Mullet & Bream....and tangles

[MainframeJames]

Hey Raiders,

Got out this morning as a guest on @antonywardle's boat. Antony very generously offered to show me the ropes catching mullet with his special mullet rigs, and did not disappoint!

We were also joined by Antony's young fella, who is not only a keen fisho, he's great fun too.

We launched from The Entrance about 9:45 am and made the quick motor over to the markers. Within a minute flat of burley hitting the water, it was boiling with mullet. Lines in the water as fast as we could manage, and bringing in fish almost as fast. After a quick few right around the legal mark, the little fella was on with something more substantial. After what turned out to be quite an exciting fight that even included a good run, he pulled in a stonker of a mullet about 40cm, nice and fat. 

Gentleman that he is, after his first mullet he offered me the next few to reel in myself. The first one turned out to be a bream. The second one followed shortly, also a bream. Thankfully, on the third hookup the streak broke and I landed my first ever mullet. Not huge, but big enough at 27cm.

Somehow during all of this, Antony managed to get a prawn down and very soon was pulling in his own fish, this one a flatty just under legal size. Soon after that, I pulled in what turned out to be the largest bream of the day, although that wasn't saying much. Antony and I got a few more solid hits but only landed some small bream. We did very successfully, as little fella reminded us, "feed a lot of fish instead of catching them".

The mullet continued to come in waves for hours, we never had all the lines in the water at once. This was in part thanks to the wind wreaking havoc with the 4lb line, which if I recall, we untangled a grand total of 148 times.

As lunch time passed, we discussed coming in but of course it's so hard to quit with the fish still biting. We ended up staying out til almost 2 pm, when I landed a nice fat 30 cm mullet. Quitting on a high note, we motored in with an esky of mullet and 3 very happy fishos.

To finish, Antony gave me a quick lesson in cleaning mullet, and the pelicans were on hand for a feed, one even sticking his head right onto the cleaning table to try to get at the fish.

I kept a small one for bait, but tempation struck and I filleted in and battered it and shallow fried. With a bit of lemon squeezed over, it was quite the treat and my wife even gave me permission to catch more fish to eat.

Thanks for a great day out Antony and little fella!

[mrsswordfisherman]

Good work and raider spirit Antony.

You have been nominated for a Mentor badge - same awarded and well deserved

 

[Regan]

good report mate

mullet are very fun on light gear

[rickmarlin62]

great report   good onya antony....love mullet on bread...fish don't have to be big to be fun ...rick

[antonywardle]

That was a great read @MainframeJames and thank you for your kind words, Great to meet up with you. Going by your name, I was expecting a grizzly old Unix admin. How wrong was I. There are a few of us in the IT business. I'm please that you had a good time and more importantly that you were able to catch a couple of new species. As @Regan says, great fun on light gear. Thanks for removing the hook from my finger, just after I had warned you about how easy it can happen when the mullet get excited when you try and take them off the hook. ! We must have been doing something right as we also had the osprey swoop in and pick up a mullet from the bread burley trail. That was a first for me. Glad that you tried eating the mullet, they can be a bit under rated, but being so oily, they are really good for you. @mrsswordfisherman, thanks for the nomination Donna. I've been lucky to know a few people who have given me some advice to help me get started, and its good to help out others, I know how disheartening it can be to put in a lot of hours and not get much return, plus I like meeting up with other raiders. 

I'm enjoying being able to spend some time with the young fella while he is young and still wants to hang out with me. I must try and remember that he is only six, and that tangles happen. He had an absolute ball and was very excited to show mum his mullet. I probably had him out there a bit long, but when the fish are biting, time flies! 

The Entrance was pretty shallow near the boat ramp,  has anyone else notice this?

 

I've just noticed my shiny new badge. Thanks!

 

Edited November 20, 2017 by antonywardle
new badge!

[geshy]

good report boys