Altamaha Mullet

Reel Big-uns

Senior Member
Me and my son is gone-au get us some today.:fine:
Let ya know tonight how we did!::;
 

Silver Bullet

Senior Member
I sure could use some frozen mullet heads if he slays them...
 
B

breampole

Guest
mullet

Man I sure was sorry I had to back out. I had been up all night when I called this morning around 6:30 to renig. Plus had some stuff had to do today. Wife accused me of getting old. :D She's right. Hope yall loaded the boat and won't give up on me.
 

Reel Big-uns

Senior Member
Got to the ramp around 8:00 AM.

Heavy mist on the water prevented us from being able to see where the submerged sandbars were and winding up having to get out and float/push our J16 Skiff a little ways to clear one that we found.

The river had been up and down a couple of times due to recent rains and had the water a little stained with the tell-tell sign the river had risen some by the floating foam and debris but for the most part of recent days it has been on the fall.

After we had set out the salt block and rabbit feed, it wasn’t long before the mullet started showing up.
My son, Jason, started getting bite after bite and catching fish.

I struggled for nearly 2 hours with hardly anything happening.

After trying everything I could come up with, to be the problem, I finally discovered, apparently, my fishing line was too heavy and too visible because, once I switched to a 6 lb. test, the game was finally on for me.

The fish seemed to be more sluggish today than what they usually are and I’m thinking it was from a combination of water conditions and the east winds that were blowing.
We got some reports from some of Jason’s friends, who had been farther up river, that mullet were being caught at another sandbar that can be accessed by vehicle, preferably by 4WD, where there were 4 different groups fishing .

After we had used up two salt blocks, around 2:00 PM, we had caught approximately only about 20-25 fish and since the bite was slow and the fact that I’d worked the night before and also had to work tonight and, also 4 other groups had moved in to fish the same bar we were and it was beginning to get a little crowded, we decided to not set out a third salt block and to call it a day.

About half our catch were good whole fryers but the majority of the rest were as big as the largest size you’ll ever see in a fish market and one was, I believe, the biggest I’ve ever seen.

Being I’d not had any sleep, I came home and got a shower and some ZZZ’s.
Jason took the fish home with him and cleaned and cooked some for supper.

So tonight I’m having fresh fried and also, grilled mullet.
We are hoping the river will get some more water in it and then settle down to where the mullet fishing will, maybe, get better.

Friends let me tell you, these mullet will give you one of the best fights for a fish in their size class and are one of the best tasting of any mullet you’ll ever eat’ from any other place.
 
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Reel Big-uns

Senior Member
I sure could use some frozen mullet heads if he slays them...
Bullet, I'm afraid it's too late to accommodate you on the mullet heads but I'll try to keep you in mine for our next trip.

What do you do with them?
 

Danny Leigh

GONetwork Member
Great post inspector! What do you use on the hook?

Have any idea why the mullet are attracted to the salt and rabbit food and does this method just work in the rivers?
 

Reel Big-uns

Senior Member
Man I sure was sorry I had to back out. I had been up all night when I called this morning around 6:30 to renig. Plus had some stuff had to do today. Wife accused me of getting old. :D She's right. Hope yall loaded the boat and won't give up on me.

BP don't concern yourself, we both know if you're not able to do something you have planned, it is for good reason. I've heard old is a state of mine, but I think those that say that lives in another state.
I'll turn 60, this Oct. and reel-ly beginning to understand what you mean.

Jason would never give up on you because he knows what a good friend he has in you.
He's just as much anxious as you, if not more, for you to get with him on a mullet trip.

Believe me if you ever get on them you'll be hooked more than the fish.
 

Reel Big-uns

Senior Member
Great post inspector! What do you use on the hook?

Have any idea why the mullet are attracted to the salt and rabbit food and does this method just work in the rivers?
::ke:Mullet bait!!:bounce:

Just kidding.
Red wigglers, about 1 inch long, hooked in the middle.

If the bite is good, I thread the hook through the worm all the way up the shank to the eye and then pinch it off, right at the tip of the point.

Mullet migrates up the rivers but are more adapted for salt and brackish water and when they can find any salty water this far from their natural habitat then they'll take advantage of the salty water around a salt block as a little taste of home.

We use rabbit feed just as a convenience.

They are primarily vegetarians and most any grain based food can be used to bait them up, i.e. oatmeal balls, soybean meal cakes, rabbit feed, chicken laying mash and the such and they will also feed on most anything of opportunity much like a chicken.
 
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breampole

Guest
Mullet

I'd rather eat mullet than any fish that swims. Used to seine some for them at the coast and get 100+. filet off the skin and bone and as long as no bone or skin will keep in the freezer for several months. Anywhere there is skin or bone will turn to mush in the freezer, but I guess you know that.

Funny about that line ain't it. Fish may see better than we think or it may be how the bait acts in the water--heavy line will cause it to not float natural. In the fifties plenty of bass and jack caught on thick black or camo braided nylon line. In the sixties Shakespeare had a black mono out that was used a lot. I think it is more how the float of the bait is. I use 8lb bream fishing in the river. Might be better using 6.

What do you look for in water below a sandbar regarding depth and current? I was bream fishing last year when the river was real low right at the landing at Easons Bluff in that back water to the left as you face the river and the mullet were jumping there in the slow moving water a the edge of that back water. Also what size hook 6 or 8 or 10? I'm going to rig up a couple of spinners just for mullet so I'll be ready when we do go.
 

Reel Big-uns

Senior Member
I'd rather eat mullet than any fish that swims. Used to seine some for them at the coast and get 100+. filet off the skin and bone and as long as no bone or skin will keep in the freezer for several months. Anywhere there is skin or bone will turn to mush in the freezer, but I guess you know that.

Funny about that line ain't it. Fish may see better than we think or it may be how the bait acts in the water--heavy line will cause it to not float natural. In the fifties plenty of bass and jack caught on thick black or camo braided nylon line. In the sixties Shakespeare had a black mono out that was used a lot. I think it is more how the float of the bait is. I use 8lb bream fishing in the river. Might be better using 6.

What do you look for in water below a sandbar regarding depth and current? I was bream fishing last year when the river was real low right at the landing at Easons Bluff in that back water to the left as you face the river and the mullet were jumping there in the slow moving water a the edge of that back water. Also what size hook 6 or 8 or 10? I'm going to rig up a couple of spinners just for mullet so I'll be ready when we do go.
Thanks for the freezing tip.
I really didn't know about the difference it would make to remove the bones and skin before freezing

Slow moving water around 38-46 inches deep. Stick down a rod stake that will stick up about 2-3 ft. out of the water and then place a salt block 14-18 inches upstream from it, then position your boat far enough where you can use the rigging I’ve described below, upstream (about 20-25 ft. upstream) with anchors at the bow and stern to where one end is pointing toward the sandbar and the other toward the river and the rod will be about half way the boat where you will be fishing off to the side of the boat and your line will be in close proximity of the salt block to where you can hold the line tight in the current and the bait will stay down.

Throw out about 3-4 hand fulls of feed around the salt block in about a 3-4 ft. radius area..

You can sit in the boat or stand in the water, beside the boat.

I was using a #6 gold Friday but an Aberdeen will work.
Would not hurt to have a couple of #8’s and #4’s in case you have to make an adjustment according to how aggressive they are feeding.

Jason was using a treble but I’m not sure what size.
We use a foam float about one and a half inches long that has the pegs in each end and enough weight to submerge it 2/3 to ¾ of its length. With the weights 4-5 inches above the hook.
An 8-10 ft. rod is ideal. Some folks uses 12-14 ft. cane poles.
 

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breampole

Guest
:biggrin3: Talk about answering a question . . . you went above and beyond. Thanks I really appreciate that. 'Course if I go it will most likely be with Jason and You, unless I get a real hankering during the week. Being simi retired I have the luxury of being able to take off during the week which has its disadvantages like no work no pay. I like fishing by myself; gets real meditative, and usually don't try real hard to catch anything--just enjoying my thoughts and the view of our great outdoors. Amazing all the birds and critters and reptiles you see when you aren't trying too hard to fish. Again thanks. I'm saving this thread to my favorits on the computer.

I have only heard of people fishing for mullet with worms or wrapping little balls of that green algae slim on a hook. Worms are messy, but I think I'd rather deal with them. And I guess you are using the thin red wrigglers? As opposed to GA Giants or what ever they choose to call the European Night Crawler?

The only time I have ever been mullet fishing was with a friend and fishing partner who is now departed from this life on earth. We had gone to Darien and put in at the city ramp and were catfishing the Darien river. Had caught plenty of frying size cats probably 75-80, mostly blues, and then tried the mullet. We changed to smaller hook, probably #6 or #8 aberdeen and added corks went to split shot weight and found a non current place of backwater under the 17 bridge I think in the Champney river--about 4 rivers flow parallel to each other, Altamaha, Butler, Champney and Darien with cuts so you can get to all four. Did nothing there so went to another place of dead water off Catfish Creek and caught 3 or 4 over a 40 minute period of time. Neither of us wanted sit there for that; so went back to catfishing with the time we had left. I remember the mullet were good size and fought with wide runs. Oh reason I started this--we would pinch off pieces of Earthworms about 1/4 inch long and thread it on the hook. (we had grunted a few hundred Earthworms. There was a man here at that time who, if you let him know in advance and how many you wanted, would go grunt them for you for a price, but these we had grunted ourselves.) My friend was a long time mullet fisherman, but had gotten where he didn't want to sit and wait on feeding time. He was that way about trout fishing. His idea was to catch fish and we could catch a mixture consisting of 60-100 of whiting, croaker, summer trout, drum etc fishing on the bottom, and he was not about to waste his time looking at a cork float. We would hit a few drops sometime and if we caught a few trout fine, but we mostly bottom fished Village creek and the Hampton River.

Sorry for the long post and getting off the thread topic. Can't help myself. There was a man here who I'll call Herbert, because that was his name, who trout fished all the time and was one of the best you have ever seen. He could catch trout on 9 ft tides during a Northeasterner. I saw Herbert one day and he told me he had caught 75 trout the day before. I went running to my friend and said, "Man we need to go. Herbert just told me he caught 75 trout yesterday. My friend looked at me with this quizzical screwed up look on his face and said, "Bob, if Herbert didn't catch but 75, it ain't time for me and you to go yet." No limits in those days.

I'll get back on the mullet topic and end with this. Used to hear when I was a boy about people going out in the tidal water at night in a jon boat with a lantern and the Mullet would jump to the lantern and land in the boat. People called it mullet jumping. I saw some people doing that one night, but don't know if they were successful and also people would get where the mullet congrgated and use several large treble hooks on a stout line tied to the end of a very long and stout pole and snatch them when they would feel the fish bump the hooks. A man let me try that one time, but I wasn't fast enough. He however was putting them on the hill. Mullet are not considered game fish and I think all that was and still is legal.
 
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ribber

Senior Member
Thanks for the freezing tip.
I really didn't know about the difference it would make to remove the bones and skin before freezing

Slow moving water around 38-46 inches deep. Stick down a rod stake that will stick up about 2-3 ft. out of the water and then place a salt block 14-18 inches upstream from it, then position your boat far enough where you can use the rigging I’ve described below, upstream (about 20-25 ft. upstream) with anchors at the bow and stern to where one end is pointing toward the sandbar and the other toward the river and the rod will be about half way the boat where you will be fishing off to the side of the boat and your line will be in close proximity of the salt block to where you can hold the line tight in the current and the bait will stay down.

Throw out about 3-4 hand fulls of feed around the salt block in about a 3-4 ft. radius area..

You can sit in the boat or stand in the water, beside the boat.

I was using a #6 gold Friday but an Aberdeen will work.
Would not hurt to have a couple of #8’s and #4’s in case you have to make an adjustment according to how aggressive they are feeding.

Jason was using a treble but I’m not sure what size.
We use a foam float about one and a half inches long that has the pegs in each end and enough weight to submerge it 2/3 to ¾ of its length. With the weights 4-5 inches above the hook.
An 8-10 ft. rod is ideal. Some folks uses 12-14 ft. cane poles.

when the bite is subtle and you can't seem to hook them, a treble hook can be deadly. i always use 2 lightweight 10' bream busters. one with a #10 treble hook and the other with a #6 plain shank both with 4 or 6 lb. line. when the bite is aggressive i'll switch to the #6 hook. we take as many salt blocks as we can load in the boat and keep fresh ones in the water at all times. that makes all the difference.
 
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breampole

Guest
you must fish pretty close to your salt blocks if you use ten foot poles. I have several 10 foot poles and would prefer to use them. You use same cork and weight rig as outlined by Scale Inspector?

Anything else to add? U use Rabbit food? Worms for bait?

My mouth is watering. Thought of some mullet may just get these old bones to moving.
 

ribber

Senior Member
we always fish in the water and yes,close to salt blocks. i've waded out to check salt and someone catch a mullet right beside me. i have fished out of boat when water is high but it can get really hot sitting in a boat in july with no shade. i rig my pole with 1-2" cork and split shot heavy enough for red wiggler to sink quickly but not so much that more than 1/2-2/3" of float is submerged. a mullet has a 'sucker' mouth and it tears easily so a hard hook set is not necesary. sometimes, even in still water, your cork will barely move or twitch and you'll think nothing of it until your worm gets gone. you'll want to use red wigglers or the big reds and hook him so @ 1/2 to 3/4" of tail hangs. we always take rabbit food or meal cakes but i personally think it's not neccesary. i've heard people swear by certain locations but i've personally had better luck on the down current end of sand bar with just enough current to carry salt but not so much you can't fish with cork.
 
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