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It's 11pm, and the is a school of something close to the bathrooms. Just kinda swimming lazily in circles. They are dark on top, and silver on the sides. Look to be about a foot long.
weve tossed bubble rigs and gotchas through them, and they ignore it.
Any ifrads of what hat it could be??
from what I know but I'm no expert is that it's a school of mullet. they seem to swim in circles sometimes and are about a foot long
Mullet. They won't bite a hook. They can be legally snagged. It's the only way of catching them, other than cast-netting, which you can't do from the pier. They sell snatch hooks in the bait/tackle shop at the pier. You have to be especially careful because those weighted treble hooks could do a lot of damage if they hooked a person. Otherwise, mullet put a good pull on your string, they're easy to clean and they are great eating.
Love snatching mullet when nothing else is happening
Yep, sounds like mullet.
Fresh mullet introduced to corn meal & hot grease is very nice.
But this is one fish that definitely has to be eaten fresh and within a few days of being caught.
The roe is a delicacy, cured & dried, its very popular along in Italy, Spain & in most of Asia.
I have read that mullet can be chummed up with oatmeal and caught using a #22(ish) hook and a bit of oatmeal (or plastic bait) on a fly rod.
Never tried it, though.
Anybody ever hear of that or know more about it? I assume you have to soak the oatmeal enough to swell it, but not so much it sinks.
Edit: Don't worry, I ain't bringing a fly rod to the pier.
It's a tight rope that you'd have to walk, getting individual oat flakes moist enough that they're not brittle, and yet not so wet that they fall apart when you put a hook through them. The hook would have to be tiny, yet stout enough to withstand the pull of the mullet. I get the part about needing a fly rod, because you couldn't cast anything so light and the wind couldn't be blowing because your oat flakes would never make it to the water.Quote:
Originally Posted by frednic
Maybe one day I'll experiment with the idea.
The article I read said that the difficulty with the oatmeal was why they used a tiny bit of white plastic grub floated in among the oatmeal. I imagine you have to get the mullet trained to the oatmeal - like maybe over a period of time off the same dock.Quote:
Originally Posted by eym_sirius
The article said that once you get them going it's pretty hot catching until they get hook wise.
They school up in the late summer and fall before going offshore to spawn. That's probably the time to try.
People also use small bits of worms on tiny hooks.
Lot easier to just throw a cast net.
Easy for some. That's one skill that has eluded me.Quote:
Originally Posted by CarlF
Those will (VERY occasionally) feed on carcasses dropped overboard (when the sharks don't beat them to it ;-)
Old pier memory: several schools were feeding on carcasses one day (you could see them gather up on it in the clear water) and we started catching them on gold hook rigs dropped in right behind the carcass.
Way, way, way back I remember catching them at my great aunt's house on Dog River on cane pole (line & #8 hook) with wigglers.
But my aunt used to 'chum' them daily with rabbit pellets and cotton seed cake.
A two pound mullet puts up quite a tussle on a cane pole!
I'd imagine after weeding through 500 ladyfish, the cast net would be the way to go. Them varmints would eat their own shadow.
You could catch them on onion rings, fried okra and french fries in October in the ICW by Lulu's. At one point they looked like pond raised catfish being fed.
Thanks for the info!!
I've read a bit on catching them from English sources and they would add as bait choices bread balls on small hooks. Fine leaders and florocarbon is recommended in clear water but they sometimes use a small float for distance.