Mullet flies

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 7:21 pm

Any ideas as to whats best to use for Mullet flies.

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 8:55 pm

TNT

Catching Mullet on the fly is all about finding feeding fish and matching 'the hatch'. The lazy way is to groundbait with bread, then throw a bread imitation at them (white egg flies or spun deer hair). Still wont guarantee success though. I prefer the challenge of trying to catch them on what they are naturally feeding on - seaweed maggot, slaters, gammarus, small shrimp, weed, algae and terrestials like hawthorn flies blown onto the water. Just to keep you on your toes they're happy to grab at fairly big baitfish imitations if they're in a feeding frenzy.

Here's my Mullet box:

Left side:
Top row- Egg yarn bread and weed flies.
2nd row- Black spider.
3rd row- Olive spider.
4th row- Treacle Parkin, Partridge & Orange.
5th row- Red Tag.
6th row- Dubbed body weed flies, Maggot fly.

Right side:

Various odds and ends- Weed flies, Gammarus.

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 9:34 pm

Now thats what i call a reply.
Thanks MJB.

Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:24 am

Very helpful advice MJB. I quite often come upon some huge mullet feeding in the current in the way that trout do but can never get a response from them.I will certainly include some of flies to try next time. What kind of success rate do you find when targeting feeding fish with these flies?

Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:48 am

crapcaster wrote:

What kind of success rate do you find when targeting feeding fish with these flies?

Success rate with the fly is pretty low, but I rarely go out to target Mullet, but will switch tactics if I find feeding fish when out Bassing. If they're on the seaweed maggot, you might get one or two fish in a session (and be plagued by small Bass). Fish feeding on weed and algae will do your head in and I've yet to get one. Nothing conclusive to report on fish feeding on small crustaceans, but there's a guy on Jersey who claims to have had great success fishing teams of 3 spiders/red tags/parkins on a dead drift.

Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 1:21 pm

Thanks for the advice MJB. The team of 3 flies approach sounds interesting. Will give it a try in the new season.

Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 6:43 pm

Now i know a spot that has BIG mullet just cruising there.They sit just down tide of a small jetty where the water always runs the same direction.Tide coming in or out.These fish are really big and plentiful and i have always wondered how to hook them.
I think the only option is to get uptide in a boat and drift a fly towards them the only problem is if you hook one,as they will be the otherside of the jetty.

Joined: Jan 02, 2009 Posts: 3 Location: Sydney Australia

Hi Bassfly

Try tying brown marabou onto #12/14 dry fly hook, they feed on brown algae here in Oz and this fly has met with very good success, try white marabou and trim back quite harshly to imitate bread in the water, also white egg yarn is another good bread imitation, I will send a picture for and tying instructions.
Best Ivan[/img][/b]

Member Joined: Feb 16, 2008 Posts: 46 Location: Essex

Hi MJB did you tie all of the Mullet flies shown in the pics? If not can you recommend somewhere I could get some of the 'rarer' looking ones?

Cheers

Member Joined: Feb 16, 2008 Posts: 46 Location: Essex

I should have added, how would you team these flies? Biggest hook first and then tie subsequent ones on the bend of the previous hook? What sort of sizes are the hooks, and are any of these flies dry? I assume the first one so that it suspends one or more below?

Lastly how would you space 1 or 2 below the first and would you use different b/s line as you work down to the last fly?

So much to learn...

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:17 pm

Bassfly , ive had me mate (who makes all his flies ) , make you up a couple of his mullet flies hes had succsess with , pm me your addy and ill post them to you f.o.c big grin

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:34 pm

manonamission wrote:

Hi MJB did you tie all of the Mullet flies shown in the pics? If not can you recommend somewhere I could get some of the 'rarer' looking ones?

Cheers

I didn't tie them...I did a traded some salty patterns with a mate. I haven't bought a fly in years, but most of those, or similar, should be available from the likes of Fulling Mill. For the gammarus imitations look at grayling bugs.

Size 10-12-14

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:42 pm

manonamission wrote:

I should have added, how would you team these flies? Biggest hook first and then tie subsequent ones on the bend of the previous hook? What sort of sizes are the hooks, and are any of these flies dry? I assume the first one so that it suspends one or more below?

Lastly how would you space 1 or 2 below the first and would you use different b/s line as you work down to the last fly?

So much to learn...

To fish a team of three, tie two droppers off of your tippet (like a set of macky feathers), so you have one fly on the end of your tippet (the point fly), one in the middle (middle dropper) and one on the other dropper (top dropper). The spacing is up to you and how long a leader you can manage. Keep the droppers short (3"-4") and use use stiff mono to construct your leader and use the same line for droppers as you do the leader. 6lb-8lb flourocarbon is ideal for Mullet and the 3 turn water knot is used for attaching droppers.

Member Joined: Feb 16, 2008 Posts: 46 Location: Essex

I wanted to say thanks to MJB for your replies. As someone said you ought to write a book. Cheers

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:23 pm

A few guys are using bread flies down my way, and catching. Bought a setup and am giving it a go this year too. Can use flyfishing for the winter to get trout while waiting for the next summer to come along