East Coast Mullet

Mullet, being one of the most easily-spooked fish in the sea, pose anglers with real challenge. They seem smart, and manage to out-wit there opponents with a great degree of success . I never fail to be amazed that a fish can pick tiny pieces of bread from a size 14 hook. It’s a frustrating game, usually resulting in temper tantrums and rod throwing (or maybe that’s just me?)

On my local East Coast mullet marks, the water is generally clear, meaning the fish can see your every movement. To make matters worse, they are hardly ever fished for, so know when something is not quite right with their food.

At most venues there will be shoals of mullet patrolling a section of coastline, so drawing them to where you are fishing is important. The trick is to get them feeding where you want, ideally close enough to touch.

On a recent outing, everything was in my favour for catching mullet. There was absolutely no wind, and there were clear skies; any fish I could get on the feed would be easily spotted, although on the flip-side, they would be able to see me too. South African Fishing buddy, George Von Heyer, had been wanting a shot at the mullet, so decided to join me on the rocks.

George is one of the best all-round anglers I know. This is due to youth life in his homeland – fishing almost every day since the day he could walk. He told me about the mullet he used to catch in Africa, although expect ours are a totally different fish, and probably harder to catch.

Everything was set… On arrival George tackled up whilst I started mashing a mixture of bread and mackerel guts in a bucket. Preparing ground bait is hugely important for a successful mullet session. To stand our best chance, we would need to get fish excited and competing for food, and there’s no better way than mashing up some smelly mackerel in with the bread to put a strong scent in the water.

With one hour of the flood left before high water, the flat platform of rock I had been baiting had filled over with about 2 foot of water. Through the clouds of bait, fish started thrashing and swirling violently.

George had tackled up with a saltwater fly-rod, and a floating line with a 8lb fluorocarbon tippet. As I had managed to bring the mullet very close in, he was able to simply flick the baited hook towards them.

I waited before I was sure the fish were feeding with confidence before giving George the signal to plop his bread offering amongst them. He didn’t need to wait long; seconds after his bait hit the water, his line pulled tight and he was in. Unfortunately the hook pulled after a few seconds, and the shoal scattered.

It took 15 minutes for the mullet to re-gain confidence , but once they did, it was a free for all feeding frenzy. The water was boiling, with mullet thrashing at, and grabbing any free ground bait morsels. George flicked his bread out again, and it was snatched from the surface in an instant – fish on!