[Fish Hunter]

Part of this information is mine and a great deal of it is from a compliation of material that has been posted elsewhere. I just took the "meat" of it and put it together in Word and have it in my fishing log. So, I thought I would share it here and anyone can add to it.

Sea Mullet Tips


Like stated before they hang out in different places in the surf at different times of the year, plus we catch two different types of Sea Mullet. The Northern Sea Mullet is the long skinny silver one with the long 1st ray of the dorsal fin, usually dark colored. The Southern Sea Mullet is fatter one with the dark bands on its sides; this one tends to get a little bigger than the Northern.

In the spring they hang on the inside of the outer bar, as the water warms they come right to the drop off and eat Sand Fleas and Coquina Clams. In the summer we have put on masks and on a calm day spent hours belly down in the ocean watching them, they run the drop off and will come all the way up on the shelf with a wave to scarf up Sand Fleas and retreat back with the wave to behind the drop. In this situation you must put your bait right on the drop 2 feet outside the drop and you are fishing behind the fish and they won’t see your bait. In the Fall they will be on the drop unless you are fishing a big East facing beach with a big outer bar that is well offshore, like Avon, then they can settle in anywhere in the slew on some unseen structure on the bottom.

Tackle is pretty simple; hand tied double dropper loop bottom rigs with 2 No. 4 Bear Paw spinner hooks, pretty much my standard. When the water is gin clear in the summer I will go to fluorocarbon and No. 5 naked hooks. In the fall when the fish are bigger I move up to No. 3 or 2 hooks.

Bait, Hands down Softies, then Shrimp and Blood worms, in the fall they will hit cut Mullet as well.

Spring, they seem to like staying out near the bars. Long cast seems to get them while a short cast in the wash has not produced much.

Summer they seem to move in closer with a rod in the wash and sometimes a lob into the slew.

Fall, they seem to be all over from the wash all the way out to the bar, although I have had my best luck in the fall finding white water from a close bar and casting on top of the bar.

Baits, as said fresh shrimp. Sand Fleas also. Fall, small pieces of cut mullet or bunker (have caught nice pups as well) and BWFB have done well for me.

Rods, I don't have a mullet rod per se, but use 8' and 9' tica's with 2500 Daiwa laguna's loaded with 10# test line. I use hand tied bottom rig with orange beads tied above the hooks.

I have had my best luck reading the surf and finding deep drop holes and sloughs. I have caught them on flat beaches, but have had much more luck in deeper water. I prefer a falling tide and tide often plays a very important role in catching or just fishing. I often plan a day trip to start fishing around the top of the high tide, if I know the location I want to fish. I like to buy the very freshest shrimp I can find. I often will go to two or three bait shops to find shrimp. If it smells like shrimp it is too old. I prefer shrimp that smells similar to salt water. I also like to use fresh bloodworms when fishing for big sea mullets. I have found in the Surf City/Topsail area the big sea mullets prefer fresh bloodworm or a shrimp/bloodworm comb. Sand fleas are almost great bait. In searching for a good location look for sand fleas in the suds.