Big mullet - what are they feeding on?

[Holls]

Lake Burrill is teeming with mullet at the moment, all sizes some pretty big and all feeding around the surface when the sun is setting. What the hell are they eating? I thought I'd catch a few for bait but they won't touch anything. Even got the fly rod out, waded in and chucked a range of wet and dry flies at them. No takes. Popping the surface all around me. Put a plastic bait catcher in with bread, burleyed up, nothing. Any ideas?

[mitchie18092]

Caught some literally half an hour ago. Plenty of soaked white bread burley, then on a smallish long shank hook just squeeze some bread around the shank and leave a fluffy little tail above the barb so it won't sink straight away. Light leader too - 10lb fluro max

[Yowie]

Holls, they are probably sea mullet, which usually do not take a bait. They are moving back into the lakes right now from the ocean.

Sand mullet and yellow eye mullet are different, they will readily take a bait (bread, dough, worms, prawn pieces, small nippers)

[Holls]

Thanks guys. Yowie, I must do a bit of research on this, sounds likely. On the hot day 2 days ago, they were EVERYWHERE, even right up to the shoreline, tailor busting them up. I chucked a lure out and caught 6 or 7 little tailor in about 15 minutes, released obviously. Tonight, a lot colder, hardly any mullet all, but did see a couple of bigger ones jump out of the water as the sun was setting. I'm new to the area (from Victoria) so on a big learning curve. Just LOVE it up here!

[Busy-livin]

Lake CONJOLA is the same at sunset there busting up and jumping and there decent size.. Makes me sooooooo angry the time and baits and lures I've used trying to hook one , whole school swims straight past them not even looking slightly interested

[oldsalty]

hey, the big mullet you see that jump and school up in full view in the shallows don't eat bait. They feed on some sort of algae in the water column and apparently jump to clear their gills of something. they will occasionally smack a lure out of territorial reasons to get it off their turf cause they are annoyed, they don't eat small fish or crustaceons, the mullet you have caught are probably silver mullet which like get big, but not as big as the others. ive had this convo with numerous novice fisherman asking why cant we catch these big fish that are jumping all around us.

[SgtBundy]

If I remember some events from my childhood correctly, the trick is to be out at night in a boat with a bright light, and they jump in for you... I distinctly remember multiple hessian sacks filled using that method.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[elferoz777]

I used to get heaps in the rivers off lake Illawarra. As mentioned above, long shank bread and/or dough but I put it under a float. Got a 50cm plus mullet on a kids rod once.

[Holls]

Stood in about two feet of water and chucked out crumbled up wet bread for half an hour, not touched. Put a little floater on a line 80cm lead to small long shank hook, put on bits of fresh prawn. Caught a couple of baby bream and then an undersized luderick - in Burrill Lake. But NO MULLET ha ha. I think you are right oldsalty, they just don't eat in the way other fish do. But PLENTY of fish eat them!

Edited November 4, 2014 by Holls