Taking The Mullet For A Spin

My target - the thin-lipped mullet.

The grey mullet, a group of fish that I both love and hate, none more so than the thick-lipped variety. Thick-lips grow to rather generous weights and fight like Floyd Mayweather. They are plentiful in our estuaries and are easily found by the roving angler. Yet, if you have any knowledge of angling at all, you know they are a nightmare to catch! They filter feed through their unusually shaped mouths and they tend to feed aggressively only in short spells, on certain points of the tide. If you are a sucker for punishment (I am) then these are the fish for you. Having put in time and commitment I was lucky enough to catch a few last year.

A local Plymouth thick-lipped mullet caught last year, they will take bread but not lures.

In Plymouth we have fantastic numbers of thick-lipped mullet, yet their thin-lipped cousins are a bit of a rarity. Thin-lips grow to a lower maximum size than the thicks and tend to be a little more enthusiastic about fresh water, travelling far up-river in their search for food. The thin-lips are also significantly easier to catch, due to the fact they can't resist a baited spinner! Despite this, I had never caught a thin-lipped mullet before (despite a few tries and missed opportunities!), so I was keen to finally tick one of my wishlist. It was obvious I would have to travel farther afield, there was only one place to go, Weymouth harbour.

Weymouth is a two hour-plus drive from Plymouth but I'm lucky to have friends in the area, giving me the perfect excuse to fish it when I can. Although I don't know the place like the locals, I'm starting to get a fair idea of the hot spots. One thing I do know is that the upper harbour is mullet heaven! Thin-lipped mullet of all sizes cruise about in the shallows, giving me a perfect opportunity to target them. With these in mind, me and dad brought out the customised baited spinners and got to work.

What is the 'baited spinner'? 

If you aren't aware of this contraption, and honestly this catches almost everything that swims, let me enlighten you. You can buy these in most tackle shops but I prefer to tie them myself. Firstly take a high quality spinner like a Mepps, don't go cheap you will regret it when it doesn't spin! Then use a pair of pliers to snap off the treble hook. This leaves a hook-less spinner. You then tie a length of line to it using your preferred knot. You can use any line but stiff hook-links work best. I use 25lb test Fluorocarbon as I find it's less susceptible to twist and tangling. I have heard of people using pike trace wire to great effect for the same reason. Either way I aim to have a length of around six inches from spinner to hook. This seems to work best for me, although be ready to change it if bites aren't coming so readily. Hook wise you can use anything from a size 12 to a size 6. again it depends on if you're missing bites. I always prefer to go smaller, so a long shank size 12 is my go to hook for mullet. Bait the hook with a small section of ragworm, running the worm up the line until the hook is at the very end, this will get you maximum hook-ups. To catch mid-water species like mullet and bass use a steady retrieve through those layers. For bottom dwellers like flatfish and wrasse, try a stop start retrieve along a fairly clean bottom. Honestly you will be amazed by how many species you will catch. 

We arrived at the harbour and were not let down by the mullet. There were many swimming about, including some very decent sized fish of around four pound. At first I was determined to catch a mullet using an artificial worm like Isome, but after a few casts and many follows without a bite it was clear only the real stuff would do. A quick trip to the ever reliable Weymouth Angling Centre (dodging the various stag do's on our way) provided us with the fresh live ragworm we needed.

My first ever thin-lipped mullet.

The transformation in our fortunes was startling. On most casts we were getting follows and delicate takes. I did notice that they often go for the spinner blades, ignoring the bait. This is definitely an avenue I would like to pursue in the future, catching a thin-lip on a unbaited artificial, it does happen so it's worth trying myself. Both me and dad were making strange and bizarre noises as we watched the fish follow then turn away at the last second. Casting and retrieving were also made difficult by a metal fence, probably put up to deter anglers like ourselves, but we worked around it, entranced by these fish.

The dreaded railing that would likely deter most other fishermen...

Finally a fish snapped fully at my bait, hooking itself in the process. There's no need to strike with this method as the fish pulls against your retrieve anyway. It wasn't huge and I have to say I was a little disappointed with the fight, the mullet didn't try to run like a thick-lip, it just wallowed and flipped about. My trusty gilly reached down over the fence and netted my first ever thin-lipped mullet and I beamed with happiness. I love that feeling of catching a new species, a previously unknown creature now in your hands. I quickly discovered that, unlike the hardier thick-lips, thin-lips readily shed their scales, so I was extra cautious when handling it. I removed the spinner and quickly returned it to it's harbour home.

Sun shining, a new species, that's my kind of Saturday.

Dad soon had a hook up from a much larger fish, unfortunately no sooner had he hooked it that it turned and snapped his braid! We couldn't believe it. I felt terribly guilty as he was fishing with my back up reel, with much older braid on it. Just goes to show we're not all perfect and you should replace your line regularly. A lesson learned. It put a slight downer on proceedings as we had plans to leave soon anyway, this only being a quick trip in between visiting friends.

This larger specimen topped off the day nicely. 

My mood was quickly lifted though by another great take, this fish putting up a much better fight. Still not thick-lip standards but great fun. I enjoyed watching it twist and turn in the shallows beneath me, it's silver sides flashing back the May sunshine. Eventually it came to the net and I had a better specimen, although still only around a pound or two. After he was returned though the fishing switched off, as if the mullet just decided 'we're not hungry anymore'. The wind was picking up and the tide was quickly retreating, it was our cue to leave. A new species ticked off that's left me excited to try it again!

As always, thanks for reading and please check out my Facebook page for regular updates and blog posts.

Journeyman LRF

I've been here, there and everywhere recently. Fishing a lot but without truly having a full day's session. This is the reality of modern life combined with winter weather, those days you are free have rain beating the windows, the days that are calm you have work. It's up to the angler to find the precious hour or two needed to catch fish. With week two of the LRF competition over, progress has been slow, madly frustrating at times, but also productive.

I mentioned in my last post a desire to target corkwring, ballan and topknot. With this in mind and two hours to spare, I decided on Mount Batten Pier. It was a typically blustery day with the south facing (and most productive) side difficult to fish. The water clarity was good though and by fishing a slightly heavier dropshot set-up. it wasn't too difficult to discern bites, of which there were many. I love the pier when it is like that, every fish in the area seems intent on finding your lure, it can be fantastic sport. Though I will concede the majority of the bites were the resident aggressive shannys!

After about fifteen minutes of the tell tale 'lift' bites from the shannys, I had a proper knock, then another, on the next I struck into a wrasse. It's such an excellent feeling to hook a wrasse after endless blennies and gobies, the power is in a different class. You really have to watch them too as they try to dive into the boulders below, light braid is so delicate in these situations. I could quickly see it was a corkwring, one of my target species. As I landed the fish, I turned around to find I had gathered a small audience of women, who couldn't quite believe the colours on a fish from our waters. With the usual question of ''are you going to eat that?'', I returned the fish back to the boulder filled depths, quite uneaten!

I struggled to find any other wrasse after that and decided to try the much calmer opposite side. It wasn't long before I was catching pollack after pollack, no real size to them, but enough to keep the spirits up as I searched for other species. In a deep hole and after many missed takes I managed a nice tompot blenny, certainly the more exciting of the blenny species, but not a species I needed. I moved on and found another likely looking crevice. To my surprise I had a big take and hooked into a fish that was certainly no blenny. It stayed deep briefly and I figured it was a small wrasse, as it surfaced I was surprised to see it was a poor cod. A complete first for me and my fifty first species of the year.

If you don't know what a poor cod is, it is aesthetically very similar to a pouting. The main differences being that the poor cod is a more bronze fish and sheds it's scales very easily. It's also slightly longer than a pout and doesn't grow quite as large. I was a nice result. Unfortunately it attracted the attention of two, I would say slightly novice, anglers who proceeded to cast over me in hope of fish. The rudeness of these two is sadly quite common on this pier, it gives us all a bad name. I moved up slightly and used the opportunity to speak to an angler on the end. He was catching garfish and supplied some excellent conversation, cancelling out the two idiots further down. With my time up and two more species ticked off, I headed home.

As I mentioned before, most of my trips have been very short. Trying to take opportunities as they come. I won't write about the less productive ones, but we've all been there, when gobies and pollack have been thankful blank-savers. It's safe to say I've had a few of those recently!

Me and Ellie planned months ago to have a few days away in Bristol. Somehow I managed to persuade her that we could go via Weymouth (a two hour detour). I've heard great things about this harbour and have been looking for an excuse to fish it. We had a full day free and both were looking forward to giving it a try. The A38 had other ideas. Just before Newton Abbot we found a wall of traffic stretching as far as we could see. The road was completely closed and we were forced on a major detour around Newton Abbot in stop-start traffic.

A full two hours later than we planned we arrived in Weymouth, not quite as chipper as expected. I parked up quayside and watched a cormorant wolf down a small flatfish. A good omen perhaps? The tide was going out but bites were not hard to come by, though I quickly found out the harbour was full of tiny sand gobies, not a fish worth travelling four hours for, but at least a new species for Ellie. As we searched I did manage a small whiting, my eleventh species in the competition. The pier was full of anglers so we couldn't make the most of that, which was a shame and things were looking a bit glum to be honest.

We stopped into the Weymouth Angling Centre for some advice. Quite shamefully I had ignored the stretch almost right next to my car, we were informed that was a great spot for LRF. With a fresh packet of Power Isome (in medium pink, my favourite), we fished the previously ignored mark. It started slow so I tried casting out into the main river, right by the bridge. Straight away I started catching palm sized whiting, these fish put up a real fight on the incoming tide. Confidence was renewed but the weather tried to quash that. It hammered it down! A spell of freezing rain cutting right to the core of us.

Despite the weather and now impending darkness, we carried on. In between the wall and the pontoons I found plenty of fish, mostly black and rock gobies with the occasional tompot. I couldn't find anything new though and I also couldn't bring myself to test Ellie any more. She had been incredibly patient but even I wasn't enjoying it anymore in those conditions. It was time to head to Bristol, though I'm looking forward to trying Weymouth again with more time and fairer weather.

I had one more short session on return from Bristol after a ballan. With the tide low I headed to Heybrook Bay to fish the rock gulleys out there. I managed to hook two and lost both! I have never struggled with this fish before, yet I can't seem to land one. I think a dedicated session with calmer weather is on the cards, if that weather arrives. As I write now the wind and rain is battering the house! I did manage a nice giant goby that day though and missed one twice the size. They are truly the most aggressive mini-species out there, if only they were more common.

I headed to Millbay afterwards and bumped into Frankie Costello who was out fishing for the competition himself. It was great to finally meet such an active and popular figure in the local scene, living up to his reputation with fine conversation and lots of interesting information. Quite to the detriment of my fishing to be honest as darkness set in pretty quickly. I tried for scad afterwards but couldn't find any in the usual spots. The water being coloured up by the rough weather was my excuse to myself as I headed home.

That leaves me on eleven species so far in the LRF competition. Still many more out there to catch, let's hope for finer weather.

Ben - 51 Species - Perch, Roach, Gudgeon, Rudd, Bream/Roach hybrid, Mirror Carp, Pike, Rainbow Trout, Common Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Tompot Blenny, Ballan Wrasse, Rock Goby, Common Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Pollock, Goldsinny Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Golden Orfe, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Crucian Carp, Sand Smelt, Giant Goby, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Bull Huss, European Eel, Topknot, Common Minnow, Three Spined Stickleback, Sea Bass, Mackerel, Bronze Bream, Whiting, Dragonet, Brown Trout, Koi Carp, Scad, Pouting, Couches Bream, Herring, Thick Lipped Mullet, Chub, Dace, Bleak, Garfish, Sand Goby, Flounder & Poor Cod

Olly - 34 Species - Perch, Rainbow Trout, Pike, Rudd, Roach, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Pollock, Ballan Wrasse, Goldsinny Wrasse, Common Blenny, Shore Rockling, Corkwring Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Sea Bass, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Gudgeon, Crucian Carp, European Eel, Ghost Carp, Poor Cod, Mackerel, Scad, Couches Bream, Conger Eel, Rock Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Minnow, Bleak & Garfish

Ellie - 27 Species - Golden Rudd, Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Perch, Pike, Corkwring Wrasse, Pollock, Mirror Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Ballan Wrasse, Common Blenny, Golden Tench, Golden Orfe, Bronze Bream, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Three Spined Stickleback, Mackerel, Sea Bass, Goldsinny Wrasse & Sand Goby

Shane - 17 Species - Rudd, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Crucian Carp, Pollock, Shore Rockling, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Roach, Bull Huss, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Blenny, Mackerel, Giant Goby, Dace, Bleak & Minnow

Robbie - 15 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Pollock, Mackerel, Thick Lipped Mullet & Pike

Will - 14 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Pike, Tompot Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Common Goby, Ballan Wrasse, Dogfish, Golden Rudd, Golden Tench & Golden Orfe


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