mullet on the fly

[flyfisher100]

what flies do mullet take .....

[MJB]

flyfisher100 said:

what flies do mullet take .....

[3lbgrayling]

;D ;D ;D great reply mjb.

jim

[stalker]

Hi ff100,mullet can definately be taken on a fly rod,i,ve caught them along the Dorset coast at places like Kimmeridge bay.The trick is to walk the high water mark of a big tide and look for rotting seaweed piles,in here you will find the maggots of the seaweed fly,hoof loads of this weed down the beach so that when the next flood tide covers it ,the weed will float and release all the maggots,mullet love these and will become preoccupied feeding on them,you need to present a floating maggot immitation-usually a polystyrene based body-or one of the latex grub bodies readily available in the midst of the feeding fish.You can spot feeding fish on a calm evening by the "slurping"as they mop up the "groundbaited"maggots,if you can get a clear floater coldwater salt line(theres a few types available)you stand less chance of spooking them!A 7 weight rod is fine,a LA reel with loads of backing as a Mullet will embarass every other british fish in the fighting stakes.Take a few recces along your local beach(rocky ones are best)and try to find the rotting weed-then your halfway there-July/August evenings or dawns during hot weather are best.Try to track down some articles by DR Mike Ladle on the net,he used to specialise in this type of swff-good luck mate.
Stalker.

[flyfisher100]

thanks stalker i see mjb is a muppet lol

[MJB]

Yup.......I'm a muppet.

Whilst contemplating that fact consider the following:

The technique Stalker describes does work, but it is very much a "should have been here yesterday" situation. You can very easily turn up at the mark to find a stiff onshore breeze or a good swell has washed the rotting weed away on a previous tide. The reason Doc Ladle has it cracked is because he lives 15 minutes away from a suitable venue, so he can just nip out as the tides are building to get conditions right. He also favours tagging a couple of real maggots onto the hook to increase your chances (apparently just adding the sea-weed maggots doesn't work, they need to be the ones coarse anglers buy; at least that's what he told me). On a completely different venue I have taken Mullet on Sawyers 'Killer Bugs'. Don't forget some slater imitations.

Keith White on Jersey has reputedly had considerable success fishing teams of 3 flies, dead drifted on the current. His favoured patterns are Red Tags, Treacle Parkins, Partridge & Orange, Black Spiders. Again, this could be area specific though.

The Danes have a thing for Seaweed patterns. I have seen plenty of Mullet browsing the weed and algae and have armed myself with some flies made from rabbit fur and glo-bug yarn in suitable colours.

You could try bread patterns. Again, glo-bug yarn does a good job. A liberal scattering of Hovis will help, but occasionally they will take them as they come.

Just to chuck a spanner in the works, I have caught Mullet on 3" long, heavily dressed, size 2 Clousers.

I disagree that Mullet are spooky. They're very shy feeders and can be extremely frustrating to catch, but you can drop a line across their nose and they just blow a raspberry in your direction. Find a method that works one day and you can bet your life it wont work the next.


Fondest Regards,

Miss Piggy.

[MJB]

p.s. Mike Ladle's website: www.mikeladle.com/osa.html

[flyfisher100]

thanks mjb pitty it was'nt the first reply i take it all back if we don't ask we never learn no matter how silly the question is ...

[MJB]

Trust me,once you've tried catching Mullet on a fly, you'll soon see what's humorous about the phrase "What flies do Mullet take".

[jrt]

Despite what Stalker says there is NO reliable method of catching mullet on the fly. Sea weed flies, maggot flies (or maggots!) after ground baiting with rotten sea weed (the stink stays on you for days), groundbaiting with bread then throwing a bread fly all have their moments. But be prepared to spend many many hours for each fish.

Come back at the end of the season and you'll see why Martin's response was funny.

[josh]

Hi all,
try this
www.flyfishingformullet.co.uk/
It is alot clearer on the actual DVD.



Josh

[MJB]

Hey Josh! Too big to fit up chimmneys nowadays

[spy1]

Very limited success here after very many hours, all that is said here is true, especially so area specific. I once had three in a day using a piece of film roll cut and glued onto a 14 hook and greased up to float....the mullet were feeding on algae breaking off harbour doors as they opened and closed and floating dowstream in a rising tide, I used the rod tip to break off some more and they honed in on the downstream side of this. Some big fish 5lb plus came to look at the offering but refused it, those I had were 1.5 to 2lb, they are great scrappers.

Spy1

[stalker]

FF100,the guys are right there is no reliable method of taking mullet on the fly,if there was it would remove some of the massive achievement level out of it for me,we can reliably catch Trout,nearly every time we try,but if you take a totally wild fish in it's own wild enviroment-where 99% of things are against you-just once a season it beats everything else into a cocked hat!I've just given you a method that has worked for me,it's the most reliable i've found in over 20 years of chaseing "Grey Ghosts" lots of them with The National Mullet Club,if you're really serious try to get to the Channel Islands(esp Guernsey) its a different world,i'm going again this year.They can be really frustrating fish to hook but dont let that put you off,keep trying and youll get one eventually,i'm sure the guys on this forum will have other methods to try as well ,good luck.