Mulleting

I've had a few mullet sessions over the last week or so that I can report on - had some fish but nothing very special size-wise.

On the 13th I headed down to Rosscarbery for an afternoon session. It was a grey day with a none-too-warm breeze blowing up the estuary. I settled for a favourite west bank swim where I could sit in the lee of the car. It proved a slowish session with just three definite takes on the leger baits ... 2:04, 2:12 and to finish a 3:10.

The 16th was a remarkably similar day, except this time the breeze was blowing down the estuary and if anything was a little colder still. Not feeling too adventurous, I set up in the same swim with the car parked the other way round. It was a bit marginal regards depth as you can see ...

... but as I could see a few mullet moving around from time-to-time I thought it was worth a go. This session was a bit busier with one fish lost and four landed. I had a brace of 3:02s separated by a small one about 1:08. Then finally a fish which put up a much more solid resistance and I was pleased after several minutes to get the net under a chunky mullet weighing 4:10.

The 17th was my birthday. Sylvi and I had lunch at O'Sullivan's Bar in Crookhaven at the end of the Mizen Peninsula, then enjoyed a walk amid fantastic scenery out past Dun Lough Castle to Three Castle Head ... and back. Which just left time to try for a birthday mullet on the way home.

We could see a some surface mullet activity in the estuary pool. Most of the fish looked small but I fancied there would be a few bigger ones underneath. It took several casts trotting the float through and loose feeding before I had a bite, then a few missed bites before I was in ... and it was a decent fish too that put up a good scrap, mostly under the rod tip. Eventually I had it into the net and we weighed it at 3:03. We packed up straight away and were back in the car 35 minutes after arriving!

I headed back to the estuary on Mizen yesterday, conscious that the bright sunshine might make fishing difficult. In fact I encountered a different problem. The water level in the pool was the lowest I'd ever seen it, down to a combination of neap tides (when the pool keeps draining and doesn't get topped up), high pressure and very little recent rainfall. Every tiddler that would normally be spread across acres of sand flats was crammed into the deeper hole by the bridge, and I could see several shoals of mullet from herring size down to fingerlings ... and sandsmelts ... and nothing bigger.

I fished anyway, hoping there'd be a few better mullet under the shoals of small fry, but my float was constantly bobbing from the attentions of fish that were mostly too small to take the bait properly. I struck the bites that managed to take the float under and hold it down for any length of time ... missed dozens and dozens but eventually had three mullet out. Nothing over 2lbs though, this was the biggest at 1:14.

Finally then, back to Rosscarbery this afternoon - just a short session before heading to Skibbereen shopping with Sylvi.

As yesterday, there was a lot of surface activity but most or all of it appeared to be from shoals of small mullet.

I fished two leger rods as usual but despite all the mullet showing it was a slow session, punctuated by just three takes. And yes they were all small fish again. I had one not much over a pound then one of 1:13; the other was a similar size but came off near the edge.

On the plus side, one mullet came out on each rod so I succeeded in christening both of a pair of new reels! They are Daiwa Ninja 3012A "Match and Feeder" reels - and they seem to be nice kit without paying too much, I paid €58 each. I was pleased with the cast and smooth retrieve; the drags will need to wait till another day for a proper workout.