A Personal Best Mullet for Mark

[Claudia Crowther]

I took Steve Spiller on a South Coast river roach hunt last night but out of the blue a large shoal of mullet appeared. Steve tried flake shallow and hooked one even though they weren't really feeding (his first encounter with one). At first he didn't rate the fight but after about three minutes the mullet calmly smashed him with a head shake in a split second! I think the mullet was playing Steve!

Haha that'll teach the Spiller man to underestimate the mullet, however I bet he wasn't as gutted as he would have been if it would have been a 2lb roach

Mark, I was thinking (and yes it did hurt ...maybe I should bring a fly rod when we got mullet hunting....what do you reckon?

 

[Steve Spiller]

Lovely fish Mark and more since then too.

I won't say where we fished, but you slightly 'downed' the 'shoal' of mullet thing.
I've never seen so many mullet following a rising tide up a river, there were thousands of them!!! I would imagine they ranged from 2lb to over 6lb, they were a foot under the surface and went from my feet to the opposite bank!

I shallowed up thinking one of the silly buggers would be hungry (law of averages) 1.7lb bottom was no match for what looked to be a fish of about 4lb.

Claudia was right, I was gutted, but had it been a 2lb roach that smashed me, well......

Anyway, 6lber next then Mark ;-)

 

[Dave Slater]

Fabulous fish Mark. Well done mate and very well deserved. I have never seen a mullet that size on the bank. It must have looked really impressive.

 

[MarkTheSpark]

Cracking mullet, Mark. My best was 5lb 8oz. But I took a mate to try for mullet on the Deben Estuary and, first attempt, he had one 5lb 12oz!
In all my years mullet fishing I rarely went below 4lb line; 2 1/2lb hooklengths were just broken by the big fish, and those were the ones I wanted to catch.
I suspect super-soft HPPE braids would work very well as hooklinks, as it's my opinion mullet reject baits because they feel the line on their lip. HPPE wasn't invented when I last went mullet fishing!
My best catch of mullet was 13 fish in a two-hour period, best 4lb

 

[Mark Wintle]

It's been the same old story with a PB for me - takes years to beat it (4lbs in 1981) then beat the old PB within 8 days with another of 4-10 from another venue. On this other venue, there are wooden beams to contend with; I've settled on a 10ft telescopic spinning rod, old Aerialite bakelite 'pin, 8lb main line and 6lb Silstar Match line hook links which seem to do the job.