Mullet,
the Unassuming Sportfish
By Richard
Carter
There are plenty of 'mullet on
fly' experts on the water, many more sitting at home. The following
is a few suggestions of mine on how to catch a mullet or two.
Now I'm no expert but I regularly enjoy a few hours mullet fly
fishing most weeks and I learn a little more each time on the
water. Best thing to do is to read and see all the ways it can
be done. Then keep all that you feel comfortable with and go
with that. Here's one way of catching mullet on fly. Enjoy!
Picture : The
valued and prized quarry.
I prefer to fish a just falling
tide or top of the tide in the late evening, with little or no
wind, starting my berleying down any tidal current a hour before
to bring the fish of the area to me by the time the tide or light
is just right. It is very hard to get all these criteria happening
at once. But get on the water any way, it is good casting practice,
if nothing else. The most fishing activity is the hour just after
dark. Though a few morning sessions have produced a few fish
for me, a late evening session is far better and after a day
of work, a great stress reliever.
With summer daylight saving time
you can get home, changed your clothes, have dinner and you still
have a few hours of daylight and then twilight left. Perfect
for an hour or two mullet fishing on the closest water available.
During a mullet fly fishing session you will be constantly looking
for boils and rises. The whole time you will think of nothing
but slurping fish and little else for those few hours.
The advantage in Australia is
most of it's population live near the coast, and nearly all our
estuary systems and beaches along the coast have some species
of mullet for your pleasure and evening fishing time - though
that depends on whether the commercial netters have been through
or not. Most times these 'caring, lovely and conservation minded
gentlemen' (ha!) only utilise the females for their eggs for
the Asian market and just dump the dead males as no one could
use all of the dead males they discard for crab bait. They net
them during the breeding season as the fish school together during
this time making their job easier and ensure the females are
full of the lucrative eggs. They then ask the government to investigate
why there are no more fish. Seems pretty obvious to me - no breeders,
no future. Sorry, enough of my hobby horse and back to the fly
fishing.
If the wind is blowing, I find
a backwater or the leeward side of a peninsula or point where
I can cast with any wind at my back - I don't want to make it
too hard by casting into the wind - remember this is for fun.
Even if you have to cast into the wind you only have to make
short casts most times. When the wind really gets blowing give
it a miss as the mullet don't feed as well with a decent chop
on the water. If I can find a shallow sand bar to stand on with
a drop off and large weed beds down current of me, great - just
what we need. You only need to be berleying and casting in knee
deep to waist deep water. Don't forget the waders as during the
night the sea lice can get quite ferocious - I am still itching
in a couple of places months after an outing until I started
wearing rubber (waders that is).
A few days before an outing I
get some day old bread (three or four loaves) and then lay out
the slices in the sun (or if short on time in the kitchen oven
if the wife lets me) to dry out a little. Don't forget to turn
over to dry the other side when using the sun. I cut the crusts
off and wizz those up in the blender (not too small but small
lumps and crumbs), storing it in large three litre juice containers
with the top corner cut off so I can get my hand in them when
on the water. The middle parts of the bread slices I cube up
into sizes appropriate for the size fly I may use. Again storing
in ready to use bait buckets or containers I can attach to my
belt. I keep the berley ready to go in the spare fridge or freezer
in the garage for those spur of the moment outings. Having said
that if you just buy a few loaves on the way to the water, they
will work just as well without all that prep work, most times.
I just enjoy all that prep, just as I enjoy tying the flies.
I sometimes place a few bits
of old bread (loaves or buns) in a large onion bag and thrash
it around to get the berley trail going at least till I start
to see some boils, then progress the size of the berley up to
the size of the flies I am using. I use my pre-cut bread cubes
from then on and disperse then as required from a belt bait bucket
or cut juice container. The onion bag, with a couple of pieces
of styrofoam in it when used stays attached to my leg to keep
a constant stream of fine particles flowing down current, just
enough to keep them interested.
Don't berley up too much as they
might all just go home early with full stomachs without even
tasting one of your flies. The size of your berley is important.
For better results your fly sizes should match. So too, if white
bread berley used, use white flies. Alternatively for wholemeal
bread berley, use tan flies. I normally don't berley with the
crust cubes once the bite in on. It sometimes takes quite a while
(one to two hours) before the larger mullet show up, though the
little ones that show up first are fun too, just use smaller
flies. This is why I wizz up the crusts and use them first to
get the whole process going. Then switch over to the no crust
cubes when the good sized mullet show up.
You can use any size fly rod,
even your light trout rods which will give you lots of fun. A
seven or eight weight rod would be the maximum weight rod I would
use, any rod size larger and it's a bit of over kill. Some of
the larger mullet will put a decent bend in an eight weight rod,
so don't underestimate the fighting qualities of a mullet as
they are a great sportfish. A five or six weight would be the
optimum. The local gun mullet swoffer uses his three weight and
is always having a ball. Just rinse those reels, rods and lines
in freshwater when you get home. Use and old tooth brush to rely
clean your rod, runners and reel. If you have the time strip
your line off your reel and wash it too. While the line is off
really scrub the reel with your old tooth brush.
Floating lines are all you need
to use, other line types just don't present the fly in the right
places in the water column. Double taper or weight forward flyline
tapers will do the job. I use a couple of leader/fly set ups.
In both cases I use a pre-made commercial nine foot knotless
tapered leader. The gun mullet swoffer from the local fly club
recommends braided leaders for hassle free night fishing, less
wind knots in the leader is said to be the reason. Optionally
you can grease up your leader to make it float too, though I
have not found the need. Then thinking about it all, the gun
swoffer gets twenty to thirty fish to my five or ten, I might
have to watch him a bit closer next time we meet up on the water
as it might just be the secret ingredient he adds to his berley,
a very secretive fellow is our local 'Mullet King'.
I then attach a metre or so of
tippet material with a double grinner knot or surgeons loop knot
to the leader. I use two tippet strengths - six and four pound.
The four pound for while the sun is still up and the six pound
for after dark as it breaks less (and of any wind knots in the
tippet is still has a little line strength). The six pound also
as I hate tying on new flies on in the dark, even with a torch
- should of ate my carrots as a kid.
Then I sometimes tie on a single
fly either a bread cube, fuzzy bread fly or a white woolly bread
bugger, but most times I use a tandem fly rig of a deer hair
or foam bread cube(#10) on a dropper (or inline) and a white
fuzzy bread fly (#12 - #10) on the end of the tippet 10 -20cm
from the cube fly. If the mullet are on the small size or gar
are in the area too, I use a #16 - #14 Yeastie Beastie fly, sometimes
as a third fly or as the point fly on the tandem rig.
Picture : Another
smiling face after his first successful mullet session.
As for hook ups, watch the floating
or strike indicator fly for any take. Sometimes momentous at
other times hardly a shimmer. As it gets dark and I cannot see
the strike indicator fly (remember the earlier lack of carrots),
I slowly retrieve the flies with a very, very slow strip or a
slow figure eight style retrieve. This to keep in contact with
the flies and feel any take. Be always ready to strip strike
at the slightest variation in tension (many a weed fish has been
hooked this way). After hook up I raise the rod, but not past
an angle of 10pm on the clock face, at least for the initial
phases, always keeping some bend in the rod to keep the debardbed
hook in place.
During the fight I find it better
to put the rod low to either side (though not past the body)
keeping most of the line in the water to create more drag on
the fish hopefully tiring the fish quicker or at least step backwards
to maintain tension when needed. Getting any loose line on the
reel if you need to or just strip in line, if that is what you
are comfortable with. Be prepared to give line as the larger
fish will take your line quite readily and that's always an adrenalin
rush when that happens. I love to hear my reel spinning and line
racing out through the rod runners, any fish that can do that
is worth the effort to target them.
As you feed out berley bread
cubes and when the fish start to boil around these cubes, pick
up your floating flyline off the water and land the fly near
or in the boil. Careful not to 'line' the fish and scare them
off (check the water in front of you before the long casts are
made), give the extra effort for soft landings and quiet pick
ups. You could lay your line out, then cast out some bread over
your line and stripping your fly slowly through the boil area.
Always be ready for the take, that anxious wait for the take
removes any other thoughts from your head - bank loan interest
rates, other financial or work concerns all pale in comparison
to the primeval and urgent need for that damned fish to take
your fly. It's a buzz, I can never get enough of it.
Just like watching a rising trout
moving in the direction of your fly, all the time you are hoping
and mentally encouraging the trout towards your dry fly, but
who has trout at their front door certainly not the majority
of us, unlike mullet who are readily available to most of us.
More in favour of the mullet is that it fights much better. There
are never any meek surrenders by mullet. Jumps, runs, change
of directions and slugging it out amongst the weed beds. Which
all make for fantastic fly fishing. Take your time and enjoy
the lively fish on the end of your line, you shouldn't be in
any rush to get the fish in as a 'green' mullet will only break
tippets or slip the hook.
Picture : Members
of the Newcastle Fly Rodders club enjoying a mullet session in
the western entrance of the Swansea Channel.
Mullet have been known to take
the dry fly too. A few weeks ago my wife came back from her evening
walk with the dog and told me she could hardly breathe near the
water without taking in a mouthful of flying insects they filled
the air to such a degree. It only took me a few minutes to gather
my gear before I was flying out the door and racing down the
road to the water 800 metres from home. The water of the small
bay was littered with flying termites and all over the silk smooth
water were rises and then more rises. For the next 45 minutes
I had a ball casting size 16 and 18 black and brown termite and
ant dry flies (Skip Morris foam style) at bream and mullet. A
fly fishing mate who lives near me still hasn't forgiven me for
not calling him, but I could not stop casting to allow time to
ring him on my mobile phone, I may of missed a fish. After casting
to one fish and landing it, there would always be another rising
just a little further on. And another… and another…….All
too soon it was finished. Man, what a rush! Fantastic fishing!
Well I hope that gets you started,
tell your spouse you will be late home, way into the dark hours
of the night as it is very hard to leave the water with the fish
still boiling. We normally only leave because we have run out
of berley, so as long as you have berley the mullet will keep
boiling. Mullet are good fighters too, not too bad eating if
killed, gutted and iced down straight away, later to be cooked
gently. Mullet do smell and taste quite fishy. So as there are
better eating fish out there, if you don't need them, treat them
gently and release them. Those you keep, remember to use saltwater
to clean saltwater fish, I am told freshwater can make the flesh
of saltwater species powdery. When cleaning any fillets at home,
just fill a container with tap water and add a small handful
of coarse salt to wash your fillets in.
You can also apply the same fly
fishing methods for garfish but scale down the size of the hooks
used for the flies you tie, as too northern milkfish but scale
up the size of your flies. Between a couple of swoffers you can
catch fifty to a hundred gar in a session in the waters of the
Spencer Gulf, SA, better eating too. Suggest using your lighter
weight rods (3w and under) for the gar, light tippets too. It
can be quite interesting if some larger tommy ruff or salmon
trout show up in the berley trail as they often do in this area.
Had a ball with all three species when working in Whyalla, South
Australia (in between Australian Salmon, giant kingies, KG whiting
and snapper).
Now to the flies you can tie and use.
There are a few basic bread fly designs :-
- Spun and trimmed deer hair bread
cubes
- Chenille, dubbed, wool or craft/rug
yarn dough balls
- Foam based bread cubes
- Palmered hackle body bread cubes
- Sinking and floating
- Plus others??? Every one has
their own 'sure thing' killer mullet fly so ask your local swoffers
as to the killer fly for your area.
Species other then mullet go
for bread berley and bread flies too including - carp, redfin,
bream, whiting, garfish, drummer, silver trevally, milkfish,
larger baitfish species like tommy ruff and yellowtail scad and
there are many more species that will visit your berley trail.
Other mullet fly options include trout flies like bloodworm midge,
suspender midge and other midge patterns, caddis moth patterns
(Goddard), flying termite and ant patterns.
Step By Step Tying Instructions
And Images For The Two Prime Flies I Use
No 1 - Deer Hair Bread Cube
Fly
Recipe
Hook : Size 10 (in this case Mustad 34007, but other lighter
gauge hooks could be used)
Thread : White size 'G' or larger, even rod binding thread
Body : White deer hair for white bread cubes.
Tan deer hair for wholemeal bread cubes.
Tying Instructions and images
1) Tie in thread at hook
bend (only).
2) Using your deer flank hair patch. Take a clump two to three
match thicknesses (until you get use to spinning deer hair use
smaller clumps), remove fluff from base and trim tips.
3) Hold in place on top of hook shank.
4) Wrap the clump loosely (not too loose) three times with your
thread.
5) While hanging on to the clump with your fingers tighten the
thread. This will cause the deer hair to start to rotate around
the hook shank. The deer hair will also flare as the thread tightens.
The timing of releasing your grip on the deer hair clump will
cause success or not so good success of your hair spinning. Practice
makes perfect, your ugly flies will work too though loosely packed
flies will not float as well as tightly packed ones. Making deer
hair bread flies is a good way to practice the skills for tying
bass surface flies like dalbergs, frogs and sliders or muddler
trout flies.
6) Push the spun hair tight against itself and wrap thread a
couple times in front of the hair - pushing it too up against
the spun hair. A half hitch secures it in place. Skip Morris
(US fly tier extraordinaire) adds drop of head cement or places
epoxy on his thread to further lock in the deer hair and add
more durability to spun deer hair flies - for simple bread flies
I don't do this but feel free to do so yourself.
7) Repeat steps 2 through to 6 until hook shank is filled with
spun hair.
8) Using a half hitch tool, or just holding hair out of the way,
tie off thread with three half hitches (or what ever knot you
use to tie off your thread). Adding a drop of super glue or head
cement to the knot to secure it further.
9) Using scissors trim bottom of fly, at hook gape, flat.
10) Trim top and sides till your fly is cube shaped. I then spray
the fly with floatant and brush on some head cement over the
top of the cube for a little more durability. You can tidy you
flies up a bit more than I do if you wish, but 'fugly' flies
do get eaten too.
No 2 - White Fuzzy Bread Fly
- Sinking version
Recipe
Hook : #12 - #10 Mustard 80250BR (shrimp/caddis hook) or Mustad
34007
Thread : White or chartreuse
Body : White Chenille, wool or Egg yarn
Hackle: to white cock hackles
Tying Instructions and images
1) Lay down a bed of
thread, advancing thread to the hook bend
2) Tie in 2 white dry fly cock hackles (long ones, barbule length
not critical - at least greater then hook gape width) at the
hook bend.
3) Tie in end of body material of chenille or wool
4) Wrap hook shank with a single layer of the body material.
Tie off and trim excess body material at hook eye.
5) Palmer hackles together and very closely over the body material
towards the hook eye. Tie off and trim excess hackle at hook
eye. Tie off and trim thread too.
6) Trim hackle barbules to desired shape. I normal just trim
the butt end and front to level with hook bend and start of hook
eye. Trim the sides and top the width of the hook gape. Hoping
to get a fly the size of the berley I may use, if a little smaller.
White Woolly Bread Bugger
This fly that has been the next most successful in my fly box
for mullet and other bread fly species after the above two flies.
It is a larger fly I sometimes get my biggest mullet on who are
hanging right out the back of the school and the things happening
in close. A great carp or drummer fly too as you can use a stronger
hook for these species. This to put the hurts on as you sometimes
have to do, especially for the drummer off rock platforms or
for the larger carp in a backwater filled with logs and other
snags.
Recipe
Hook : Streamer 3x Long - Tiemco TMC 9395 #4 - #8
Thread : White
Tail: White Chickabou or marabou
Body : Albino Peacock herl - if you cannot get that, white wool
or white Chenille
Hackle: A large white cock hackle or a small saddle hackle
Tying Instructions and images
1) Lay down a bed of
thread, advancing thread to the hook bend
2) Tie in tail material
3) Tie in a white cock from the back of a neck cape or a finer
saddle hackle at the hook bend (a long hackle or use two short
ones - palmer one, then tie in another where it ends and continue).
Hackle barbule width only slightly longer to 2 times the hook
gape width.
4) Tie in end of body material of 5 - 8 albino peacock herl pieces
5) Twist herl into rope and wrap a single layer over the hook
shank. Tie off and trim excess body material at hook eye.
6) Palmer hackle with hackle wraps evenly spaced. Tie off and
trim excess hackle at hook eye. Tie off and trim thread too.
You can build a small thread
head. You can also add some lead wire under the body material
if you want to fish the fly a little deeper, though I haven't
found the need to add lead wire yet.
This fly is cast right out the
back of the boiling fish and slowly stripped in - intermediate
line best. Thickness of palmer important, it should be not too
thick but thicker than a standard Woolly Bugger. No tandem rig
just this fly on the end of the tippet.
Other bread flies that you
could use
Fuzzy Bread Fly by Andrew
White
Recipe
Hook : Long shank size 12.
Thread : Any white.
Tail : A few strands of white hackle.
Hackle : White or grizzly palmered.
Body : White floss or white calf body hair dubbed.
Tying Instructions
Tie in hackle at bend of hook. Make body. Palmer hackle to eye
of hook and whip finish.
Dough Ball Fly (a great drummer
fly in size 6)
Recipe
Hook : size 12 (Mustad 2451 or 80250BR)
Thread : White
Body : Salmon or trout egg ball
Or for larger sizes check out you local craft store for pom-pom
type craft balls.
Tying Instructions
Push egg ball over hook point and around hook bend till positioned
on hook shank. Attach thread to front third of hook shank. Add
a drop of super glue to thread. Push egg ball over thread while
super glue still wet. You could figure 'X' wrap the ball on the
hook point side for extra durability.
Bread Cube Fly - Foam
Recipe
Hook : size 12 (Mustad 2451 or similar)
Thread : chartreuse, red or fluoro Orange as a beacon to help
see the fly better
Body : White Closed cell foam from a cheap kids bath toy, EVAFoam
or Rainy's Foam
Tying Instructions
Lay down bed of thread. Cut a pointed oval or a diamond shaped
piece of foam. Extending foam towards and past the rear of the
fly tie in one end of the foam. Advance thread to hook eye. Fold
foam over itself and the hook shank and tie in other end of foam.
Then tie off thread
Chenille Bread Ball - Sinking
Recipe
Hook : Mustard 34007 size 10
Thread : White or chartreuse
Body : White Chenille, wool or Egg yarn
Tying Instructions
Lay down bed of thread. Tie in body material at hook bend. Advance
thread to hook eye. Wrap hook shank with body material. Tie off.
Trim excess body material. Tie off thread.
Yeastie Beastie
Recipe
Hook : Dry fly hook 16 -18
Thread : White
Body : Antron yarn.
Tying Instructions
Tie in thread at hook bend. Attach a length of antron yarn. Advance
thread to hook eye. Attach antron yarn at hook eye. Ensuring
yarn between tie in points is a little loose. Leaving tags of
antron yarn at either end. That's it, just the two tie in points
and fluffed up antron yarn. You can use teddy bear filling available
from craft stores.
Long casts, tight lines and fast
fish
Richard (LIPS) Carter
