As I have been trying different styles and
methods of fishing being a jack-of-all-trade, I went a-mulleting last night
with freelined bread flake in the River Torridge. I fish by ambush really
watching their progress along the margin of the river and just using a few
pieces of bread as offerings making sure I am not seen. To my surprise the fish
were actively feeding and I had ten "takes", or “mouths” would be
more accurate, and each time they spat it out, even with a size 16 and 2lb
line, so I blanked.
After thinking about how to improve from this I
decided that the size of hook was immaterial within reason so went back to my
favourite size 12 which is a far better size to hold soft mouthed fish like mullet.
I took the bread left over from the previous night and liquidised it for
groundbait, and tried again in 6" of water with the same result.
The bread was obviously the right bait as they were
taking the loose fed offerings. So I
changed tactics very slightly and switched to fishing in 2" of water
barely a foot from the bank. The mullet were uncomfortable in such shallow
water, probably scared of being exposed to danger so they grabbed the bread and
backed off before spitting it out in what was now the time-honoured manner,
which gave me just long enough to strike to get this one before the rains came.
Please note the net etc doesn't do it justice as I had to use my big pike net on my longest pole to reach the fish across the estuary mud to land it. If you try to tread on this you just sink in and get stuck fast so be careful!
They are really tough to catch, especially in rivers,
and a great challenge and a good fighting fish