# mullet



## emcaster83 (Jul 22, 2008)

weve got a pier on base housing here that is great for catching shrimp and bait.i go everyday and a few times ive caught some huge jumping mullet in the cast net. the last one i got with the net was just shy of 20 inches and it was jerking the net around like crazy. they would be a blast on light tackle. My question is, is there a way to catch them on hook and line?


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## NcRon (Dec 15, 2007)

I've been wondering that for a long time also.From what ive read the mullets only eat aquatic plants.If we could only figure out how to put those things on a hook


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## emcaster83 (Jul 22, 2008)

*?*

i wish we could. someone told me once that you could catch them on small flies but i havent tried it yet.i was just wondering if there is a proven method for catching the little boogers


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## crazyfish77 (Mar 26, 2008)

i heard snow peas work


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## JeepMike (Feb 4, 2008)

spear fishign for them might be sort of neat. Idk if they are a species that would lend themselves to being speared, as they aren't predators and spend their entirely lives swimming away from everything else.


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Mullet*

When I was young, we had areas up in the mouth of the River where we hook and line fished for mullet. I guess that people still fish for them up there.

We would chum the area with cowfeed or laying mash in a burlap bag. We would fish with a tiny hook baited with a tiny piece of fat pork. Some people used red worms, Bread works but doesn't stay on hook.

I have caught them on a small white fly after heavily chumming the area. You have to be generous with the chum. The idea is to make the water almost murky and get them to feeding. Mullet are spooky and you have to use stealth.

A mullet, when hooked, goes crazy and will give you a good fight. C2


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## Rockfish1 (Apr 8, 2005)

much easier to net them and use them for bait...


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

*What Charlie2 said...*

As a youngen living next to the Nuese River in New Bern,my sisters and I caught them on earthworms and a canepole.. We'd catchem as big as 3lbs or so,bring them home and Mom would cookem up.. 
Water was pretty clear there back then.. We had a boardwalk that edged around the river nearby the old bridge.. It had about 2' of concrete along the edge with about a 1 of water over it.. When the sun would get high in the middle of the day big jumping mullet would come out on these concrete ledges to sun.. My buds and I would sneek up to the edge and throw bricks at them.. Once and a while,we'd actually hit one. We'd crawl down over the ledge and get him off the bottom.. 
Not that this would be the most affective maner to catchem,but it sure was fun...


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## JeepMike (Feb 4, 2008)

Hahaha that is awesome. Tossin bricks at mullet sounds like something I would've done too. Where they good to eat? They seem like they would be boney and maybe oily?


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## cobiadude33 (Aug 12, 2007)

My biggest in the cast net was 2.5 pounds this summer out of a canal. I usually catch the big ones by accident, but there's no mistaking it when you have one in the net.


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## emcaster83 (Jul 22, 2008)

*thanks guys*

i appreciate all the help


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Mullet*

Mullet are the best eating fish around; deep fried with hushpuppies and slaw. I have eaten salt mullet with grits for breakfast,

The big ones are coarse and I don't eat them. The best are about a pound or less.

You have to keep them on ice and eat them fresh. I've seen thrm frozen and they turn mushy and unfit to eat when thawed. IMO,

We used to pack mullet in layers with salt and ship them in wooden barrels somewhere up North.

BTW; they are referred to as 'Biloxi Bacon'.

Try them and I know that you'll like them. C2


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## jmadre (Jan 3, 2008)

*Eatin' Mullet*

We eat them during the summer while we're on Hatteras Island. Clean and cook them while they're fresh and they are good. We filet and fry them and they taste like any other fish.

My brother-in-law swears that the ones in the salt water of the Pamlico Sound taste a lot better than the ones he catches in the Chowan River/Albemarle Sound.


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## Dr. Bubba (Nov 9, 1999)

I dunno....if this brick tossin stuff catches on, there's gonna be some cast net makers losing money.


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## NcRon (Dec 15, 2007)

http://mulletfestival.com/Mullet Recipes.htm:D


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## fiore (Aug 9, 2007)

try using small hooks and use bread.... in singapore it works....


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

Dr. Bubba said:


> I dunno....if this brick tossin stuff catches on, there's gonna be some cast net makers losing money.


 Brick makers would love us though.. 


Jeep Mike,once you're down here awhile you'll see most natives here love em some mullet... 
They eat fried and smoked mullet,and "check this out" mullet gizzards...  OBTW,the Rodanthe folk like menhaden roe....  
I love me some fried mullet,but when it comes to the inards,might have to pass on a gizzard..


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## Jesse Lockowitz (Feb 13, 2006)

Drumdum said:


> Brick makers would love us though..
> 
> 
> Jeep Mike,once you're down here awhile you'll see most natives here love em some mullet...
> ...


people here love em too...mullet roe in scrambled eggs...i told em id pass for now 


Jesse


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## surf rat (Jun 30, 2004)

*Mullet*

A small cork, tiny gold hook and split shot with a red wiggler will catch them.


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

NcRon said:


> http://mulletfestival.com/Mullet Recipes.htm:D


Don't miss the Mullet Throwing Contest! Yee Haw!


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## Fishman (Apr 23, 2000)

Try a sabiki rig with small hooks


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## drawinout (May 11, 2008)

I've never tried to catch mullet except finger mullet in a cast net. Growing up in NC, there was an old black lady that used to fish a park near my house. Everyday she would catch big jumping mullet on hook and line using nothing but a bamboo cane pole. She told me what she used for bait, but I was only 10 or so years old, and it's hard to remember. I believe it was just red worms or bread balls, with a bobber and small hook. This was out of the Perquimmans River in NC. The water there is slightly braquish, and jumping mullet were everywhere in that river. I know this doesn't help you, but figured I'd put in my 2 cents worth. Man, you talk about some old memories there!! lol


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## drawinout (May 11, 2008)

Emcaster, you brought back some Huck Finn memories from my childhood with this post. When I was 8 or so, I had my little 14 foot stump knocker boat on the Perquimanns river every day. The mullet were so thick late in the afternoon that they would jump in the boat sometimes!!! Not nearly as shocking as fishing the tree line closer to shore, and having a 6 foot water moccosin fall in the boat though!!! lol GOOD TIMES!!!!!!


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## inshoreangler95 (Jun 15, 2008)

6 foot water moccasin?!?!?!?! I love snakes but its the one and only animal im terrified of! not really when im like at my house or on the street but when im in their territory like in the middle of a lake or in the woods, oh boy! emcaster, lotta bread and little hook on a float, never tried it but heard it works!


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## BubbaHoTep (May 26, 2008)

fiore said:


> try using small hooks and use bread.... in singapore it works....


Bingo. Oh yeah, it works. That's what I've always done. They'll bite worms, too.

We use a collapsible fiberglass pole (10-12 foot), size 14 hooks (the thinner the better - I use fly hooks), and small bobbers. My family has a place on a lake in a campground at Myrtle Beach and we go a couple of times a year. This summer, the first thing my wife did was buy a loaf of bread at a convenience store as we got into town. She said she wanted to catch some fish before we went out to the store to buy groceries. My mother loves to fish, but she has limited mobility. The one thing she looks forward to is catching mullet when she goes to the beach because she can sit in a lawn chair and catch fish. 

We chum them in - they will literally make the water "boil." The most I've ever caught was up at Hog Inlet in Cherry Grove in the 1970's - same technique - off a friend's dock.

Right on, drawinout. They will also jump in the boat. A couple of summers ago, one of the paddleboaters in the lake was screaming and raising **** because one jumped in her boat. A lot of people don't believe this, but flounder will jump in the boat, too. When I was a kid and you didn't really have to worry about people messing with your stuff when you're almost 400 miles away, I used to keep a 10-foot v-hull boat down there, we'd paddle out and bump the bottom of the boat (at night with a lantern over the side) with the paddle and flatties (if they were around) were "incoming." 

As an earlier poster indicated, yeah, they're serious fighters, especially on those fiberglass cane poles. It's not unusual in that lake to latch into a black drum or a mullet in the 16-18 inch range. Drums are more bullish, but mullet are far more spectacular fighters.

I know people who love to eat them, but I always save them to use for cut bait. Our neighbors down there are always willing to come over and take what I'm not going to take to the surf or to the pier, since they know I won't take time to cook them up.


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## emcaster83 (Jul 22, 2008)

*wow*

i really do appreciate all the input. i just bought a 16 ft collapsible pole and im goin to givit a try


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Mullet*

Be sure that you post some reports of how you do.

If you want any recipes for cooking them, just ask.

Nothing's really better than simply salt and pepper with a dusting of cornmeal then cooked in good clean cooking oil. Serve with hushpuppies .made with leftover cornmeal from the fish and cole slaw, washed down with some cold sweet tea.:beer:

You can(gasp!) even use a commercial hushpuppy mix to dust the fish. I make my own, but first, we have to get you started,

Let me know where you live.:fishing: I'll come join you! C2


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## fishedn (Aug 18, 2008)

The mullet, cut him cross the back and lay on the grill, babecue and eat out of the hull. Old Milwaukee, it dont get no better.


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Mullet*

If you mean splitting them from the back, leaving the belly intact to form a 'butterfly, that's the way we used to do to ship them salted. I cut them that way to smoke(You can light either end)

We have a smoker that we made from stainless that will smoke about 100# at a go. We smoke using nothing but cooking oil and salt. They smoke to a beautiful brown and you can't eat just one.

Bring on the Old Milwakee!:beer:

Make you wanna cry; they so good. C2


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## Puppy Mullet (Dec 5, 2003)

Drumdum said:


> As a youngen living next to the Nuese River, my buds and I would sneek up to the edge and throw bricks at them.. Once and a while,we'd actually hit one. We'd crawl down over the ledge and get him off the bottom..
> Not that this would be the most affective maner to catchem,but it sure was fun...


Your gettin most prolific with your typing DD. 
Felt like a kid again.


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