Sunshine Coast Mullet on Fly 2010

The latter half of 2010 saw me spending way too much time targetting both sand mullet (Mugil elongatus) and sea mullet (Mugil cephalus) in my local waterways (both estuary and landlocked lakes) here on the Sunshine Coast. Many people would wonder why anyone would spend so much time targetting a bread and butter species only good for (in their narrow opinion) as bait - what a waste of a good sportfish. Mullet have very keen eyesight and are more moody than any of my sisters growing up-believe me I've got six of them!---------Mullet will take various small flies representing aquatic crusteaceans and insect larvae e.g.seaweed maggots but the easiest way to tempt a bite is with various bread flies fished in a bread berley trail.-------------------Obviously white is the dominant colour but I have found my best producer to be tan rabbit fur with a white foam cap tied overhanging the hook eye so that the fly hangs near vertical this eliminates the common problem of flies being pushed away-especially deer hair creations.--------------------------------------------The flyfishing outfit I us is a Sage #4 weight rod,Ross Reels Evolution 1.5 reel,Scientific Angler GPX floating flyline and usually a tapered leader around 6 feet with the tippet varying from 2lb in open sandy areas to 8lb in one of the weed filled lakes I fish.------------------------------------------------------------------Most of the sand mullet caught are around 200-250mm but the sea mullet are the favorite catches with the best caught being around 500mm with a girth at the shoulders of a longneck beer bottle. A mullet of this size on a #4 weight goes hard and when hooked in weedy areas needs to be bullied to keep it's head up. Several fish have gained their early freedom (all fish are released unharmed) by burying in the weed and pulling the barbless hook with one fish actually breaking the trout hook at the bend. After that incident I upgraded to stronger saltwater hooks but if they get in the weed early usually they can shake the barbless hook free so you must react quick and strip hard until you have them in an open pocket free of weed. All in all its alot of fun Cheers Pat.