2008 mullet picks atlast

[dan]

its only a start, this will be better hopefully, hopefully i'll be able to decend onto strangford lough and millisle around april or may and hopefully get a new PB. took me 3 years to get my first, had 3 last year and guillied one for my brother.
when they were in the lagoon it was a good chance to experiment.
maggots worked best although i liked to feed up with bread, bear in mind all the mullet i hooked were in the last two or three days of them being in the lagoon i think they may have been spawning as after they left there were millions of tiny little silver coloured fish in it possiblyyoung mullet.

[Davy Murdoch]

Well done Dan. Remember that not many anglers can say they ever caught a mullet. Good luck in your quest for these great sporting fish this year whatever colour they are. BTY mullet anglers don't smile, they just look smug.

damm right we look smug.so would you if you`d spent all day trying to outsmart them and are finally rewarded with a nice fat 4lb mullet in your net

unless your names colin c

[dan]

they had me absiluted driven mental, was down every day, would like them to appear in the lagoon this year again.

[Davy Murdoch]

In fairness its hard to tell if Dan's aren't golden greys...they sure look like them though.

clear,sharp photos would def help to ID it better but we`ve had a few mullet from strangford with 2 identical gold marks on the gill covers but theres lots of other ways to tell them apart so i know for def that they were just thick lipped.

i`d love to think dan`s were golden greys as it would be another species to target,but im affraid the water clarity and tempature is nothing like the south coast so we`ll prob never see them up this way

[dan]

i dont a fella got a trigger fish in a creel in north down 2 years ago, never witnessed it but did see the picture, definitely in north down as it was his boat.

[fishinmidget]

ah but we get triggers on the west coast, and i doubt we get golden greys, maybe a rogue one but i doubt it......

[dan]

yeah but you've got the gulf stream goin up past the west coast, sure if they're there its a good species to target, i caught them in spain in 2007, never know might be some sea bream moving north too

[Davy Murdoch]

its only a start, this will be better hopefully, hopefully i'll be able to decend onto strangford lough and millisle around april or may and hopefully get a new PB. took me 3 years to get my first, had 3 last year and guillied one for my brother.
when they were in the lagoon it was a good chance to experiment.
maggots worked best although i liked to feed up with bread, bear in mind all the mullet i hooked were in the last two or three days of them being in the lagoon i think they may have been spawning as after they left there were millions of tiny little silver coloured fish in it possiblyyoung mullet.

not much is known about thick lipped mullet spawning habits apart from they only do it every other year.they dont spawn until they reach 40-47cm(3-4lb)
they dont give birth to live young so what you saw in the lagoon wouldn`t have been from the bigger mullet .and if the mullet in the lagoon were the same size as you caught then they prob wont be old enough.
i`ve only heard of one place where tiny 2-3inch mullet were found,and that was rosscarbery.not sure how much truth there is in that though.
if you happen to see these small fish again try to net one,it would be interesting to see if they were baby mullet from the previous years spawning.

good luck this year with them.you should get a pb over strangford direction

[Davy Murdoch]

i dont a fella got a trigger fish in a creel in north down 2 years ago, never witnessed it but did see the picture, definitely in north down as it was his boat.

there was a trigger washed up on ballyholme beach 2 years ago in december

[dan]

would be good to catch one or two this year hopefully therell be some new species knocking about.

[boycie89]

hey davy if its defo not a golden grey then can you explain the gold fleck on its cheek ????

[dan]

unless it is a hybrid between golden greys and thicklipped mullet

[colin c]

Well done Dan. Remember that not many anglers can say they ever caught a mullet. Good luck in your quest for these great sporting fish this year whatever colour they are. BTY mullet anglers don't smile, they just look smug.

damm right we look smug.so would you if you`d spent all day trying to outsmart them and are finally rewarded with a nice fat 4lb mullet in your net

unless your names colin c

Whats that mean????????????

When are you paying up this bet???????????????????????

[gannet]

hey davy if its defo not a golden grey then can you explain the gold fleck on its cheek ????

Good question. I think there is a certain amount of jealousy here regarding Dan's mullet. There is no reason that golden greys don't frequent these latitudes. With the advent of global warming our waters are becoming more and more frequented by warm water species of marine life vis Mauve Stingers (Salmon destroying jellyfish,) black bream, trigger fish, wreck fish, sun fish, turtles to name but a few. Good luck Dan in your quest for more species and don't forget your camera.

[dan]

cheers everyone for your replies

hey davy if its defo not a golden grey then can you explain the gold fleck on its cheek ????

Good question. I think there is a certain amount of jealousy here regarding Dan's mullet. There is no reason that golden greys don't frequent these latitudes. With the advent of global warming our waters are becoming more and more frequented by warm water species of marine life vis Mauve Stingers (Salmon destroying jellyfish,) black bream, trigger fish, wreck fish, sun fish, turtles to name but a few. Good luck Dan in your quest for more species and don't forget your camera.

i have seen sun fish caught by commercials out of portavogie etc.
those jellyfish were a rare occurance too especially at the time of year.
and then last winter leatherback turtle in portaferry also very rare for that time of year.

[Davy Murdoch]

hey davy if its defo not a golden grey then can you explain the gold fleck on its cheek ????

alright boycie.
im not an expert on fish skin conditions but i`ve noticed that estuary mullet aren`t the cleanest of fish and alot of them have golden marks all over.they look like some sort of infection.
mullet that spend most of their time in the open sea seem to be much cleaner and more silvery.

we have two main mullet marks and one of them is the northern part of strangford lough where the water is unclean due to sewage works/canals.when the tide goes out then comes back in its basically the same water that floods the mud banks again and the water never really gets refreshed like on the open coast.
millisle lagoon is much the same and only gets topped up twice a day with clean sea water.but the main bulk of the water thats left in the lagoon goes warm and stagnent(is that spelt right?)

the other mark we fish is much closer to the open sea and only has fresh/clean river water running into it all day every day making(in my opinion) a much cleaner evironment than strangford.these fish are nearly always perfect bars of silver.(compared to strangford fish anyway) i think there might be some fish to compare in my gallery

as i said before i`ve had plenty of mullet with golden spots just on the gill covers but thankfully there are other ways to ID them.such as the shape and size of the jugular interspace,or the size of its top lip,or the little pimples on its top lip.
im sure im not the first person to notice these gold spots,in fact ronald had a thick lipped mullet last year that had identical gold spots on each gill cover,and if we didn`t know better we would`ve said it was a golden grey.

as i say im no expert and this is just my theory as to why they have the gold marks.
im open for anyone to give their opinions.i`d also be interested to hear if anyone else has noticed these marks on mullet and if they`ve noticed a difference between estuary mullet and "open sea" mullet.

cheers,dave

[Davy Murdoch]

hey davy if its defo not a golden grey then can you explain the gold fleck on its cheek ????

Good question. I think there is a certain amount of jealousy here regarding Dan's mullet. There is no reason that golden greys don't frequent these latitudes. With the advent of global warming our waters are becoming more and more frequented by warm water species of marine life vis Mauve Stingers (Salmon destroying jellyfish,) black bream, trigger fish, wreck fish, sun fish, turtles to name but a few. Good luck Dan in your quest for more species and don't forget your camera.

here gannet for someone who practicaly never fishes anymore you sure have alot of s*** to say about it

i`ve never been jealous about anyones catch reports,i get enough fish of my own to be happy with i`d love to think we had golden grey mullet on our doorstep but im just not convinced.theres enough people fishing all the beaches on the east coast that we would prob have heard of another one or two being caught.
all the marine life you mentioned have had more than one sighting.

roll on the day when we can catch them from the co down coast cos i`ll be first down to wet a line for them.
and maybe the gilthead bream will be right behind them,now that would be worth waiting on

[colin c]

So when are you paying up Davy

[Davy Murdoch]

So when are you paying up Davy

i wont be i never made a bet,you must have been hearing those little voices in your head again.
dont listen to them they aren`t real,those voices will get you into trouble if you listen to them

[eric]

hold on a minute gannet, i quote
'With the advent of global warming our waters are becoming more and more frequented by warm water species of marine life'. doesn't global warming predict the melting of the polar ice caps, ice bergs and glaciers in the arctic?? surely this melt water would temporarily cool our surrounding waters due to our proximity to the arctic.
totally off the cuff stuff but im open to correction. anywho, a lot of anglers fish that area and the surrounding northern beaches around portstewert, benone, etc sure enough those surf/storm style beaches are synonymous with golden greys yet out of all the comps held there and anglers who them none have been reported? its hugely doubtful that golden greys have traveled up from the south coast an bi-passed the whole east coast and west coast on the merry way to millisle. sorry dan im with dave on this. ive caught a lot of mullet in france in the marinas and the thick lips too have gold flecks on their gill covers