Mullet
No not the mullet
made famous by Joe Dirt
This Mullet, the misunderstood, great eating, only good for bait fish ?
You can even get a Mullet style dress?
How popular does a fish have to get? to have not only a hair style
But a dress named after it. WoW.
One of the things I have been hearing most often over the last few
years is how many mullet
there are. It seems each years the schools get bigger & bigger,
thousand of mullet out by fisherman's Village over the last couple
weeks. Seeing a Shake of Mullet come at you is well heart pounding
for a fisherman the first couple of times you see it. Mullet bunch
up and start moving with their nose just barley sticking out of the
surface of the water. this is call a shake of mullet, as the surface
of the water appears to shake. 100 feet wide and twice as long
mullet getting together to spawn, huge schools
bunching together to make their trip to the gulf of Mexico where
legend has it they dive deep in pairs and the water pressure help
squeeze the row from their bodies mixing together as it floats
toward the surface.
People have been catching Mullet here in Charlotte Harbor ever since
the 1600’s or before
The first permanent settlement here was stated in 1705. With the sole
reason for the settlement being the tremendous mullet fishery. They
would go out in small boats and net Mullet.
Bring them back and scale them then slab them, removing the sides
from the fish lead weighs were placed on the fillets to press the
moisture from the meat . yes lead, seems silly now but back then no
ice or refrigerators, the weights would reduce the fly damage to the
meat. then they would smoke the meat ship it to Market in Europe the
major Mullet run coincided with the religious events such as lent
where people were not allowed to eat meat. So anyway Mullet have
been providing a living for people ever since.
this is a Mullet skiff
the out board is in the front
of the boat, So it will not interfere
with the net as it goes out the back.
they also were great in shallow water
as the motor lifted the front of the boat
So you could run in just inches of water.
The ban on Gill nets came in and this type if fishing is no
more.
Then Viagra came into the world and the price of Mullet went down
and never came back.
Yes the fish market changed. Mullet always
had one thing going for it, Which other fish did not have sex.
Sex
appeal,
Yes white Row Mullet & Oysters
were both highly prized in the orient,
for their ability to give People "ability", so to say.
An aphrodisiac which brought a good price
in China along with Rhino Horns and Gorilla paws.
But now a little blue pill does it all,
and there is no reason to eat with Row from the male mullet.
Red row from the females still bring a good price as caviar “Fish eggs”
but the white row mullet has No market value
NO money no reason to chase them. The only bad thing & the reason
the Mullet are taking a while to recover is that part time
commercial fisherman do not know the difference and catch hundreds
or thousands of pounds only to throw them over board dead. The
locals who fish each year check them as they bring them on board and
toss the males back.
Last but not least is Why do mullet Jump. It is thought they
Jump to escape predators. well Maybe but I have seen Mullet in
canals and on the flats jump with no other fish anywhere around, So
maybe. It is also said by some they are jumping to dislodge
parasites. Could be but having caught Mullet right after they jumped
I have not seen any visible pparasites, but could be. Another
thought is they jump to help digest food, which may be stuck in
thier gizzard? very possible.
The number one reason Mullet Jump is because they can! why dose
a flying fish fly? Not from being chased, not to digests food, just
because well they can.
Mullet have been jumping out of the water for hundreds of thousands
of years and boy can they jump. You would think after all that time
learning to jump, they would have learned to land a it better. Every
time a Mullet jumps it belly flops. Ouch
Mullet are great realest salesman, terrific jumpers, great eating, what they
are not is vegetarians.
They will eat anything in front of them. While not fussy about what they eat
worms, fish, shrimp, bugs, vegetables, alga
They do not kill for a living,
Mullet have a nickname Chicken of the sea, they get the name because of their
gizzard Yup just like a chicken.
they go to the bottom, and scoop up sand to fill the gizzard. it is this fine
sand that may be the problem,
they can not grind up fish scales or the shell from a shrimp, these would
chock their gizzard and they
would starve to death.
So a mullet swims along opening and closing it's mouth any soft which goes in
it swallows,
anything hard it spits out.
Know this give you the key to fishing for them,
Put 4 to 6 hooks on your line. I use #6 gold hooks on a line, with a sinker at the bottom, A bobber at the
top, this is like a Sakiki rig for bait fish, just stronger hooks. keeping in mind the swimming feeding thing
Mullet do, so the bait should be suspended in the water, the upper most hook about
6 inches bellow the bobber,
Cover the hooks with pieces of soft white plastic worms or peeled shrimp meat, Maybe even pieces of corn.
I build a mullet rig by taking the line and folding a loop in
it as I fold the line I make a over hand loop and put the end of the
doubled line through the loop 3 times. Because the line of the loop
being doubled is too thick to go thru the eye of the hook, I make
sure a make the loop at least 7 inches long that way I can cut the
loop near the know and have enough line to tie the hook on. Stop in
the store I will teach you. It is the same knot I use for a double
drop Porgy rig. Only with smaller line. You might not know but
Mullet are great fighters on hte end of the line. You will be
impressed.
Mullet chum can be made from Rolled Oats Yes just like Oatmeal you had for
breakfast. Mix with equal parts laying mash, the stuff you feed
chickens.
Mix the two with a tiny bit of water so it becomes a dough ball, sticky mess,
The old saying was you could always tell a mullet fisherman by the
sticky fingers.
Once the chum is mixed you make it into small balls which you
toss at your bobber. The Laying mash is the smell and the rolled
oats provide
small bits of food for the mullet, the Mullet will start swimming in
circles around your multi hook rig to get the oats floating down and
hopefully grab your bait.
Keep in mind that there is a hook in your bait, which is hard, so the mullet feeling that hard hook will try to spit it out, So you have to be quick set the hook as soon as you see your float move/wiggle even, before the hook gets spit out.
The Laying mash gives off a strong smell, and the rolled oats give them
something
to chew on and get in the mood to eat,
They will start circling the bobber and hope fully
Have fun out there. So many fish and so little time.
Frank