Live Mullet Fishing

I love fishing shallow water with good sized live mullet. The cool part is seeing and hearing the big fish attack on the surface. Usually it’s the sound that turns your head. The slurp/bang/pop of a big fish sends a jolt of electricity through my body. Then you see the whitewater, the hole in the water, and the jumping mullet. Then, there is the question “is that my bait?” as you look at your limp line.

At this point you must resist the urge to jerk. I always get excited and yell “He’s got it! … wait, wait.” You see, you must let the predator subdue the bait and get it in its mouth. Most times this takes several seconds and it feels like minutes. The trick is to wind in the slack and get snug and wait for the movement of the line. Then it’s a matter of a nice strong pull to set the circle hook in the corner of the mouth. Now finally we have screeching drag and the fight is on.

You never know what you’ll catch. I always think snook, the king of inshore fish. But often it some other cool fish like: tarpon, jacks, shark, big trout, and others. This week it’s been mostly big jacks. They’re excellent hard fighting fish that will scream your drag and never give up.