Mullet fishing from shore and/or kayak

[Mr. X]

While looking over threads about the Omer XXV recently I was once again struck, gobsmacked even, by Mundials substantial catches. Often grey mullet. Having seen and taken grey mullet for the first time last year, including several nice ones, I wondered if anyone (esp. Mundial) had any special techniques or insights?

[spaghetti]

Hi mr. X, so you can't wait to try the new gun, eh?
Mullets: I suspect they don't have the same behaviour everywhere, my impression is rather that their reaction to the presence of a spearo may change based on the experience of the local mullet population: believe it or not, fish LEARN to stay away from spearguns.
In areas with lots of active spearos, such as in my Tuscany, mullets are very shy and will swim away quickly soon as they detect you. But in other areas, where spearfishing is less popular, I found very dumb mullets who came close with no fear.
Being pointless to talk about dumb, easy fish, the shy ones must be hunted with the agguato and aspetto techniques mixed together.
Basic agguato:
You have to dive to the bottom BEFORE seeing the fish and then start to look for them: Dive very silently belly-crawling on the bottom (Old Man Dave calls this technique "indian style"), with minimal fin strokes or no fin strokes at all, using your free hand to grab to help the crawling.
Swim large silent loops around kelp bushes and rocks, stopping every little while to have a look around, and every while TURN, make a curve around the rocks and bushes trying to take by SURPRISE the eventual fish being behind the obstacle. If they're there at range, aim and shoot. If they're too far, lay very flat on the bottom, still covered behind something, and wait hoping they will come closer.
If you scare them they will disperse far away, but don't lose hope: they're curious fish, and many times they will just swim a large loop to get back to you, for investigating about you. This time they're more likely to come at range, because their initial fear of your vibrations will be methabolized and they'll feel more self assured.
Of course, waiting for them to come back might require a long breath hold. If it's too much, just surface very silently, ventilate for as long as necessary, then go back down very silently to the place you were at before. If you're lucky, the mullets are coming back to the same place. It happens sometimes.
Mullets in schools
In my waters, mullets tend to swim around in large number schools when young, and in smaller groups of 2 or 3 when adult. They rarely will be found alone.
It's very difficult to hunt fish when in schools/groups, because schools always have a sort of sentinel alarm system: if you scare one, you scare them all.
Once they get nervous, they start swimming faster and you will certainly get jammed by all those fishes dispersing around, and you will loose precious time trying to make a decision on WHICH ONE to shoot among the lot.
So the best thing, even if they are dozens, is to focus on ONE single fish, track him calmly until he comes at range, and never change target, unless your first target fish disappears.
Shooting:
If they come in schools or even small groups or pairs, NEVER target the first one of the row: if you aim to him and he detects you, he'll get nervous. And, for being the first one in front of the row, he will immediately scare all the others following from behind because they will all SEE him accelerating.
If the fish come towards you frontally, don't wait for him to turn on a side, but shoot him straight to his face. If it's close target: aim to the gill plate. Distant target: aim to his lips and one inch above his head. Try to avoid shooting the belly: the meat is very soft under there and they're likely to get broken.
...
Long post but it's just a few scattered thoughts.
I'm sure the English/Guernsey boys will give you better and more specific tips for hunting mullets in British waters.

[Pastor]

Says it all really! Thread closed!

Often if you come across one in shallow clear water don't even try to swim towards them or look at them, just veer off at an angle and ignore them, 8 times out of 10 they will swim towards you for a look. Then it's just the usual matter of trying to guess where they will be in a moment or twos time. Funny fish though, they never seem to behave the same way year after year up here

[foxfish]

Don't hunt them anywhere near a foul water outlet or any type of muddy water.
Don't take snap shots because mullet deserve as much respect as any other fish!
Mullet are just about the slowest growing fish we have.
Gut the fish & remove the gills immediately after death.
Expect huge variations in flavour from one fish to another!
Build a smoker
Learn to distinguish the different species & target golden greys.
Mullet are more prone to ripping off the spear than any other fish although sole are also very strong!

[Old Man Dave]

Few more don'ts.

Don't string them through the gills as they'll fall off the line. Push thespike through the head (or eyes if you're not squeamish).

Only go for headshots if very close or very sure. Otherwise go for halfway down the body (head to tail) and 2/3 up (bottom to top).

Dave

[Mr. X]

I was worried that nobody would respond to this thread but already there are so many ideas that I know I will be re-reading this thread again. Some of the things I had heard before (but perhaps forgot) or figured out myself but there are quite a few ideas there that are new to me.

Foxfish, why target Golden greys, aren't they rarer - do you find them evil or are you suggesting we leave the others? Re. slow growth, Mike Ladle talked a little about that on his DVD "The mythical mullet" - you can age mullet from the rings on their gill covers (or scales). They have good years for growth & bad years, like trees; apparently the hot summer of 1976 was a particularly good growth year. So perhaps global warming will increase growth rate. He also mentioned that some grow more quickly than previously thought. Why remove the gills - is it something to do with them filter-feeding through their gill rakers?

Spaghetti, re. learned behaviour, perhaps natural selection also has an effect e.g. speared fish stop reproducing & passing on their "curiosity of spearo"-gene.

You are right about the behaviour being hard to predict. It seems to vary from extreme timidity to strong curiosity to mild indifference. They also hate being speared & tend to go ballistic if not stoned.

[spaghetti]

Could be, but I also think they really learn during their life.
For the Golden/grey thing, I think Foxfish refers to the fact that Golden taste better, cause they prefer cleaner waters and are more demanding about food, while the grey-grey are often seen near sewage and don't mind eating crap.

[Mr. X]

I've noticed a couple of things about grey mullet feeding habits. The first three are from Mike Ladle articles/DVD, the others from personal observation:

When weed gets washed up in big piles on the beach by storms. The weed & gunk in it, like dead seagulls &, I think milkman just mentioned finding a dead dolphin or porpoise washed up on a beach quickly get infested with sand flies which lay eggs in it, which become small maggots. Mullet (& bass) come into feed on the sandfly maggots, which tend to get washed in to the sea on a high tide. In his video, ML even throws armfuls of rotting seaweed into the sea as groundbait. This is consistent with what I have seen, one place in particular springs to mind, although I've seen also mullet come into shore when the high tide is far from reaching the seaweed too, so there is probably a little more to it.

Mullet filter feed via their gill rakers. Not sure how that works. Some people won't eat them, or won't eat mullet from harbours and/or near sewage outlets - as Foxfish already mentioned. Sh!t eaters. (Although I have also heard of anglers & spearos specifically targeting those areas.)

Mullet will sometimes take bass lures (even though they seem to eat mainly eat small things).

One beach that I visited several times while on holiday was patrolled by small mullet at high tide. I saw a couple swim around a paddlers ankles! This beach had no seaweed but it did have holiday makers in abundance. I'm thinking they were eating food scraps left by the holidaymakers. Harbour mullet take bread bait, so I guess that makes sense. Bass and larger mullet also came in just before high tide. I assumed they were only at either end of the beach, at the rocky edges - but on reflection, it might just be that I tend to spear at the edges. On one occasion I swam rapidly back to shore to get my speargun and, on the way back, scared up 3 large silver grey fish each sitting alone on the bottom, amongst weed in quite shallow water. Directly offshore from the sandy beach and not far out.

A couple of times, I've seen quite large mullet hanging around alone and in small groups in a small boulder filled bay in quite shallow water. I also caught occasional glimpses of small silver sparkles (presumably from small, shiney fish, perhaps only an inch long) -- I'm pretty sure they were very interested in the small fish. Later on, I saw a small pollock smash up into a similar group of "sparkles" from below and, shortly afterwards, a lone mackeral (possibly a horse mackeral, more white & olive than usual) chased into the middle of another group at speed.

I suppose my only conclusion is that mullet often come right into shore -- and I mean right in, often only 1-10 feet out. Which usually means shallow water. Saw a huge mullet last year in only 3 or 4 feet of water amongst boulders (my spear bounced off its gill cover!), less than a stones throw from where I entered the water.

[SurfnSpear]

I have shot almost all of my (4lb+)'larger' mullet in 2-5ft of water crawling up on them and surprising them and quite often while they have their asses in the air feeding. This is almost always on the high right on the shore amongst the floating weed and boulders. I have eaten every single mullet I have ever shot and the only thing I do is cut out the red veins and cook in the method of the day. I love mullet as much as bassbut then us Africans will eat anything!

[glowworm]

As filter feeders mullet will also filter through sand and you can often see the v shaped lines in sand made by their top lip.The weed on the shore line is an age old attractor for bass and mullet.We used to wait for a high spring tide and ambush shoals of bass,mullet and pollock as they came in to feed on the maggots and shoals of small fish.

[foxfish]

Thin lip mullet take spinners, usually a mepps lure with a tail end of rag worm, Christchurch harbour is famous for this method. Thick lips are more of the scavengers & golden greys are more bottom feeders that can be caught on static worm baits.

[strangelove]

Mullet hunting, that is one of my favority fish to kill, the place I've fish them in Brazil, we normally find them in muddy waters but when the ground has course sand and rocks. Best with in comming tide, I wait for them with my back to the current, I don't like head shots, the best is to place the shot on the middle of the body.

The one I am holding is 5.1 kb, the batch in the boat all of them are over 4 kg.

RafaelMullet2.jpg

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[Mongrel454]

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

[strangelove]

Originally Posted by Mongrel454

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

It may depend on the area, in Brazil they taste good (well I like it), we normally filet it , removing the dark meat. It is also good on the grill. But I've heard in some places they taste really bad.

[Mongrel454]

Well i still might give it a shot, but i will be cautious when trying LOL