangle-free finish, and hooks need to be strong enough to deal with rocket propelled mullet, in sizes 4 or 6. A wide gape Teflon carp hook is perfectly adequate.
Use around 2.5 inches of wire, but experiment with differing lengths to see which works best on the day. Retrieves that are met with plenty of nips but no positive takes often call for a rig with more wire, sometimes up to 4.5 inches. Prepare a good selection to cover all options. The speed of the retrieve can also be varied to see what attracts the most interest. Sometimes they want it quick, just under the surface, while at other times it can pay to count the rig down a few feet and reel in very slowly.
A 3-4 inch harbour ragworm is the ultimate bait for trailing behind a whirring spinner blade. Thread half of it up the wire trace, leaving an inch or two free to wiggle enticingly on the retrieve. You'd think imitation rubber worms would work, but they are nowhere near so effective as the real McCoy - it must be those irresistible scent trails. The most annoying aspect of mulleting is running out of bait, so make sure you take plenty. A dozen or so casts soon renders baits limp, squashy and lifeless, so regular changes ensure efficiency. It's not unusual to get through 50 or 60 worms in a session, which will set you back around £6. Ragworm and hot sunny days don't mix - they'll snuff it in no time and begin to break down into a useless mush. Keep them out of direct sunlight and cool in an insulated cool bag, along with a couple of freezer blocks.
Hook your first thin-lipped mullet and you'll be thirsty for more - man do they scrap. Pound for pound they fight harder than any species, both fresh and saltwater, in the British Isles. The English bonefish moniker is certainly justified. You can't beat a through-actioned Avon rod. A medium-sized reel loaded with 10-15 lb braid completes the combo. Braid is far superior to mono for mulleting, as it allows you to feel every nip and pluck as groups of fish follow the lure, mouthing the worm. Be prepared for last minute takes right under the rod tip as the following mullet see the tasty mouthful disappearing. A slightly slackened clutch helps prevent lost fish at such close quarters.
Get the formula right and you can expect bumper hauls of thin-lipped mullet. It can be arm-aching stuff, but definitely worth it. Treat your catches with care. These handsome marine fish can thrash around on the bank, and a few shed scales are inevitable. Calm them down by covering their head with a damp towel and nurse them carefully in the water before releasing them. Don't bother taking mullet home for the table - they have a muddy taste and it's far more rewarding seeing them swim away to join their shoal mates.

The tackle comprises a spinning rod with a few small weights to get style and distance, a small Mepps spinner (treble hook removed) with a 6 inch length of line tied to the end and a small single barbed hook attached. The single hook is then baited with a ragworm. The mullet is attracted by the spinner and follows it discovering the trailing ragworm (presumably something they eat from the mud from time to time) and snatch at it - fish on. A good tip is to attach another single hook with a short piece of line to the eye of the first single hook, so that it sits at the same point as the end of the trailing ragworm (Pennell rig). This rig dramatically improved the success rate and on each occasion a mullet snatched at the ragworm, it usually hooked itself.
Hunter Gatherer Cook, 5th June 2013

Sea Fishing as a Sport (No 2): Grey Mullet The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News 19th June 1886

A Good Morning's Work	Landing a Double

On the Rock

The Result of Curiosity	The Last Leap

Kent Coast Sea Fishing Compendium

Thick-lipped (Chelon labrosus)
&
Thin-lipped (Liza ramada) Mullet

Harbour fishing for mullet

Copyright © David Ramsdale 2010 - 2022
All rights reserved

Kent Coast Sea Fishing Compendium

Thick-lipped (Chelon labrosus)&Thin-lipped (Liza ramada) Mullet

Harbour fishing for mullet

Copyright © David Ramsdale 2010 - 2022All rights reserved

Thick-lipped (Chelon labrosus)
&
Thin-lipped (Liza ramada) Mullet

Copyright © David Ramsdale 2010 - 2022
All rights reserved