There are heaps of mullet around our bay beaches, inlets, in the surf and in our estuaries.

There are times when they seem to be the only fish around so at least you can catch something and not go home empty handed.

Yellow eye mullet, the most common mullet in these Victorian waters is a schooling fish….so if you get one, there’ll be others.

This means you can attract and keep them in the area using berley and this increases your chances of catching a few in your session.

The gear for mullet is a basic light line set up….anywhere from a 2 to 5 kg rod with a 2000 to 3000 reel, 2 to 4 kg line and small sinker(just heavy enough to hold bottom). This is good all round gear and is the way I started.

Mullet have small mouths so small hooks are the go, sizes from 14 to 10 work well.

Another addition to your gear that adds to the excitement is using a float. I still love fishing with floats. They are the best indicator of biting fish and there’s nothing quite like watching a float sail away as a hungry fish takes your bait.

I use long thin stick floats with a few split shot to keep all but the tip of the float underwater. You want the float to offer almost no resistance to the fish pulling on the bait. This gives the fish confidence that the bait is “SAFE”!

Big round plastic and poly floats have too much resistance and don’t work as well… in my book!

During summer you’ll see small mullet on the surface of the water darting around looking for food…these are not the target. You’re after their bigger cousins on the bottom and this is where you put your bait.

To attract mullet all you need is bread crumbs….they love ’em!

Mix some water with half a kilo of bread crumbs and you have plenty of “attraction” for a good session.

Some people use stale bread. I tend to use bread crumbs rather than a soaked loaf of bread or stale slices. These tend to float off and this can take the fish with them.

Bread crumbs can be moulded into small lumps that sink and keep the fish in the area.

Baits for mullet are easy…just about anything will do…but my favourites are dough, small pieces of fish like pilchard, pippies and bread squeezed on the hook.

Make the bait small enough so the mullet cant tear off pieces….they have to swallow the whole thing!

You don’t need a boat to catch mullet, and while they are common up to 25cm I have occasionally hooked much large specimens …and they fought like salmon!

So what’s the approach to landing these fish?

It first depends on where you’re fishing.

If you’re on a pier – a berley pot is the way to go.

Fill the pot with bits of bread, berley pellets, a bit of tuna oil, old bait…in fact anything fishy , and that’ll bring them in….the tide and current will do all the work for you.

 Lower the pot to the bottom and it will send out an invitation to all the fish in the area.

Once this is working, cast your bait into the berley trail and wait for the action.

To add to the attraction you can use a berley cage on your line. This takes the place of a sinker and you press a little berley into it for each cast. This puts berley on the bottom really close to your bait and works a treat with mullet.

Mullet seem to be around at just about every stage of the tide but an incoming tide, especially the 2 hours either side of high tide are the best conditions….but there are always exceptions. I have caught truckloads at low tide in the middle of the day.

If you fish the surf you will need gear heavy enough to deal with the force of the waves…but the good thing is that mullet usually take the bait pretty well in the surf…just like most other fish.

I once fished at Rye surf beach and spread about a kilo of berley in the shallows to bring the fish in. At one point the sun came out and there was a break in the waves….and in the flat water in front of me was absolutely full of small mullet, all about 20cm long. It was amazing, they were in less than a metre of water and had been attracted by the berley.

I started casting into the shallow water and the action really picked up…I was getting a bite every cast and landing plenty…and to keep the action going I kept throwing handfuls of berley into the shallows…I kept this going until I’d had enough and started casting further out for the bigger fish.

If you are fishing estuaries and bay beaches mullet can be a whole lot more picky and hard to hook.

When I fish these areas I usually touch fish and this gives great results and adds a bit of excitement. If you’ve got kids with you this can be pretty exciting for them as they feel every bite, knock and touch of the fish. Check out my blog on “How to catch fish – without looking”  to find out how it’s done.

Mullet can be a little hard to hook at times. They’ll play with the bait…pick it up and quickly drop it without swallowing. You can’t catch a fish when the hook isn’t in its mouth (unless you foul hook it).

They way to get past this is:

1. Get plenty of fish in the area with your berley…this will cause competition so they have to quickly eat something or lose it to others.
2. Hold your rod and don’t strike on the little “Tap, tap” bites. Wait till the rod tip pulls round before striking.
3. If you are using a running sinker – change to a fixed sinker, slightly heavier in weight. This causes the fish to hook itself as it tries to lift the bait and the weight with it.
4. When a fish takes your bait and the rod bends round then GENTLY lift the rod about 90 degrees to set the hook…this gentle lift stops the hook being pulled out of the fish’s mouth…it works most of the time.

You also need to keep tension on the line to make sure the hook stays in their mouth. Mullet have soft flesh around the mouth that is easily broken…so keeping then tension on will get them to the bank.

If I was setting up a mullet “target” rod I would go for a 3.6 metre rod fitted with a quiver tip to register small bites. I’d put a small 2500 reel on this with 2kilo braid and a 2 metre, 2kilo monofilament leader through to a small berley cage and size 12 hook…but this is specialised and gives an idea of what works best for me.

…and catching small mullet has its added benefits – they make great live bait for larger species.

I’ve used small, live mullet to catch some very big flathead. On one trip to Mallacoota, in East Gippsland,  live mullet were the only thing that brought in the big “flatties”…

…and by “big” I mean 62cm and above!

I’d spend an hour in the morning catching small mullet and used them shortly after to hook big  flat head….now that’s a win/win if ever there was one.

Mullet are a good “backup” fish for any angler who needs a fishing “hit” and wants a reasonable chance of catching something.

They’re also great for kids which really adds to the fun…

…and one added “extra” is the skill benefit you get in learning to hook a fish…if you can get good at hooking the smaller mullet, you’ll improve your ability to hook anything…and that’s got to be a good outcome!

So there you go. Enjoy the mullet fishing experience.

They’re  easy to catch, fun to hook and good to eat…it’s win/win/win really!