curious

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 8:53 pm

walking the dog and couldnt help noticing mullet cruising just below the surface and occasionaly rising. same again next day so gave in to temptation, left dog home and took fly rod for a walk instead. went through every fly in the box with no success. would any body be kind enough to point me in the right direction?

Member Joined: Jun 15, 2010 Posts: 14

simple answer, leave the fly rod at home, get yourself a course float rod, small fixed spool reel, 5lb line and size 12/14 hooks.
Oh nealry forgot, get yourself a couple of loaves of warbutons thick slice aswell.

Hope that helps a bit but you do need patience when fishing for them. Also loose feed a couple of days in advance to get them used to the feed going in and be very stealthy. there not the easiest thing in the world to catch. Probably easier to get swine flu than 2 mullet in a session

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 10:50 pm

First find out if they are thin or thick lipped, because the 2 are very different prospects for hooking. If they are Thin lips (generally further upriver) and used to people being about then they will generally fall quite easily to a baited spoon with a ragworm on the hook (actually I've had a few thick lips this way but its not first choice for them).

Thick lips are generally a lot more shy but actually a fly rod is perfect on the right tide. Thick lips are very prone to seaweed maggots which end up in the water on high tides and will often take your bog standard maggot (or even a floating copy) when in the mood ... a bit of loose feed over a few days helps if the tides are small. Must admit I've not done that well for them with a fly rod but that has more to do with my fly casting prowess (or lack of it) rather than it being a bad tactic.

If you want to learn a bit more about it get yourself a copy of Operation sea angler from the library or second hand book shop, well worth a read.

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 6:29 pm

thank you for info have caught quite a few mullet using non fly tactics but have only limited time to fish just now so half an hour here and there is most suited to fly or plugchucking. what i am really after is any hints on flies. the fish i am after are coming in with the tide and working in 1 to 3 ft of water

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:23 pm

fridayfishman wrote:

thank you for info have caught quite a few mullet using non fly tactics but have only limited time to fish just now so half an hour here and there is most suited to fly or plugchucking. what i am really after is any hints on flies. the fish i am after are coming in with the tide and working in 1 to 3 ft of water

I've seen thick lips come to Mackerel feathers in the past but have only really had any success with a floating maggot imitation .... if they're thick lips they are generally browsing on weed so that makes matching the hatch a bit difficult. I have seen them feeding on the black marsh flies on the surface (no idea what their proper name is) when there has been a big hatch locally.

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 3:01 pm

Ive had limited success with a fly rod for Mullet, using a fly on a size 10 fluffy white dry fly....

However, its painfully slow progress and knocking on the door of mind numbingly dull, so a freelined crust or harbour rag or even a white maggot or caster works far better.

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 4:08 pm

red tags and bloodworm type flies work with success down along south coast.worth a try, as the question was posted on swffing forum i should imagine fridayfisherman may want to catch a mullet on the fly.
best of luck mate and may u succeed.
mick

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 8:49 pm

You can get bread flies, tied with white deer hair, usually used for carp fly fishing, bait up with bread and land your fly in the middle. I've never had mullet on the fly, but have heard it's the nearest thing to bone fish that you'll get over here.