Fresh water mullets

[Jumptrout51]

Whole kernel corn on a small bream hook works as well as small green peas and small dough balls from white bread.

[JeffB]

We catch them on the St Johns River using the "little" red worms.

[FUTCHCAIRO]

YEARS AGO, WE USE TO CATCH THEM ON SHINNER HOOKS USING WHITE GRUBS. WE WOULD USE 6# TEST MONO AND TIE TWO SHINNER HOOKS ON THE BOTTOM AND ABOUT 6" ABOVE IT. WOULD HAVE 3 CORKS, ONE ABOUT 18" ABOVE THE TOP HOOK, THEN THE OTHER TWO ABOUT 6" ABOVE THE FIRST CORK AND ABOUT 6" APART ON THE TOP TWO. WE WOULD USE VERY SMALL CHUNKS OF WHITE GRUBS, ABOUT 1/8 INCH IN DIAM. JUST COVERING THE BARB OF THE HOOKS. WATCH THE CORKS, WHEN THE BOTTOM CORK WENT UNDER WAIT UNTILL THE TOP TWO CORKS WENT UNDER AND THEN SLOWLY LIFT THE ROD UNTILL YOU FELT THE PULL OF THE FISH, DO NOT HORSE THE MULLET OR IT WILL PULL LOOSE. I USED A FLY ROD 10 FT. LONG AND DID PRETTY GOOD AT CATCHING HE MULLETS. IT IS VERY SLOW FISHING, CAN'T GET IN A HURRY. WE WOULD GUT THE FISH AND SCALE THEM PUT THEM IN A FLOUR , EGG, SALT, AND PEPPER BATTER, POP THEM IN THE DEEP FAT FRYER AND ABOUT 3 MIN. THEY WOULD BE READY TO EAT. WE WOULD JUST FORK THE MEAT OUT OF THE SKIN AND BOY WERE THEY DELICIOUS. HOPE THIS WILL ANSWER SOME OF YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MULLET FISHING
AND COOKING.
PA
SEMPER FI

[BloodyChamp]

I've found that it's not that different than any other fishing. It's different...just not that different. Take bream fishing which, while I maintain takes some skill that certain snooty fisherman don't want to admit, isn't exactly rocket science. You have to find a hole (in the case of bream...mullet are in more general of spots besides holes) and catch the ones that will bite. They won't always all bite, and neither will the random ones that you see here and there, but some of the ones in a spot slam full of them will. It's the same with mullet. Find somewhere where they're piled up and not moving like torpedoes...not a dock with 3 handing out, not 1 shoal of 8 firing off like missiles every 10 seconds etc.

Now...that still leaves me with 1 dilemma. The spots I know are hit or miss. Sometimes they are there and sometimes they are not. I have 1 dependable spot on the Wacissa over this stretch of rocks. Theoretically I have another 1 on the Aucilla (meaning I have seen them piled in this spot more than once but I haven't seen them since I figured out a thing or 2 about mullet fishing). I've heard of "The Wall" in Green Cove Springs which was destroyed in the last storm sadly, and other spots like that scattered around. I sure would like another spot or 2 close if anybody has a tip. The St Marks, Wakulla, Suwannee and even the Pinhook are doable for me.

[JeffB]

We fish from a dock but use hog or cow pellets, rabbit pellets or whatever we can get to chum them up.
Usually takes about a day or maybe 2 and then they are there as long as you keep the feed there.
Have you tried chumming ?

[THOMAS CITY CURVE]

You can't go wrong eating anything out of the Wacissa river, and I know mullet have a bit of a bad reputation outside of the southeast but I've never had a mullet that wasn't excellent. What people don't know is that a mullet has the most complex intestine of any fish. Most fishes intestine isn't even an inch long but a mullet's is a few feet stretched out, and they have a gizzard so it doesn't matter that they live as vegetarians.

Now...I wish I knew as much about catching them as I did eating them lol! I saw people catch a few with the Mepps Spinner with a worm on the end when I was little but when I say a few I mean just a few. I've since tried that myself and caught a few...literally a few. There has to be a way to catch these things. I found this topic while googling mullet in the Wacissa. I'm the best man there is at fishing the Wacissa for bream, bass and catfish but the mullet have me stumped. I've heard the chicken mash stories but I've never seen it done of even met anyone who claims to have done it. It's always "yeah I think my grandma did that" or something. I'm not about to waste my time mixing chicken mash if that's all I have to go on lol! Plus, common sense tells me that the fish would have to be trained to respond to the stuff, similar to pond fish with fish food and I don't have that time. I'm going to keep trying though.

Annnnnd my first post was a double post ack

My friends and I would love the pleasure of meeting the best man there is a catching bream , bass , and catfish on the Wacissa.

[BloodyChamp]

If you know what the Thomas City Curve is then I'd be willing to bet that you know me lol! Somebody crashed on the thing a couple weeks ago! I wonder what that put the count at...probably almost as high as my bream count lol!

I have not tried chumming. I was fishing on a budget up until about last summer so I always just quit after so long then went to regular fishing to make the trip yield some fish. If nothing else, I'll try the chumming all out (in other words for fora few days or so...I think I did try it once before and was like eh this is dumb after an hour or so lol). I haven't given up on the spinner yet either. I've been reading some stuff by 2 fishermen named Mike Laddle and Steve Pitts. They're British fishermen and mullet fishing on the spinner is a full fledged sport over there believe it or not.

[BloodyChamp]

I've had the best luck mullet fishing this year than any year before. The only thing stopping me now are the dadblasted boats scaring them off every 5 minutes. I'm trying to think of a good low key place to go tomorrow where there won't be any of that. What about the Suwannee River bridge (or that nifty little spring down the trail over there) over in Madison? I believe somebody said on page 1 that they used to catch them in Madison. The bridge was probably the place.

[Redbelly]

What is your advice on catching bass in the Wacissa?

[BloodyChamp]

In the grass plastic worm, in the main stream Rebel Crawfish.

On another note I'm very upset about the shape that that river is in. Humans are slowly destroying it.

[BloodyChamp]

I caught my first Suwannee River mullet today!!!!!! I also pulled it out of the mouths of several. They just weren’t nailing it today but I’m happy I caught 1 and that I found a new place to mullet fish. It was there in Ellaville (Madison). I started the day at Blue Spring thinking nobody would be there on a Monday morning in September. Wrong lol! The mullet were there but of course the people messed that up.

[GusMccrae]

How do [Freshwater Mullet] they taste compared to salt water mullets?

Nobody really answered Redbelly's question. Inquiring minds want to know - as I could throw the castnet into schools of them that run in and out of the springs on the Suwannee (freshwater) River. Haven't checked if that is legal or not, but will check if I find out they taste any good.

Pretty sure the bunny cops would frown on castnetting in Fresh water. That said, getting them in clear water with a net would be near impossible (in my opinion).