A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
good stuff. Several baits work good for them: White salt bacon, a small chunk of a white plastic grub, a small piece of grass... bait them up with some rabbit pellets or layin mash the night before you fish.
Redbelly wrote: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.
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[as dropship enters atmosphere] "We're in the pipe, five by five."
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fish on!! wrote:KarstRanger, I grew up on the suwannee in madison county and the mullet are very good. Esp if you smoke 'em.
I am down south of Madison, near Luraville, but I bet they still taste the same. And your recommendation is good enough for me - I don't have a fish smoker set up yet, but I would certainly be into breading and frying them. Do you know if it is legal to take freshwater mullet with a cast net?
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[as dropship enters atmosphere] "We're in the pipe, five by five."
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(a) Cast net with a stretched length (the distance from the horn at the center of the net, with the net gathered and pulled taut, to
the lead line) no greater than 14 feet, provided that no more than two such nets shall be fished from any vessel at any time.
Acouple of years ago I was in flamingo fishing. During the middle of the day when it was hot we netted some mullet up next to the mangroves. At the end of the day we were cleaning our catch at the ramp and everyone around was asking why we were cleaning those mullet. we told them it was to eat of course. They thought we were crazy. Those south florida yankees dont know what theyre missing.
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.
I've had days where I've had several bites, and days where SCHOOLS followed the spinner but never hit it so there is a way to get their attention.
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.
Fresh water mullet are even better eating than salt water mullet. I like mine fried but smoked would be good also but for me, smoking loses some of the real flavor. I've eaten many killed with dynamite out of the Withlachoochee River in my youth. Several years ago I learned how to catch them with algae on a small treble hook on a cork. The river has to be in the right stage and the right kind of algae used but they can be caught.